Bellmunt, Vic

After the snow of last week finally a chance to spread my wings at a site I haven't flown before. Judith & Geoff know the area well so it was my turn to play tourist! Bellmunt launch was visible from 20km away since for some reason the westerly facing spine was still completely snow covered. I was already grumbling about line shrinkage before we reached launch but careful setting up and a quick getaway and I hope I got away with it! It was apparent that I have longer lines on my wing than the others who had flown there; they had made a nice flat platform in the snow to launch from but just my luck I had to wade further down the slope into the deeper stuff.
It was a beautiful spring day, mildly bouncy but not cold in the air :)
After lots of soaring and trying to connect with small broken cores I was lucky enough to find a consistent 5m/s climb from just in front of launch all the way up to the inversion from where it seemed I could fly just about anywhere!
It was a good theory but I must make a note to self: Being lucky enough to connect with a strong climb doesn't automatically mean the sky is full of them. Its March, its cold and good luck sometimes runs out!
I made the tower turnpoint behind Torelló to the West but just missed squeaking back to the goal field. 3 turns in +0.5m would have been enough but it wasn't to be. Geoff enjoyed winding me up about landing short whilst Judith thought I'd lost the plot was heading for Àger nearly 140km away...it would have been very nice but not likley on a cold March afternoon!
I'll definitely be going back to Bellmunt very soon - the cross country potential is incredible but its worth flying there just for the views towards the Pyrenees.