Blog Posts in Category: Austria

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…

Rastkogel Hike & Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

We headed out above Mayrhofen, taking the Finkenberger Almbahn up to Penken. This meant that we stared high, so enjoyed a nice walk along a ridge up to the Rastkogel. The start of the walk was dominated by the ski area, but the views were fantastic nonetheless. Thankfully we soon left the ski areas and started to feel more remote, especially given there were hardly any people around. The views into the snowy mountains were wonderful, and the snow was just high enough that we had some snow, but nothing to cause us a problem. We made good time on the walk, and I certainly felt the paraglider on my back! On the way up to the Rastkogel I found a few good launch sites, however as I was out walking with Win I just noted them for another time! We made excellent time to the summit where we enjoyed our lunch, it was meant to be sunny but the high cloud wasn’t a problem and there appeared to be a temperature inversion as it was definitely warmer up high. The descent was mostly the same way as the ascent,. Read the full article…

Mayrhofen Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

After the morning flight, we headed up the valley to Mayrhofen to have some fun on the Klettersteigs. We started up the Pfeilspitzwand Klettersteig, in much better weather than last time, and we made excellent time as it was only two of us. The Klettersteig was as fun as I remember it, however certainly over sooner than we wanted. We decided to head off on the Astegg Klettersteig to the top, which was better than I remember it. Maybe something to do with the temperature being about 15 degrees cooler than the previous time! After a quick run back down we were soon back at the car, having had a brilliant few hours on the klettersteigs.

Zillertal Paragliding

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

We were staying in the Zillertal so that we could enjoy the alps with Win without having to do 3 hours of driving every day, and so that Becky could finish off her practical paragliding training. Win wanted to get in on the paragliding and did a tandem flight in the morning with out flight school, her pilot was a good friend of the flight school boss who is a designer for Skywalk Paragliders. She went for the Superhöhenflug which ensured fantastic views and a good flight time. After she took off, I then followed and enjoyed a very smooth flight down. It was great to watch her flying and to see the pretty aggressive wingovers which a good pilot can manage! After we finished the flight, we then headed off and climbed the klettersteig from Mayrhofen. Later in the afternoon we met up with Becky and all headed up to Melchboden, where they enjoyed some Kaiserschmarrnn and I enjoyed an evening flight back down to Zell. This was a beautiful flight in the soft evening light.

Hochiss Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

With the easing of travel restrictions we had a visitor, so I was keen to make the most of the first day of cool sunny weather as I was expecting that the views would be stunning. I had an idea to walk up a ridge to the final summit of the Achensee 5 Gipfel Klettersteig, as I thought that the views over Achensee and into the Karwendel would be wonderful. After planning the walk I noticed that there was a grassy area between the two summits, and after some googling I discovered that it was hike&fly summit. This meant that I could combine a nice walk with Win and Becky, with a flight back down to the valley. We started relatively early as I wasn’t sure how busy it would be, this would have been fine but there was a significant amount of cloud which wasn’t in the weather forecast. So this meant we had a chilly walk away from the Rofanseilbahn, and then soon ascended into the cloud. Thankfully before we got to the end of the ridge the cloud started to clear and we had beautiful views into. Read the full article…

Gerlossteinwand Klettersteig

Alastair BegleyAustria, Via Ferrata Short Link

Having spent another weekend in Zell am Ziller, with a morning weather and time window, the obvious objective was the klettersteig up the Gerlosstein. As it involved a 40min walk in from the cable car, a 90min klettersteig and then a 60min walk out. As we got the cable car up the mountain we were treated to a fantastic cloud inversion looking back down the Zillertal towards the mountains above Achensee. Other than the inversion there was not a cloud in the sky, and we had perfect conditions for the route. The route itself was fun, with some strenuous sections, some great scrambling, wonderful positions and outstanding views, the only negative was that it was in the shade which meant we were chilly and the photos were not great! After a wonderful route we topped out into the warm sun and enjoyed some lunch with an outstanding view in every direction. After a relaxing lunch we started the decent, which was fairly abrupt, but was over soon enough and were down at the lift in good time. Unfortunately we had forgotten that everything shuts for lunch, and out leisurely lunch. Read the full article…