Àger April weekend

I finally met up with Judith & Geoff who live over here 6 months of the year in the volcanic region of Garroxta. We fly the same sites, have the same friends & yet have managed to avoid each other for nearly 5 years, so meeting up was well overdue. We planned a weekend in Àger so that Geoff could fly his hanglider before they head back to the UK and their 'other' house near the Long Mynd.
After listening to tales of chaos on the roads & snow in the UK the three of us and Winston trooped up to Àger launch in blistering sunshine to find a chilly north- east wind. The least perfect wind direction for Àger is East, the wind blows along the rock faces and creates a tumble drier effect above the plateau. We sat it out until the clouds rolled in from behind (!) and then ran bravely away, vowing to be up for the first thermal the following morning.
Friday night was crispy cold with a perfect starry sky - its easy to see why the valley is so popular with stargazers. The lack of polluting light made the heavens seem very close to earth... but boy, was it cold! On the basis of this I guess we should have been prepared for the conditions on Saturday... burning sunshine in the valley, a brisk westerley at launch and northerly at base, cold air and base at approximately 50m above the hill. YES, it was pretty fiesty! After giving up on the battle with my glider at base in front of launch I chose a good looking cloud out above Can Maciarol to go play with...but it was not to be, as i hit the edge of the climb it promptly dissipated and in keeping with the mood of the day gave me a good pasting. My XCT recorded 7.8m/s climbs at 11am & it only got more exciting after that! Many of the locals decided that in the absence of necessity ( it wasn't a comp task), flying wasn't really the best plan & headed down to land at Camping. The decision to land and actually managing to put feet on the ground were separated by more time than most of us thought possible. The valley was really going-off! Anyway, everyone landed safely, a couple of them 20km away after giving up trying to battle the valley conditions and throwing themselves over the back into the flats in search of something more resembling a thermal than a bullet.
I guess spring is really here although with sharper teeth than we are used to.. never mind all this will seem normal by midsummer!