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Gloucester, MA

Making the most of a work meeting in Boston, I escaped for a weekend around the port of Gloucester, of "Perfect Storm" fame, doing a bit of whale-watching and hooning about in a Ford Mustang (the nice man at Avis gave me an upgrade that I couldn't refuse).

Apr 28, 2012

Photos: 11

Monte Rosa

Another aborted ski epic. 'Twas supposed to be 6 days touring around Monte Rosa, with summits, fabulous views etc. The snow was perfect, the weather was perfect ... and I had a stinking cold. We tried anyway, but the first night at altitude (in the Balmenhorn bivouac hut at 4167m) was so awful, I couldn't carry on. So we skiied the 2400m back down to the car & drove home for a hot bath and Lemsip.

Mar 21, 2012

Photos: 7

Fete du Citron

Carnival season on the Cote d'Azur. After riding the big wheel in Nice on Saturday night, we tromped along to Menton on Sunday, picniced on the beach and stumped up the 9 Euros entrance fee for the parade. It was fab - Nice is too professional, Digne is too, erm, crap, and Menton is perfect, with a great atmosphere. The theme was "Regions of France", though that was hard to figure out most of the time ...

Feb 26, 2012

Photos: 16

Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc via 'les trois monts' route (+/- 1750m). We had planned to fly off the summit, but once on top it was far too windy & it was an easy decision to walk back down again. We arrived back at the Aiguille du Midi after 13 hours on our crampons, but at least were able to fly from there back to the valley (it would have been too sad to take the cable car back down again). Also had a morning flight from the same spot on the previous day, before going back up and spending the night in the Cosmiques hut.

Oct 1, 2011

Photos: 17

Dévoluy

Fly-hike trip to the very dramatic Dévoluy range, a couple of hours up the road. I had planned a four-day trip, but after +1800m/-400m on Thurs and +2000m/-1800m on Friday, I gave up on the planned Pic de Bure tramp and drove to Orcieres to bang around in thermals in the Spiruline instead, then home for a much needed shower.

Aug 11, 2011

Photos: 20

Vogalonga

A mass regatta of human-powered craft in Venice: 1,640 boats and over 6000 people paddled or rowed around a 30km route, taking in most of the islands and sights of the lagoon, with the usual Italian chaos. A pretty spectacular way to see Venice. Even the weather co-operated, despite the yukky forecast.

Jun 12, 2011

Photos: 15

Port Cros etc.

Four days of kayak fun around Le Lavandou with the Neree association: Cap Negre on Thurs, round trip of Port Cros on Friday, Cavaliere on Saturday and massive storms on Sunday (so drove home instead).

Jun 5, 2011

Photos: 11

Tour du Cians

Broken rib now fixed, time to test out the new mountain bike on real mountains, while figuring out how to keep the rucksack weight down below 6kg for long-distance bivouac missions (watch this space). Note to self - next time, take a sleeping bag, dummy, it's still cold out there at night.

May 6, 2011

Photos: 15

X-Ouch

A rather shorter than intended ski trip. It was supposed to be 5 days hut-to-hut from Bousieyas (in the Tinée valley) to Ceillac in the Queyras. Unfortunately, I fell on Day 2 and broke a rib, so we had to ski out to Fouillouse, the nearest village, and improvise a return by bus instead. No fun for me for the next 6 weeks :-(

Mar 30, 2011

Photos: 18

Tete des Bresses

An outing with the Club Alpin. Perfect weather and 60 cm of fresh snow to play in. Only +1300m but t'was a fairly long flat approach (6 hours round trip), so the ham sarnie at the summit was very welcome indeed.

Mar 6, 2011

Photos: 7

Mangiabo

A fine suggestion of Pascal's: a nice varied wander 1100m up from Sospel and a surprisingly thermic flight 1500m down into a strengthening westerly wind. Pretty warm climbing on the ground, damn cold in the air.

Feb 19, 2011

Photos: 9

Mont des Merveilles

This was supposed to be called "Grand Capelet", but the ice-encased north face of the Pas de Conques stopped us in our tracks (not having brought the two ice axes and a rope necessary for survival) and we had to settle for the Mont des Merveilles (2720 m) as our summit of the day instead.

