Choralpe, Westendorf Paragliding

Alastair BegleyParagliding Short Link

After 3 days of wonderful skiing above a persistent cloud inversion, it was a treat to drive up the valley this morning and see the peaks from the valley. This could mean only one thing, time to ditch the skies and get into the sky! Due to some fog in the morning I was not entirely sure about if a take off would be possible when I left the valley, so set off with my skis and glider. After a quick blast down an easy run, I caught the lift up to the take off at Choralpe and was pleased to see that the fog was clearing and the landing site was clear. This meant it was time for my first take off with skis on, and needless to say it was a bit of a faff, but the actual take off and landing was very easy. After a bit more skiing with Becky when her lesson had finished, we called it a day and headed down to the valley to ditch the skis and pickup our gliders. We then caught the lift up, walked across to Choralpe and then. Read the full article…

Wallberg

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Winter Walking Short Link

As we only had a half day spare, generally poor weather and plenty of snow which made walking hard work, we decided to head to the Wallberg as we could take the lazy option to the top, have some lunch in a restaurant with a view and then make the short walk to the summit. The weather was better than expected when we got to the top, and there was even a brief glimpse of the sun. Due to this we decided to head to the chapel and admire the view before retreating into the very quiet restaurant for lunch. Feeling lazy and full we then headed off to the summit, which wasn’t difficult due to the excellent trail in the snow. I was last on the Wallberg after a much longer day with James last year. After a quick descent we were back at the lift for the easy descent back down to the car.

Sulzpitze & Neunerköpfle Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

With another perfect autumnal day we headed down to the Allgäu to make the most of being able to go into Austria, and to enjoy some more hike&fly fun. While we could have just walked up the Neunerköpfle, we decided to take our heavy bags there the long way by walking from Tannheim up towards the Visalpsee, steeply up to the Sulzspitze and then along the ridge to the Neunerköpfle. The morning was clear and cold, which we certainly felt while walking along the valley towards the Visalpsee. After some unnecessary ascent due to following a sign rather than my planned route we were soon at the start of the ascent. Due to some rockfall we followed the new temporary path through the woods at the bottom, before joining the rather steep track up. The ascent felt fairly tough with the bags, and resulted in being both hot and cold at the same time, thankfully we were eventually treated to a view of the wonderful Gaishorn, before returning back into the woods. After a while we emerged from the woods, and then into the sun and from here the day. Read the full article…

Vorderunnütz Hike&Fly II

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

After discovering how nice the take off and landing was last week, we decided to head back to the Vorderunnütz for Becky’s first hike&fly today. After three attempts, I finally also had a day with clear skies and wonderful views from this mountain. It is amazing how different it was compared to last week, sunny, warm, thermals, lots of paragliders. The walk up was fairly similar to last week, but it was much warmer, especially on the top section. There was a nice gentle breeze at the take off, which made the take off nice and easy, but did make laying Becky’s semi-lightweight paraglider out for a forward launch a bit more challenging. When we arrived there were loads of people taking off, so we chilled out in the sun while waiting to launch. After setting up Becky made a perfect launch and set off on her first hike&fly flight. I quickly followed, although my first attempt at a reverse launch didn’t go particularly well today, however after sorting my glider back out I was soon in the air. I had a fairly short flight as I wanted to land. Read the full article…

Vorderunnütz Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

With a guest visiting we were keen to get out into the mountains, however we were not exactly sure on the snow cover given the warm weather last week. We decided to head up above Achensee to do the Vorderunnütz, as I knew that the ascent was up a south facing slope so had a good chance of being snow free. I was also hoping for wonderful views, as it was pretty good on a grey day when I did the walk with Rob earlier in the year. The start of the walk was up in the woods, but we made relatively good time and were soon at the Köglalm, and our first proper view out of the woods. There were still some wonderful autumnal colours and lovely views down Achensee. We then ascended back into the woods, enjoying the fleeting views down Achensee. Unfortunately by the time we emerged from the woods for the final 200m up to the summit, the cloud was really starting to come in again which was a bit disappointing, however the views were still pretty good. There was a wonderful wind for paragliding, enough. Read the full article…

Bärenkopf

Alastair BegleyAustria, Winter Walking Short Link

James and I decided to head to the Bärenkopf above Achensee after the first substantial snowfall in the mountains. This seemed like a good balance of a decent day out with some good views, but something that wouldn’t be too much work with the new snow. Little did we know just how good the views would be. An easy drive after a leisurely start took us to a surprisingly empty car park, with snow down to the car as we were on the north side of the mountain. The start of the walk was up a track to the Bärenbadalm, there was a more direct walking path which we elected to avoid given the snow. The initial track felt fairly tiring after my lack of recent hill walking, but the fleeting views of Achensee certainly kept us going. It was a nice surprise that the trees were still pretty autumnal, and the contrast between the evergreens and deciduous was pleasing. We soon emerged out from the shade and into the sun next to the Bärenbadalm, where we had a snack and delayered before the steeper ascent up to the peak.. Read the full article…

Enningalm MTB

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Mountain Biking Short Link

I finally headed out on my MTB after 14 months of being in Munich, so what better for a first outing than 40km with 1200m of ascent! We headed off from Graswing early in the cold early in the morning, and just about warmed up before the descent down the old road to Oberau. This was pretty enjoyable having not been out on the MTB for so long, but it wasn’t technical. Next we made the mistake of following my quick sketch of the route, which gave us a tough ascent which was unridable, but the descent sort of made up for it. The first section was wonderful single track, although it being entirely covered by leaves did make it a bit more interesting. Unfortunately the single track wasn’t that long and we were soon on fire road again for the final descent to the valley. When we reached the valley the cycling was still beautiful, but we certainly had the wrong bikes! However this gave us the opportunity to chill out and recover some energy prior to the big ascent up to Enningalm. An ascent of 900m on my. Read the full article…

Brauneck paragliding in the snow

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Paragliding Short Link

Unfortunately as autumn progresses, most of the cable cars shut down for a quiet period before the winter season. This meant my options for where to go for some more paragliding were more limited. Thankfully close to Munich we do have a few good options, and I had planned to head to Brauneck for a few flights before heading up the road to the Blomberg for some shorter/cheaper flights to practice landings. When I got out of the lift at Brauneck two things struck me, firstly it was windier than I was expecting, and secondly there were a lot of paragliders. I guess in hindsight this was unsurprising as one of the only areas open near Munich! The launch area was chaotic, with loads of people, wind, failed launches, people being hit by gliders etc. I had a good take off after my first one failing due to the snow, and then had a surprising flight. Firstly there was enough wind for ridge lift, and secondly there was very mellow thermals which meant that I had my first experience of flying above take off. Due to the amount of pilots. Read the full article…