For ease the next day, we decided that we would do another cycle from the campsite, rather than having to move the van. So instead of heading east down to Lienz, we headed in the opposite direction with the plan of cycling around 60km. Again the route was excellent with mostly very good surfaces and almost no cycling on roads.
After wild parking in a beautiful location on the first night, and enjoying a wonderful pizza nearby, we definitely wanted to be in a campsite for the next night given the heat. Therefore we decided to head to near Sillian where there was a nice campsite which was still reasonably priced. Unfortunately we could not check in until the afternoon, so we parked next to the campsite and started our cycle straight from there. The plan was to cycle along the Pustertal cycle path down to Lienz, which was all on an excellent surface and all either car free or on very quiet roads. The cycle was really beautiful, the only downside being that it was down all the way out, and up all the way back!
With an excellent forecast for the long weekend we headed down to Südtirol/Osttirol and the Pustertal for a weekend of paragliding and road cycling. On the first morning we got up very early and headed down to Speikboden, where I had planned to fly a classic 100km FAI triangle. Unfortunately due to traffic we arrived later than I had hoped, and my stomach wasn’t feeling great on the drive which made me, rightly, concerned that it might be a flight where I suffered from airsickness. After taking the lifts and faffing in the wind while I had to connect my new glider, I was eventually ready to take off, however my first attempt wasn’t as successful as I would have hoped. The combination of the strong wind and a new glider that I wasn’t familiar with resulted in my getting plucked and failing the launch. The second attempt was much better and I was soon in the air and climbing away, unfortunately at this point I realised that I had managed to break a break line in the upper cascades. As this was in the middle of the wing and. Read the full article…
We decided to make the most of the sunny and hot weather by heading to the Chiemsee, with the plan of cycling around it. Unfortunately it turned out that in my route planning I had looked at one route which was entirely on asphalt and then managed to download an alternative route which contained a lot of gravel. The cycle was very nice, other than the gravel, with lots of excellent cycle path, nice views over the lake and towards the mountains. On the first half of the route we ended up doing the majority of the gravel, but by the middle of the cycle we started to manage to avoid most (but still not all) of the gravel with some deviations.
With a moderate westerly wind I decided to head back to Wallberg to fly as far east as I could. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling that well in the morning, so I wasn’t entirely sure how the flight was going to go, but thankfully by the time I took off my stomach seemed to have recovered. The initial part of the flight went pretty quickly and I was soon high above Wallberg and ready to set off to the east and with just a few more climb I was high above the Großer Traithon and ready for the very long valley crossing over the Inntal. The view of the main alpine ridge on this first section was really wonderful, as the air was much clearer than it often is, and there were not too many clouds to block to the view. I arrived fairly early at the Zahmer Kaiser, so it took me a while to climb back up on the shady side, however eventually I was above the Zahmer Kaiser and ready to head to Kössen. At Kössen my progress dramatically slowed as the wind was very unpleasant, it was. Read the full article…
With a decent forecast I dug out a route which I had planned a few years ago, but never had the chance to properly fly. It was ambitious for the day as it would have been around 130km if it was fully closed, however the forecast made attempting it reasonable, even it I expected that there was a good chance for a bomb out part way around. We decided to head up to the upper launch at Kössen as, in my experience, it is typically easier to start early here by flying around to the south face. After getting to the top and casually setting up our gear it looked like the day was starting so we launched and quickly made a climb up to cloud base from the eastern face. Thankfully it as still quiet at this point, but I set off quickly from cloudbase as lots of people were now starting to climb up. The start of the route along the Steinplatte was easy with strong climbs and cloudsuck making for quick progress, the next challenge was the crossing above Lofer, so after gaining as much height as. Read the full article…
With a lovely forecast Becky and I decided to make the best use of our winter ski passes and use them to head up the Rofanbahn on the last weekend of validity. Unfortunately on the drive there it became clear that the weather was not as good as it was forecast. We decided to do a circuit from the Vorderes Sonnwendjoch, Sagzahn and Rofanspitze, and I planned to fly off from the Rofanspitze with my hike&fly gear. As we got to the top of the lift we emerged from the cloud to be treated to a wonderful view of the Karwendel and shortly after the Tuxer Alpen. We had hoped that we would stay out of the cloud as we were above it, but unfortunately this was not going to be the case and as we started the descent to the Schermsteinalm we descended back into the cloud. As we approached the summit of the Vorderes Sonnwendjoch we briefly left the cloud, which allowed us to enjoy the views before it decided that it would make an unwelcome reappearance. From Sagzahn we again had not much of a view, so. Read the full article…
I wasn’t planning on flying on the day, but due to a last minute change of plan I ended up heading to Wallberg to attempt the classic Wallberg-Kössen xc route, with a slightly unclear forecast due to the amount of wind. It took a while for the day to get started, so we sat and watched some fairly chaotic scenes at the take off as the main take off was closed and it was quite windy for beginners. Eventually people seemed to be climbing away so I decided to start and eventually managed to climb high enough above Wallberg to make the first transition, but not as high as I would have liked to be. After this transition I arrived very low to the ridge and there was very weak lift which didn’t go very high, I sat around in this for a while to try and catch a good cycle, and eventually this happened which resulted me climbing through the inversion and then I was properly on my way. From this point onwards the flying was much easier and with only a few more climbs I arrived at the. Read the full article…