Feb 12, 2011

Photos: 15

Col des Verrairiers

First ski-rando of the season: heavy snow, heavier legs, but lovely as ever

Jan 13, 2011

Photos: 11

Ross Island

A month in Antarctica, playing with the little autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) again, this time camping beside the Erebus Glacier Tongue, close to New Zealand's Scott Base. Much hilarity with Weddell seals, Emperor penguins and a bit of skiing and flying thrown in.

Nov 12, 2010

Photos: 44

Petit Mounier

Autumn is the season of vol-randos, & ze Club was out in force for this +1100 m hike, then -1400 m sled-ride into Beuil. It turned into a race against the clouds that were determined to fill up the valley, despite the forecast blue skies.

Oct 9, 2010

Photos: 8

Le Chiran

A short hike-bivvy-fly to test out my new super lightweight camping shelter/tarp/thingy. Park at 18:00, whizz up 1000m, camp, play with some doggies, snooze and fly back to the car in the gentle morning light. Not a conventional Friday night activity, but works for me.

Jul 30, 2010

Photos: 16

Tromso hike & fly

A little 'organised hike' (bleuurrghh) during the IGS Sea Ice Symposium in Tromso. The continual rain of the past 3 days eased off to merely heavy overcast and intermittent drizzle, giving us the opportunity to be bussed out to Kvaloya and climb the 900-odd metres to the summit of Vasstind. Much fun was had sliding down the snow on the descent, and the wind dropped enough to let me fly off once we'd got down to about 600m above the fjord, landing on the road below.

Jun 2, 2010

Photos: 8

Monviso ski-tour

A 3-day ski-mountaineering trip, around the 3841m peak of Monviso. Perfect weather and not a soul about - we had the huts to ourselves every night (phew, no snoring skiers!). That was preceded by an abortive attempt on the Pic de Neige Cordier, in the Ecrins: getting up at 4am didn't agree with us & we beat the retreat, feeling a bit dizzy. Odd.

Apr 19, 2010

Photos: 20

Brazil

The long European winter got too much & I finally snapped, heading for the tropics. First off, a weeks competition in Governador Valadares (in which I did less than spectacularly). Then off on a mini-tour, to Castelo, Alfredo Chaves and finally Pancas.

Mar 14, 2010

Photos: 22

Cime Negre

A perfect day for a ski-tour: sunshine, no wind and 30cm of fresh powder snow - lovely. A couple of skiers were about 30 mins in front of us, making nice tracks to follow. We passed them at the summit & got to make the first tracks down the whole descent - wheeeeeeeee.

Feb 7, 2010

Photos: 14

January's little outings

A motley collection of little outings on skis, for which I didn't take enough photos to make separate albums worthwhile: (1) Teillon; (2) Pétoumier, with an amusing short video by Pascal here: http://vimeo.com/8861289 ; (3) An aborted attempt at the tour du Mont du Grand Capelet: a late start due to a snowy road, then deep powder + no traces making the going hard. Great flight down though; (4) A short stab at speedflying, at Isola, with a 13m2 wing: Rubbish! One less toy to buy, anyway :-)

Jan 20, 2010

Photos: 22

Dome de Barrot

Woke to find a freaky localised storm had dumped snow all over Nice (snow on the beach!). The slidey driving conditions slowed us down a bit, the snowy walking too, so it was 3:30 by the time we got to the summit: a bit later than ideal on nearly the shortest day of the year! It hadn't quite gone katabatic yet, but the nice breeze up the front had already died to nothing. Eight of us managed the nil/back wind takeoff and were rewarded with a hugely scenic flight down over the Gorges de Daluis, landing on the gravelly bits of the river Var.

Dec 19, 2009

Photos: 15

Plan de Lion

Boating around above Menton from the daisy-covered takeoff of Plan de Lion.

Nov 29, 2009

Photos: 10

Mounier South

A sneaky Friday trip to the South side of Mt. Mounier. In fact we took off from Montagne de l'Estrop (2255m) - a lower summit on the flanks of Mounier - since the rest of the climb was a very unappealing, unrelieved, scree slope. We'll save the summit of Mounier for a ski trip once the snow comes back. I was flying my Spiruline again, which charges around (and, erm, down) so fast that I can take pictures of everybody taking off ... and everybody landing.

