Col Pelous Hike&Fly

With the forecast for XC not looking that great, I decided to do a Hike&Fly instead as this would be a more enjoyable day than sitting and hoping for good flying conditions. Although as it turned out, the day was great and I should definitely have gone to do an XC as an hour after I landed I could count over 50 pilots above Marmolada, and as I parked up for the night in the Sella Pass there were another 50 pilots enjoying the evening thermals on Saas Pordoi.

I decided to head up Col Pelous as it was a decent walk to the summit, which promised fantastic views, and it certainly delivered. Despite there being no rush on the walk up I endured a pretty fast pace and did the 4.6km walk with 860m of ascent in 1h32m elapsed time, stopping only for a few photos on the way up.

Due to the fast ascent I arrived at the summit a sweaty mess, with most of my clothes soaked in sweat. Therefore I decided to enjoy a chilled out lunch on the summit in the sun while everything dried off before getting ready for the flight down and enjoying the glide into the valley.

The views from the top were really spectacular, with wonderful views of classic scenery from the Dolomites in every direction. When I took up for the flight down I did try and see if I could find any thermals above launch, however there were none which were strong enough from the grassy slopes to punch through the inversion which was just above the summit height.

After an enjoyable glide down I packed up in the valley and wondered back to the van before finding a relatively secluded spot for a much needed dip in the river.