Having had a very successful bivi at Shaggy Dog above Manali, I was keen to do another bivi over the back, but this time on the ridge descending to the south from Shirar ra Tibba, which is a really long ridge full of excellent sites to camp. Three popular areas are Fungni Mata Lake, Bear Dog and Horse Lake. My plan was either Fungni Mata Lake or Horse Lake, depending on how I felt when I arrived.
My plan had actually been to do this the day before, but I paid the price for launching early as while we were fighting the persistent inversion, high cloud came in which really made it difficult to stay up. Some people managed, but many pilots, unfortunately including myself didn’t. When I landed back in Bir I had to decide if I was going to rush and head back up to try again, or chill out for the rest of the day. Given the conditions, I decided to chill out for the rest of the day as I was still feeling a bit tired from the previous few days.
Day 1: Sightseeing tour to Fungni Mata Lake – XC Distance: 70km – Max Height: 5500m
I wasn’t deterred by starting too early the day before, and also started relatively early again, as I like to avoid as much of the house thermal chaos as possible. Thankfully I was hardly in it at all, as I quickly climbed out and was soon at 3500m above the peak near launch and ready to cross over into the back. The additional 300m compared to three days ago really made the difference and the crossing was much easier.
My aim for the day was not to fly efficiently cross country, it was to get to my volbiv destination and enjoy the scenery on the way, whilst also taking some photos. Given the good conditions there were lots of people making the most of them, and flying in the back which gave me lots of opportunities for photos.
The route was very similar to the route from a few days prior when I headed to Manali, however this time I headed further back and spent much more time at the head of of the Uhl Valley/on the Dhauladhar ridge. While I was enjoying the scenery here there were lots of other pilots coming and going, so I had plenty of chances to try and get a decent photo.
I decided to try and take the deepest of the “normal” lines towards the Kullu valley, by flying along the main Dhauladhar ridge towards the glacier, unfortunately this was not successful and resulted in me ending up fairly low. After a windy climb back up, I had enough height to cross to the next ridge (right of my pod in the photo below), however this was not working as well as I was expecting. I eventually found a climb in front of the triangular black face, which got me properly established again and back in a good position.
From this position instead of heading back another ridge south as per the previous two days, I stayed on this ridge and headed into the snowy mountains – hoping to find a climb out to cross into the Kullu valley. This was no issue at all, with some weak climbs to start with, before finding the main thermal and being taken back up to 5500m with absolutely fantastic views.
I stayed in this thermal for a while so that I could take some photos as there were a few other pilots about, and then instead of heading south towards my bivi decided to head a little bit north up the Kullu valley as the conditions were so good and I was enjoying myself.
After crossing the crest and getting established in the Kullu valley I had a decision to make, carry on or head to the bivi. As I had spent quite some time above 4500m I was pretty cold, so I decided that heading south towards the bivi was the better option.
The next section of route towards the bivi was not quite as straightforwards as I was expecting, as some of the places I was expecting good climbs resulted in nothing. However I never ended up low, it just took a bit longer to get altitude at times to enable me to get onto final glide towards the bivi site.
The top landing was difficult, as again it was around 14:00 and the thermals were pumping, my landing was not that stylish as I ended up landing slightly downwind, I had a decision to make, slightly fast downwind landing on a nice grassy slope, or try again into wind – which wasn’t much fun.
I didn’t camp right by the lake as it went into shade early, and the grass was also covered in sheep poo. I chose somewhere close to the lake which would have the sun until last light in the evening and from first light in the morning. It was a lovely camping spot and I really enjoyed sitting by the tent as the sunset making cups of tea, reading and looking at my photos.
Day 2: Return to Bir – XC Distance: 60km
I did not have the best nights sleep but woke up feeling ok before sunrise, so I decided to get up to watch it. This gave me plenty of time to pack up camp and eat breakfast before making the short walk up to launch and getting my equipment ready.
I had been expecting to launch early, however the inversion was very high so I was still stuck below it. I was sat at launch for hours watching birds climb up about 10m and then start flapping – not a good sign. By 10:30 some birds were starting to actually starting to climb away, so I decided that it must be ok to launch.
I launched straight into a climb and I thought, great i’m off, however it was horrible air, with very narrow punchy thermals which were hitting an inversion about 50m above launch, and it was also windy due to the inversion. I should probably have stayed with it and eventually I would have punched through – however I decided to head to the head of the valley which had been baking in the sun as this had to be working, right?
This did work, however it was very slow, but at least I wasn’t bombing out. Eventually I climbed above the peak and the air was pretty unpleasant with hard edged thermals, wind and windshear. I climbed as much as I could, which gave me enough height to glide all the way to landing – which at this point was my plan.
As I arrived above launch in Bir the conditions seemed much more favourable, so I started heading west via the back route. This was a mix of nice strong thermals, turbulent narrow thermals and weak climbs. While I could have continued west, I just wasn’t really feeling the love for continuing, so when I reached cloudbase on the back ridge behind Big Face, I went on a 15km final glide to land back in Bir.
Comments