Nov 20, 2009

Photos: 12

Mounier North

A hike up in the first snows of autumn, from the hamlet of Roya (1500 m) to 'Petit Mounier'. Ariane didn't bring her ice axe or crampons, so 'Grand Mounier' was a north face too far. Then an incredible nil-wind fly-down, just about on the glide limit of what my little Spiruline could manage: There's a helmet-cam video of the flight here: http://www.vimeo.com/7349108

Oct 25, 2009

Photos: 10

Savoyard hike & fly

A few spare days in the Northern Alps, between coming back from Spitzbergen and heading back to work. Fortunately the first 3 days were flyable, so I whizzed up a few peaks in the Savoie region: Friday was Sur Cou in the morning, Varan in the afternoon; Saturday was l'Ambrevetta, Sunday was Barmerousse in the morning, also the first day of the "Flying Light" week (hence the assembled masses) and Plaine Joux in the afternoon. Monday was a long lie in, after a total of 4200m vertical ascent.

Oct 2, 2009

Photos: 12

Arctic Sunrise

A quick trip to the pack ice aboard the "Arctic Sunrise", owned & operated by Greenpeace. The ship was 'doing nothing' for a couple of weeks, so Greenpeace kindly offered us the use of it and the ship's helicopter for our research, free of charge. I was Chief Scientist for the final week of the expedition, north of Svalbard to deploy some drifting buoys and make some 'oles with the famous hot water drill. Also managed to sneak in a bit of paragliding around Longyearbyen while waiting for my plane home.

Sep 28, 2009

Photos: 26

Mont Tenibre

A more successful vol-rando in the Mercantour - a last minute response to the heat and crowds in Villefranche. Ran away from home at 3pm, parked at 5pm, hiked up 1500m before dinner, slept in the glider overnight, then got up at 6am for a further 2h30 to the summit and down to find a less rocky takeoff ... et hop (as they say in France) a lovely hour's flight down to the car and back home in time for some sea kayaking in the afternoon on Sunday. Cool.

Aug 16, 2009

Photos: 14

X-Alps

A good excuse to head further afield, into Austria and Switzerland, following a couple of friends who were insane enough to want to take part in the RedBull X-Alps - a race from Salzburg to Monaco, using only your paraglider or legs. Funnily enough, both chaps are far less enamoured of the race than when they started. Steve and I decided to avoid the crappy weather on the X-Alps route and stuck mostly to the Swiss valleys where the living was easy. Wusses.

Jul 19, 2009

Photos: 38

Iles d'Hyeres

Gahh, the noise and crowds of my home town got too much, so I ran away to sea for 3 days in the kayak. A bit of pottering about, bivouacing and getting eaten alive by mosquitos, stung by jellyfish and bitten by horseflies. Lovely.

Jul 6, 2009

Photos: 15

Gorges de St Pierre

Too windy to fly at St. Andre today, so headed 20 km north for a dramatic 6 hour hike round some (more) crumbling limestone scenery, seething with chamois and wild boar. One family of boar (complete with very cute humbug piglets) were very surprised when they came charging round the corner and saw me standing on the path. No photos of that, I'm afraid - I was pretty surprised too!

May 30, 2009

Photos: 16

Mourre Frey / Clapier / SKiM

A short vol-rando on a grey Saturday. Drive up to the Col de Fa, hike up 700 m, lay out the wing and fly down to the river, 1500 m below, in surprisingly active air. Fortunately, a few selfless souls chose to land next to the cars and drive them down again. Thanks chaps. Also here, a couple of shots from a longer vol-rando up Mont Clapier (28/2/09) and a little test flight of the SKiM mini-wing at Courmettes (15/1/09)

May 9, 2009

Photos: 11

Roquebrune to Villefranche by kayak

A little kayak trip, from the beach at Roquebrune back to Villefranche, with a civilised lunch stop at a beach restaurant in Eze. No post-lunch photos, as I realised my camera wasn't actually waterproof and rather belatedly stuffed it in the drybag instead. Oops.

