Blog Posts in Category: Paragliding

Porterville Open Paragliding Competition

Alastair BegleyParagliding, South Africa Short Link

After my first paragliding competition in North Macedonia in August, I signed up to the South Africa Pre-PWC/Porterville Open, at Porterville in South Africa. This was to form the first part of my extended holiday between jobs. I arrived on the Wednesday before the competition, with the aim of having a few days of flying before the competition to familiarise myself with the area. However unfortunately the conditions were not that good, as I arrived too late to fly on the Wednesday, and was too tired anyway. On the Thursday I did a short flight back to the lodge, however I was still feeling the effects of the travel and was quite airsick, hence the short flight. The Friday was a non-flying day, see wine and lions, so all that was left was the flight on Saturday. Saturday was a strange day, as it was the practice day for the competition, but there was no official task and no retrieve, and until the morning we did not even know there was an official lift up to launch. As the XC conditions looked good, a friend and I decided to hire. Read the full article…

Ochsenkopf and Stanser Joch Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

Originally I had other plans for today, but the forecast was just too great in the alps for those plans, so I ended up heading to the Stanser Joch near the Achensee for a hike and fly. I had the expectation of wonderful views to the south and the main alpine ridge and to the north over the Achensee. I decided to walk to up the Weißenbachtal to get to the summit, as I thought this might provide more varied routes than the other option which follows the eastern ridge. I am very glad I chose this as it meant that I made a detour to the Ochsenkopf, which was the highlight of the walk. The walk up the Weißenbachtal was up easy forest track to the Weißenbachsattel, which was also surprisingly windy at times given the forecast for almost nil wind up to quite a high altitude. From the Weißenbachsattel the forest track turned into single track, which was partly covered by snow at times depending on the aspect. From here the ascent became steeper and my lack of fitness was really showing, especially where the snow became deeper,. Read the full article…

Algodonales Paragliding

Alastair BegleyParagliding, Spain Short Link

With a rather last minute decision I decided to join some friends in Algodonales for 10 days of paragliding, while working “from home” in the mornings. I had a great 10 days, especially given that I didn’t need to take any holiday, but it is safe to say that I did not manage as much flying as I had hoped for. The flying there was really enjoyable with a mix of flatland flying and mountain flying, the vultures were particularly beautiful. I did not find it the best place to be flying with a lightweight glider, however it wasn’t too bad if you were careful. One day was very disappointing as the aim was to fly to the coast, which would have been spectacular, however 3 of our group, including me, bombed out just before we crossed the mountain range which would then have taken us to the coast. Over the trip I spent about 10 hours in the air, most of which were attempting to fly xc, in often sub ideal conditions, so it was great practice to keep me current for my next trip to South Africa.

A 57km triangle over the Rosengarten and Marmolada

Alastair BegleyItaly, Paragliding Short Link

It has been a few years since I last flew in the Dolomites, so when the conditions lined up with my availability, I was very excited to be heading back for another flight in the stunning conditions. The plan for the day was simple: Launch conditions were challenging with a slight back wind in between the thermal cycles, with a number of dust devils to add to the chaos. Unfortunately my first launch attempt was not successful and it took me ages to get myself sorted again before I finally launched. The conditions were pretty good and once in the air the flying was a brilliant as ever, with wonderful views. I was soon up at base above the Langkofel before the long first glide, however knowing that around the corner there was reliable cliffs and thermals made this very fast and I was soon climbing out in perfect harmony with another pilot. Over the Rosengarten I decided to take the slightly longer high line, as it looked like it would work better in these conditions. I do not know if it did, but I made good progress and was. Read the full article…

Gitschberg and Seefeld See

Alastair BegleyItaly, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

Having aborted on this walk a few days ago due to the van breaking down, with an excellent forecast this was the obvious choice for the day while we were staying in Mühlbach, with the added advantage that the lifts were free. We started the walk with a traverse around the top of the Altfasstal to the Seefeld See. This was really beautiful with stunning views down the gorgeous valley, I had been carrying my glider with me for a flight down at the end of the day, but I had been quietly wondering if I would also be able to fly down from Seefeld See. Any doubts I had about this were soon quashed as we saw a glider doing exactly that while we were still heading to the lake. As we emerged above the lake we had a lovely view down on the lake, before we descended to walk around it. Around the lake we were in the sun and outside of the breeze so it was very warm and inviting for a quick swim, needless to say that the water was pretty cold! After drying off and. Read the full article…

Plose Hike&Fly (Brixen)

Alastair BegleyItaly, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

On our second unplanned day in Brixen due to clutch issues we decided to climb the obvious peak which towers above the town, Plose (Telegraph), as it looked beautiful with its red flanks in the evening sun the day before. We dropped the van off at a garage in Brixen, hoping that it was just the master cylinder which needed replacing as this was an easy job, unlike the slave cylinder. An easy bus ride took us up to the seilbahn before we walked along a traversing line to the north towards the Ochsenalm. As we traversed around the mountain the views kept getting better and better as we emerged out of the forest and the path turned to face more into the Pustertal. From the Ochsenalm the main ascent really started and this meant that the views just kept getting better and better. The final section of the route was up a lovely ridge to the summit of Telegraph, aptly named due to the infrastructure on the summit! Unfortunately the entire day was fairly cloudy which impacted the views, however we enjoyed the fleeting views in between the clouds. Read the full article…

Birnhorn Überschreitung Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

Having booked the Passauer Hütte months ago we were excited that it looked like we had a perfect weather weekend as we approached the trip, and I was even happier that it looked like it should work for a hike&fly to save me about 1800hm of descent. After some discussions we settled on the northern approach to the hut as despite having 300hm more of ascent, it was a lot more gradual and on a better path, which got the vote for the descent. The start of the approach was up through the woods, however as we climbed higher we started other get fleeting views to the north into the Steinernes Meer. Eventually we emerged out of the woods and could enjoy the view fully, and it really was spectacular. As we arrived at the col by the hut we were suddenly greeted with the view south towards the main alpine ridge, something which was great to suddenly emerge and see in one go. We enjoyed our afternoon sitting on the veranda at the hut while eating some food, having a few drinks and soaking in the wonderful view. After. Read the full article…

Mittenwald Höhenweg Klettersteig&Fly

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Paragliding Short Link

Having last completed the Mittenwald Höhenweg shortly after having moved to Munich 5 years ago, we decided to head back to do it again as we had enjoyed it so much last time, however this time I had a plan to save on the descent by flying off from the German/Austrian border back down to Mittenwald. We were expecting the route to be busy, given that it was still the school holidays and it was the only nice day of the weekend, but we were not quite prepared for how busy the route would actually be. We arrived at the lift station and were ready for 9am, however we had to queue for sometime as the lift was so busy. As we left the lift station we eagerly climbed the first section so that we would emerge from the shade into the sun, especially me as I was still in a t-shirt. Thankfully it did not take us long to emerge into the sunshine, however at this point we saw how many people were gearing up for the klettersteig. We joined the crowds and patiently waited in the queue, as. Read the full article…