December

16/12/2025  Wether Fell

I travelled over more in faint hope than expectation. The day was pleasant enough, blue skies and light winds, but the afternoon held promise of enough breeze to soar .... maybe.  Approaching Ribblehead a solitary glider was visible just managing to maintain in Ingleborough bowl ... at the weather station a mile beyond there was total flat calm.  I'd left my gopro behind and at this stage I didn't think I'd be regretting it an hour later.

Following  usual practice I parked  on the road near the trackhead. I never see the point of risking the track as it brings no benefits, isn't kind on the car and I enjoy walking the 100m of track to assess conditions on the edge.  The wind seemed pretty good, square on and 6 - 8mph. By the time I arrived on the best of all the Wether take offs .... clean, dry  and well cropped, it seemed to have dropped a little. However, I spotted company as one pilot stabbed in a windsock and sniffed the air.

I brought the wing up to check the lines  (new wing) and it wanted to fly ... despite little wind. The other pilot took off, headed right and then right down ... I took a lesson from it that I was soon about to ignore. With a tadge more wind I took off and again the glider wanted to fly. Four short beats on my section, a little height gained and then .... despite the  lesson (the far side (N) wasn't really working) ... I headed across thinking with height it would be better.  The result was a slope landing and short carry up.

During my carry up more arrived on take off and then Andy A (?) took off and headed to where I'd flown earlier ... and went up, and up - and UP. Soon he was high and out over the valley. WAVE! But interestingly, only one half of the ridge seem to be connecting. James M followed and confirm it. My turn .... ignore the sink and just head that way. It was like a magic carpet of lift sat on the left side of the hill.  

The rest was just bliss, So easy, so smooth ... the glider flew itself. The wind was still light, even at height as we (now eight  of us) just sat there slowly climbing (averaging 0.6 -1.6m/s) as we topped around 4,000'+. We explored the lift out front over Dodd, to the south and then north into Wensleydale ... it was fairly localised. Being so smooth I occupied myself watching everyone on the FLARM screen  their heights and locations .... being so far apart and so high in a bright sky they were hard to spot otherwise. James 4k to the SW at 4 grand something, Cefn messing out front over Dodd and others behind Wether. I flew around to Semer N until the lift stopped and I turned back into it ... then over towards Dodd take off with a glider scratching in front of it.

I had to land and be away before 3pm so eventually set down near my car and packed. As I did so the wind increased quite a bit, although towards the normal take off gliders landing and taking off suggested it  was still light over that way. 

Back down in Hawes I looked back to see a hangie flying over at height, at speed and straight downwind. My thoughts were it  had taken off on Tailbridge, crossed onto Mallerstang, connected with some wave and was now off searching for the next bar.

Anyway, a really great afternoon ... one of my most enjoyable Wether flights and quite a surprise. What a day to have left the GoPro at home.

A last point. I was trying out a new full face, full visor helmet and what a difference ... so much more face protection from the wind. It's a bit bulkier, a 100g heavier but made the whole experience a lot pleasanter. Really love it and it kept my hands warm too.

Photo LINK.  (A few thanks to Andy Austin)

NOTE: Wether and wave.  Decades ago Wether developed a reputation for wave ... in fact at one point it held a height record (over 13'000'). A while later an HG League task encountered wave they were able to climb high in and exploit on their task.  Nowadays it's far less common but that is more down to paragliders and their inability to handle the higher wind speeds required for strong wave. Several times I've encountered wave on both Dodd and Wether, each time it's been fairly weak, low level stuff ... very nice, but never topping out  very high and more a localised short band. 

Some years ago I wrote a piece for the CSC on wave flying on paragliders ... I think it's still there in the Knowledge section.  I can't add much other than to say I'm quite cautious where wave is concerned, especially on a paraglider. Whilst wave is a standing phenomena it can shift and this can mean keeping an eye on the wind speed (your ground speed) and the possibility of entering an area of rotor especially when low and coming in to land.  If you observe pronouced wave clouds (spectacular lenticulars) ... it's probably too windy for a paraglider. Hangies, maybe ... sailplanes will love it, powered aircraft won't. When I flew powered hangies I did stumble into it in unlikely places, occasionally tried to seek it out even ... but remained a bit chicken at pushing it too far.  The two picture below were take over the south Lakes from my powered hangie about 2001.