Garrett Fisher

Email subscription form header
Subscribe
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide
Powered by FeedBlitz
  • Writings
  • Documentary & Interview
  • Press
  • Economics
  • Maps
  • Flying Videos
  • TEDx Talk: Forget Economics
  • About Me

Powered by Genesis

Flight: Spain, Andorra, France: Second Assault on the Pyrenees

November 6, 2016 by Garrett

If anyone is actually reading this blog and paying attention to what is going on, you’ll note that I am highly cautious of new environments. Once I get acclimated, then I progressively push the boundary further, at least until something bad happens, which is a 50/50 if I’ll keep pushing it after that. I am getting older, experienced, whatever you want to call it, and I am not as brazen as I used to be.

At any rate, I actually went past Andorra this time, emerging out on the other side to a rather high mountain on the border with France. On the way back, I ventured into a new range on the French side also. As the blog is a bit delayed (too much flying, among other things), I have since conquered the limits on this flight, and the adventure continues.

The Pyrenees are highly different from the US Rockies, as the Pyrenees descend rather steeply into deep, V-shaped valleys, and resume the incline, without a flat valley in between (La Cerdanya being the only exception in the entire range). The Rocky Mountains in the United States feature countless north-south ranges with relatively flat and wide valleys in between; a landing spot was never that far. Here? Well, you’ll see the images. Sometimes its stomach churning to think about engine issues, though I have come to learn that there are small farms, roads, and little villages just about everywhere, so its not as bad as it seems, though I do prefer the Rockies from a safety standpoint.

Ascending between the mountains, a new thing as I realize they all do not exist to kill me.
img_0484-22-of-980

Small ski area below, beckoning me to visit this winter.
img_0517-55-of-980 img_0534-72-of-980 img_0557-95-of-980

Andorra ski hill. Yes, one begins referring to “hills” as anything other than massive vertical spires of rock after living in the Rockies and Pyrenees.
img_0592-130-of-980

Andorra – mildly smug Catalan-speaking tax haven.
img_0603-141-of-980

We’re Andorra and you’re not. That’s at least the feeling when visiting on the ground.
img_0628-166-of-980

Theoretically a bit of “first snow” on a north facing ridge – taken end of September.
img_0655-193-of-980

This traumatized me. See any emergency landing locations? It took me a few weeks before I would return, and only after scouring satellite imagery to confirm there was a place to land.
img_0670-208-of-980 img_0689-227-of-980

In all seriousness, this does NOT traumatize me at all. Roughly 10,000 feet. Getting high enough above all terrain feels very safe, as I have about 10 minutes of glide time if the engine konks out.
img_0748-286-of-980

Pic Montcalm – 10,095′. Spain to the left, France to the right. Everything in this image would be tree covered in the US Rockies. Timberline is 10,500′ to 12,500′ in Colorado and Wyoming, compared to 7,500′ here.
img_0782-320-of-980

The large basin with trees is basically the entirety of Andorra.
img_0862-400-of-980

One thing holds true when flying: there are way too many structures that look like phalluses, and there are a shocking amount of crosses, generally in obscure areas where no one can see them. This was on the top of a mountain in Andorra.
img_0947-485-of-980

This appears to be an off-roading invitation.
img_0967-505-of-980

Cattle tracks on top, erosion below, dark gray soil.
img_0978-516-of-980

Andorra, looking over to La Cerdanya.
img_1026-564-of-980

Paragliding at 9,200′.
img_1109-647-of-980

To this day, I am too cautious to fly around the basin with the reservoir in it. France.
img_1151-689-of-980

A Spanish pilot told me not to fly over here (so I did). Apparently, there aren’t any emergency landing locations, or civilization. Look at the clearing and the road in the bottom of the valley. Good enough in the Cub. 
img_1251-789-of-980

Evidence of glaciation.
img_1269-807-of-980

Marsh, French style.
img_1322-860-of-980

French lake with a small forest fire.
img_1342-880-of-980 img_1350-888-of-980

This looks remarkably like the Bighorn Range in Wyoming, though it is France.
img_1387-925-of-980