May 5, 2009

Photos: 9

Esteron bike & hike

A couple of days escape from the coast - first a cycle tour round the 'clues' (canyons) of the Esteron valley, then a hike up to the inaccessible-by-road, hamlet-cum-donkey-sanctuary of Les Coulettes, near St.Auban

Apr 23, 2009

Photos: 13

Cime Guilié

Classic ski-rando route in the Mercantour, from Boreon, up the Vallon des Erps to the 2999m summit of Cime Guilié, then home down the Vallon Sangué. Lovely clear day (if a bit windy - check the spindrift in the photos) and good snow conditions. A nice day out with Sophie & Virginie, slightly marred by me snapping one of my ski bindings in two during the descent.

Mar 22, 2009

Photos: 10

Cheiron South Face

A morning outing to ski the South Face of Cheiron, in the company of Eric and Luca. The heaviest December snowfall for 50 years turned our usually-snow-free flying site at Gréolieres into a winter playground. Not a bad way to spend my birthday, even if I did have to get up at 6:30 in the morning ...

Dec 20, 2008

Photos: 13

Random Forays

A few photos from various paragliding-related forays during summer 2008: a quick trip to the Vercors, south of Grenoble; a couple of 'B' competitions, and a hike-and-fly on the French-Italian border

Nov 2, 2008

Photos: 20

St Hilaire

A wander north, culminating in the Coupe d'Icare festival at St. Hilaire, just north of Grenoble, and all its Frenchy madness

Sep 22, 2008

Photos: 15

Chalvet - Pelat

A short but scenic flight across the wild country to the East of St.Andre, up the spine of mountains to the Mt. Pelat, the highest peak hereabouts ... and an unexpectedly quick landing in the valley just to the north of it, when I woke the Sink Monster up :-(

Jul 15, 2008

Photos: 10

Cime de la Valette de Prals

Tentative vol-rando above the hamlet of St Grat in the Mercantour. This was supposed to be a little 2 hour jaunt up and fly down to the valley, but I got a bit carried away and it turned into an 8-hour mini epic, with a total of over 2000m ascent. Precious little flying down, too (2 hours waiting for some flyable weather instead). Lots of nice springtime Alpine flowers though.

May 31, 2008

Photos: 21

Alert

A (work) trip to the northernmost inhabited place on Earth - Canadian Forces Station Alert - and then a bit further north, camping on the sea ice off the coast, playing with our little robot submarine (aka "autonomous underwater vehicle", or AUV).

May 16, 2008

Photos: 19

Sommet du Carton

Ski-rando-vol with the Jessops X-Alps team ... an incipient epic, neatly avoided by flying off the summit with Al's Ozone Ultralight (er, apart from the two hour walk in the dark afterwards, oh well)

Feb 16, 2008

Photos: 6

Clapier tentative

An abortive ski-rando-vol. We'd planned to skin up to the Refuge de Nice, then fly from the summit of Clapier the next day. After listening to the wind howling all night, we watched the spindrift curling off the summits the following morning ... and skiied back to the car instead. A consolation fly at Colmiane, then a nice day at Greolieres on the Sunday made up for it though

Feb 8, 2008

Photos: 15

Teillon

Ski-rando-vol up Teillon, via the Col des Portes from the village of Soleilhas. An outing of the "Au gre de l'air" paragliding club, in celebration of all the lovely new snow that nobody was expecting this year.

Jan 20, 2008

Photos: 8

Mexico

Two weeks flying tour of Mexico in December - a bit too stable, but some good flights nonetheless

Dec 17, 2007

Photos: 14

Bir, India

Two weeks in the Indian Himalaya - a bit late in the season, limiting XC potential, but an eye-opening slice of life, nonetheless

Nov 9, 2007

Photos: 16

Scottish flying

A few shots of ancient history, when I used to live on the west coast of Scotland

Aug 1, 2006

Photos: 9

Dallens

Four years of fun and games (ahem) restoring - well, totally rebuilding - my house on the Scottish west coast. I'm certainly not planning on doing that again in a hurry.

Aug 1, 2006

Photos: 54

MartinD
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