With the weather finally having improved, it was time to head over the back and towards the bigger mountains for the first time of the trip. I quickly climbed up to 3500m above launch and decided this was still too low to make the jump for the first time this trip, so headed along the ridge bit where I climbed to 4000m. From this altitude it was easy to make the glide across and I arrived very high, unfortunately the cloud was already building.
Once established on the first mountain I took in the scenery and enjoyed a nice climb up to cloudbase at 4400m, before taking an atmospheric route back towards Dharamshala via the back ridge. This route kept me nice and high until above big face, but then the cloud base started dropping rapidly on the front ridge. At times I had to intentionally lose height in order to get under a cloud in front of me!
The flying was fairly intimidating, flying close to cloud a lot of the time, sometimes over cloud in front which was lower than I was. Other than one col just before Dharamshala, the flying was pretty quick and easy, although this one col was very intimidating as I was a long way up a tree filled valley, which was shaded out and the lift was sporadic, I was definitely glad to be the other side of that col.
I arrived at Dharamshala with good height and above the clouds on the very front of the ridge, my route back, so headed a bit further before making my turn point and heading back to Bir.
The route back was very intimidating with lots of big clouds building and the cloudbase having dropped right down, it was a fine line between being in the cloud and ending up scratching too low below the inversion. Thankfully there were lots of plots so this made the route back much easier as it was always possible to spot the climbs.
Once I arrived back in Bir, the conditions towards 360 looked greater, so I continued east along the ridge to 360. The route there was very easy with the ridge providing lots of lift, however the weather was always building and this decision was certainly a risk about if I would get back. It was very bizarre flying down towards 360, with the valley to my north being filled with heavy rain and massive clouds, in the alps we would never have been flying here.
Once I got to 360 I had to decide if I continued further towards Mandi or not, in the end I decided to turn around due to the weather and really not wanting a long taxi ride back. I think this was the correct decision in hindsight.
The way back was less fun, as the wind had picked up due to the storms in the bigger mountains making it harder to thermal, and meaning that you lost so much ground when turning in weaker lift. This meant I arrived at train station very low, with a shaded out view in front of me and rain getting ever closer to Bir. I managed to scratch my way up high enough to go on glide, really not being sure if I would make it back.
Thankfully one weak climb kept me in the game and then just as I was approaching a decision point, got established in my last thermal of the day. This was met with relief, however then concern as it started to properly rain. Thankfully I didn’t need to stay in the thermal for long, so when I had a definite glide to the landing, applied speed bar and went to land after a brilliant flight.
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