La Cerdanya…
img_1410-948-of-980

Filed Under: Uncategorized

  • Español
  • Français
  • Català

Blog Posts

  • Flights: Norway, Sweden: Glaciers at the Arctic Circle March 10, 2025
  • Flights: Switzerland, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway: To the Arctic Circle December 25, 2024
  • Flights: France, Switzerland: Sunset With a Dose of Medieval Catholic Terror November 10, 2024
  • Flights: Switzerland, Italy: Venice September 21, 2024
  • The PA-11 Turns 75 June 7, 2024
  • Flights: Switzerland, Italy, Austria: Autumn Glaciers & Larches April 22, 2024
  • Flights: Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland: Desenrascanço February 26, 2024
  • Flights: Switzerland, France, Spain: Exotic Frustration Near the Alhambra January 20, 2024
  • Flights: Switzerland, Italy: An International Smoke Mystery November 25, 2023
  • Flights: Norway: Svartisen, Second Largest Glacier in Continental Europe November 12, 2023
  • Flight: Norway: 750,000th Photograph October 21, 2023
  • Book #33: Glaciers of Switzerland September 1, 2023
  • Flights: Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Switzerland: The Six Nation Commute May 23, 2023
  • Flight: Switzerland: Sunset in the Alps March 29, 2023
  • Flights: Spain, Switzerland: A Crazed Aeronautical Bender…Seven Years Later January 25, 2023
  • Flight: France: Surfing the Wave December 19, 2022
  • Flight: Switzerland: A Mystery on the Eiger, 700,000th Photo November 16, 2022
  • Flight: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands: Losing My Flying-Over-Water Virginity October 24, 2022
  • Flights: Norway: Sognefjord, Longest Fjord in Norway September 24, 2022
  • Flights: Norway: Hardangervidda, Largest Mountain Plateau in Europe September 17, 2022

Archives

  • March 2025 (1)
  • December 2024 (1)
  • November 2024 (1)
  • September 2024 (1)
  • June 2024 (1)
  • April 2024 (1)
  • February 2024 (1)
  • January 2024 (1)
  • November 2023 (2)
  • October 2023 (1)
  • September 2023 (1)
  • May 2023 (1)
  • March 2023 (1)
  • January 2023 (1)
  • December 2022 (1)
  • November 2022 (1)
  • October 2022 (1)
  • September 2022 (2)
  • August 2022 (2)
  • July 2022 (3)
  • June 2022 (3)
  • May 2022 (1)
  • April 2022 (4)
  • March 2022 (1)
  • February 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • December 2021 (2)
  • November 2021 (3)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • September 2021 (1)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • May 2021 (3)
  • April 2021 (1)
  • March 2021 (1)
  • February 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (5)
  • November 2020 (5)
  • October 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • June 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • March 2020 (2)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (1)
  • December 2019 (3)
  • November 2019 (3)
  • October 2019 (1)
  • September 2019 (4)
  • August 2019 (3)
  • July 2019 (2)
  • June 2019 (2)
  • May 2019 (2)
  • April 2019 (2)
  • March 2019 (3)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (2)
  • October 2018 (2)
  • September 2018 (2)
  • August 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (3)
  • June 2018 (2)
  • May 2018 (2)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (4)
  • February 2018 (2)
  • January 2018 (2)
  • December 2017 (4)
  • November 2017 (4)
  • October 2017 (4)
  • September 2017 (4)
  • August 2017 (5)
  • July 2017 (3)
  • June 2017 (4)
  • May 2017 (5)
  • April 2017 (4)
  • March 2017 (5)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (1)
  • December 2016 (4)
  • November 2016 (5)
  • October 2016 (4)
  • September 2016 (6)
  • August 2016 (2)
  • July 2016 (4)
  • June 2016 (3)
  • May 2016 (1)
  • April 2016 (5)
  • March 2016 (5)
  • February 2016 (4)
  • January 2016 (6)
  • December 2015 (4)
  • November 2015 (5)
  • October 2015 (5)
  • September 2015 (8)
  • August 2015 (8)
  • July 2015 (8)
  • June 2015 (8)
  • May 2015 (4)
  • April 2015 (4)
  • March 2015 (5)
  • February 2015 (3)
  • January 2015 (2)
  • December 2014 (10)
  • November 2014 (4)
  • October 2014 (1)
  • September 2014 (3)
  • August 2014 (1)
  • July 2014 (6)
  • May 2014 (1)
  • March 2014 (1)
  • February 2014 (3)