Thanks Darren, I just stumbled across your video and really enjoyed it. I've flown a lot in Laragne and love it there. I did most of my flying between 1995 and 2015 and I have fond memories of the XC flights I did along with all the awesome pilots I made friends with at the Laragne campsite. Check out the video I made of taking off and landing at the campsite. Unfortunately, the music was stripped off by Google, so you'll have to enjoy it in silence.
Don't you worry about flying into David Attenborough? If it's thermic, don't you get a chance to take off on the south (lee) side when a thermal comes up, like at Laveno?
Usually yes the convection on the south side overrides any northerly wind and we take off on the south. However sometimes the north wind can be too strong on launch so the only option is to take off to the north.
