Having bought a new hike and fly setup I was very keen to make the most of the autumnal hike and fly conditions and use the equipment. With a beautiful weather forecast I had planned to climb Vorderunnütz for the fourth time (third hike&fly) with Becky&James and we had a last minute addition of Manuel.
I particular enjoyed my new equipment which fitted in a 22l rucksack, while Becky had her usual paragliding setup and Manuel had a full XC setup. It made the walk up so much easier and the glide down so much more fun than on a full size wing.
The walk up was enjoyable with ever improving views until we got to the snow line, which was surprisingly low for the time of the year. While it has mostly gone from a lot of the exposed slopes, between the small trees which are so common on the mountains it definitely remained and was pretty deep in places. Eventually we emerged from the small trees and the going eased significantly.
As we emerged from the trees and could see the full slope up to the summit, it was like there was a runway prepared which was snow free and facing directly into the wind which was a nice surprise as it made the take off much easier than I thought it could be.
After enjoying the summit views we setup our equipment and headed off for our flight down. Becky and I just had a gliding flight back to the valley while Manuel enjoyed a small XC flight, which was mainly hindered by how cold the air was at altitude! While we were gliding down James basically ran down the mountain and arrived as we were half way though our beer at the restaurant next to the landing site!
Historically there was no landing site from Vorderunnütz, just angry farmers at people landing in their fields, despite causing no damage. However to solve this some locals have formed a new club and purchased some land to form a new official summer landing site for a small fee, which can easily be paid upon landing with all the relevant information at the landing site.
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