It seems hard to believe that another year has passed by, but having just had another overindulgent Christmas and new year it is somehow already time to summarise the year in another 100 photos. It was a very busy year with both free time activities and work with many more business trips for me than usual.
Winter
The year started off with the ski season, we did a lot of alpine skiing and certainly made the most of our Tirol cards, I think I did around 25 days overall! Becky’s skiing has continued to improve and this led us todo our first ski tour on the Kleiner Gamsstein. Unfortunately the snow over the winter was difficult for ski touring, especially for beginners so there was limited ski touring for both Becky and me. I managed one ski mountaineering weekend, but we suffered with terrible snow conditions as well as weather. It was nonetheless enjoyable to spend a weekend high in the mountains.
Spring
It soon turned to spring, which was unfortunately a bit of a washout along with the start of the summer. This resulted in us not spending that much time in the mountains. I got back on a mountain bike for the first time in a few years which was certainly enjoyable, but did not result in any further activity other than fixing my bike.
I took Becky to Hamburg as her birthday present and we enjoyed a lovely weekend there eating nice fish, going to a classical concert and enjoying a cycle south of the city on hired bikes. For one of the long weekends in May we headed down to Lake Garda in Italy for a long weekend of climbing and via feratas with the IMG which was a fantastic weekend with perfect weather.
- Mountain biking in Regensburg
- Hamburg
- Climbing Babilonia and Plasir, Val di Ledro
- Ferrata Dell’Amiczia, Lake Garda
- Climbing Claudia 22, Parete Pezol, Arco
Summer
The poor spring weather continued into June, which combined with the large amount of snow in the mountains due to said poor weather resulted in us cancelling a number off weekends away. However we made the most of it by walking in the Bavarian mountains when we could and managed to do a wonderful two day walk on the German-Austrian border with Katherine for her birthday before we headed on our summer holiday to the Swiss alps.
Our holiday in the Swiss alps started with a week of paragliding near Verbier (see below), before spending 4 days in the Bernese Oberland doing a hut-to-hut walk with one peak in snowshoes due to the excessive amount of snow. It was really wonderful to be back in the big mountains of Switzerland having had a long hiatus.
- Jochberg
- Tölzer Hütte, Hölzelstaljoch and Grasberg
- Wyssnollen and a tour through the Bernese Oberland
- Marmots above Saas Fee
- Hochiss
- Hochmiesing and Rotwand Nordgrat (Kriegersteig)
Autumn
Our Autumn was somewhat curtailed due to poor weather in the dolomites and lots of early season snow leading to us cancelling our September holiday and staying in Munich and then Becky having knee surgery. We managed a number of hike and fly days together prior to her surgery (see below) and had a lovely day in the Eng valley with some friends.
Winter
Just as Becky had recovered from her first knee surgery she found that she needed to have a second surgery on her other knee urgently. This resulted in us cancelling a few ski weekends, however we managed to enjoy a good Christmas and spent new year together in Regensburg.
Paragliding
As far as paragliding years go it was certainly not the best, due to the poor weather in the prime cross country season. Overall it would have been a terrible year for flying had I not ended up going to Bir in India for a very last minute paragliding trip in October.
XC Paragliding
The cross country season in the alps was very frustrating, with generally poor conditions, however I did manage to get out a few times and enjoy some short flights. On the first week of our summer holiday Becky was doing a paragliding course in Verbier and my plans had been for some big xc and volbiv adventures, however constant Föhn winds put pay to that, but as I hardly had any hours under my wing this season it was good to just get some airtime again, even if it wasn’t xc flying.
As the summer progressed xc flying becomes harder in Austria as the conditions are just not that great later in the season, unless you head down to Sillian or Greifenburg. I managed to get down there on some days with good forecasts, however either the weather was not as good as predicted, or I made some bad decisions which led to shorter flights than necessary, but they were all good learning experiences.
In August we went to Annecy to see some of Becky’s friends, and actually ended up going early so that I could enjoy the only good day of flying that week. It was a brilliant day of tourist flying around the lake in some tricky conditions, but that just added to the challenge.
- Mayrhofen Paragliding
- A short cross country flight from Brauneck to Eschenlohe
- Verbier Paragliding
- Sillian Paragliding
- Greifenburg Paragliding
- Annecy Paragliding
- Schmittenhöhe Paragliding
India
I had been reading about the paragliding in Bir, India, and was thinking of heading there in 2025, but when I had covid in autumn I was bored at home and just decided that with two weeks notice I would book a 10 day trip. I am so glad I did as I had great conditions while I was there, even it they weren’t perfect for Bir. It was wonderful to spend hours in the sky every day for 10 days and I achieved almost everything I wanted to on the trip. The highlights were flying over the back at 5000m, flying with massive vultures and doing a volbiv. I cannot wait for my next trip there, where I am looking forward to doing a volbiv over the back in the proper Himalayas.
- First two days paragliding in Bir, India
- Paragliding at 5000m in the Himalayas over the back from Bir, India
- Paragliding to Dharamshala and then back to Golf Course for a Bivi
- Staying at Camp360 and then a flight to Dharamshala
- Delhi
Hike&Fly Paragliding
After Becky’s paragliding course she was full of enthusiasm for paragliding and after spending a day at Kössen where I get used to my new hike and fly setup and she cemented her confidence we enjoyed two wonderful hike&fly days in perfect conditions which was great, and hopefully there will be more of these next year.
As autumn progressed and there was still hardly any snow in the mountains, I was lucky to catch the end of the wonderful weather period after my trip to India and then the UK. I made the most of this short window by heading to the Belispitze, where I had a wonderful walk and a stunningly beautiful flight back down. The best bit was that I did it all by train so I didn’t even need to land where I started from.
As my new hike and fly equipment is so light, I took it back to the UK for Christmas, optimistically hoping todo a hike and fly from the ridge near my parents’ house back to land in the field near their house. The weather forecast was terrible and I wasn’t really expecting to manage it, but in the end we had a brief weather window on boxing day when the weather was much better than forecast. It was only a short flight but it was great to fly for the first time in the UK and to land in the field next to my parents’ house.
- Vorderunnütz Hike and Fly
- Unternberg Hike and Fly
- Bleispitze Hike and Fly
- Hike and Fly from Offa’s Dyke back to my parent’s house
Ski&Fly Paragliding
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