With only a few days left in Bir, the first of which was not looking very good I decided to head to the classic Camp360 for another Bivi. However this is a bivy with a difference as for 1500 rupees you can stay in a tent with all bedding materials provided in a wonderful setting and enjoy a fresh home cooked thali for dinner and Indian breakfast (all included).
What I was not prepared for when I set off on this is just how good the second day would be, which resulted in an absolutely fantastic flight with clear air, strong climbs, lots of birds and plenty of enjoyment.
Day 1
On the first day my plan was to fly around a bit before heading to Camp360, however after launch it became clear that this wasn’t going to work as there was a very strong inversion which no one was escaping from and the airspace was getting busier and busier. At one point I considered top landing and even set myself up for it, however in the end decided against it.
Once I had climbed back up to the inversion I setoff in the direction of camp360, desperately hoping that I would make it. The initial climb out and transition from “-1” was certainly challenging and took my some time with lots of scratching, at this point I had to be very careful as I was flying over long tree lined valleys with very limited landing options. At one point I was less than 30 seconds before cutting and running when I caught a much needed thermal, by the time I reached “Train Station” the day was starting to work better and the inversion was lifting and I relaxed into the rest of the short flight to camp360.
As I was approaching the camp the air was a little strange, I think a combination of wind shear and inversion layers and I wasn’t particularly liking it. On the first pass I flew straight past the landing site and saw the camp itself (the landing is a 10min walk from the camp), after my return I was very low and struggling to find thermals, at one point I even wondered if I was going to bomb out. Eventually I found a climb which I took until it petered out, lower than I would have liked, before setting off for landing. Unfortunately I hit a large amount of sink which meant I was going to be short on landing, given the poor conditions I decided just to land in a grassy field, or at least I thought it was grass.
The landing was uneventful, but as I got closer it became clear that it was actually a crop, so after landing I picked up my glider and carefully walked to the edge of the field and found a patch of grass next to the track on which to pack my glider up. While walking to the camp I took a small detour to the official landing, which was also a crop and therefore made me feel a bit better about having landed there.
The camp itself was beautiful and situated in a stunning setting. I enjoyed the afternoon drinking water and Masala Chai tea in the sunshine, before settling down inside to enjoy dinner. Unfortunately I was the only person staying at the camp that night which made it a bit less sociable, but it gave me time to wonder up to the top of the hill a few times to admire the view.
The dinner was really excellent with a spinach dish and a Dahl, along with rice and as many Rotis as I could eat. After enjoying dinner I headed for the tent, which was very well equipped with a warm duvet and good pillow. The bed was a bit harder than I would have liked, but I enjoyed a good night of sleep and woke up as the morning sun hit my tent.
Day 2
The next morning I had a leisurely start and enjoyed some more Masala Chai tea and multiple breakfast Parathas before wondering leisurely to launch. I spent a while sat at launch, admiring the views while listening to a podcast until I was fairly sure that I would not bomb out. With birds barely climbing above launch and no paragliders it was hard to be sure, but eventually I thought that I had better give it a try.
After a bit of searching I was soon back at launch level and set off along the ridge and the thermals just kept getting better and better. Initially my plan was just to have a chilled out day and head back to Bir, so in the morning I was wasting time thermaling at base with birds and even on one occasion flying in the wrong direction to try and get a good video/photo with my Insta360 camera.
Just as I was approaching “Train Station” and was at the top of a thermal, well above the ridge, I took an enormous collapse which led to an auto rotation. After checking that I had enough height I recovered and continued, albeit slightly shaken up. By the time I was at the peak above the Billing take off I realised how good the day was, and decided to see how far I could go. Unfortunately by this time I had lost a lot of time due to the late start (as it takes longer for the morning inversion to lift at Camp360 and the lack of other pilots) and my leisurely approach to my initial flight.
Despite this late start I enjoyed a wonderful flight all the way to Dharamshala with a full speed xc approach – either turning or on full bar which did a good job of recovering my average speed. When I turned around I was aware I was a bit late, but didn’t have much concern about making it back and was excited at the thought of finishing my week with a 100km flight.
Unfortunately on my way back the air changed dramatically with a much lower inversion layer forming with very stable air below it. I made a few mistakes which ultimately led to me bombing out 6.3km short of the 100km, or to put it another way, one big climb away from hitting the target.
I landed in the obvious field to land in, it was relatively large and only had power lines across the start of the field. Again I hadn’t even been on the ground for 1 minute when I secured my taxi ride back and continued to chat with the group of locals as I was packing up my gear, apparently three other people had landed within 50m of me in the previous hour!
A longer taxi ride took my back to Bir and the end of a very successful trip, I will definitely go back with the aim of longer flights on the front ridge now that I have learnt it and some adventure flying over the back in the bigger mountains.
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