On top of the world...nearly!

After running away from Drôme we headed up to Allevard to meet Max from Kortel to sort out my new harness. A phone call as we approached Grenoble and that plan fell through so we kept on trucking to see who we could find with floor space for a couple of parabums in Chamonix. Fortunately Mandy was in and had the Mazot free so we wandered round Chamonix town and made plans for an early morning assault on the Aiguille du Midi. After dinner we were sat around chatting with Mandy when Merlin ( the puppy) caught a glimpse of Mandy's cat on the mantelpiece.. not a real cat as you might suspect, but a painting cut out in the shape of a cat.. a good deal of woofing and hound-of-the-baskerville impressions followed until cat was hidden under a chair to be brought out later in the evening to see if Merlin was still as convinced of its authenticity...he was!!
The morning was beautiful and sunny but with storms forecast for midday so we dashed up the Aiguille to 3842m to check out the views into Switzerland and Italy. A chance encounter with a couple of Brits in very shiny, very new climbing gear commenting on the 'cumulus nimbus' clouds forming had us running way giggling in Spanish at the slightly developing cumulus in the valley and regretting that we hadn't taken the gliders up with us.
After lots of 'wowing' at the view and Juan's commentary on how it felt to be on top of 'Everest' we slid back down the mountain to meet up with Max at the Kortel factory in Sallanches.
The new harness is great and setting it up with the assistance of a real professional makes it all so much better. I was really chuffed to find that even my short little legs warranted a medium cocoon and not the 'stumpy' one I had expected even though I did need a few layers of padding to get the right angle of dangle. I just have my fingers crossed that my shiny new glider will arrive in time now for the British Open in Pedro Bernardo at the end of the month.
After an 8 hour drive I'm back in Barcelona catching up on reality for a week before running away again to go play paragliders!