Vorderunnütz Hike and Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

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. Read the full article…

Hochmiesing and Rotwand Nordgrat (Kriegersteig)

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Walking Short Link

With a morning weather window before a lot of rain was forecast, we decided to stay local and head to the Spitzingsee area as it was an easy train ride from Munich. Given the short weather window, we decided to take the Taubensteinbahn up and down to keep the day short, and make the most of the clearer weather in the morning. This time we decided to head to a peak which we hadn’t previously climbed, Hochmiesing which is just north of the Rotwand, is much less climbed but has a really spectacular view. It was great to be away from the hustle and bustle of some of the busier Bavarian peaks and we managed to get to the top before too much high cloud came in. Unfortunately the view south was very hazy so it was hard to make the peaks out, one to come back to on another day. We decided to head up the north ridge of the Rotwand (otherwise known as the Kriegersteig) after descending from Hochmiesing. After going slightly wrong at the start, the rest of the route was very straightforward, just fairly steep with. Read the full article…

Schmittenhöhe Paragliding

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

With a decent forecast for the end of August I took the day off to head to Schmittenhöhe for a day of flying, with no particular objective other than to stay in the air for a while and enjoy the scenery. My thoughts were an out and back to Pass Thurn, heading onwards into the Zillertal or heading north back in the direction of Munich. Everything started working pretty late, but I was one of the earlier pilots to take off and the initial climb went well and I climbed away from take off with the fantastic views, however my transition to the next climb did not go well, and while scratching I made the mistake of turning too low and was flushed over a ridge. This meant I flew into the Lee and it didn’t feel great so I made a long glide out of the turbulent air. This lost me so much altitude that I dropped back down below the inversion layer, and despite my best fighting I could not get back above it. After landing early again, I was pretty frustrated, checked the wind and it looked. Read the full article…

Annecy Paragliding

Alastair BegleyFrance, Paragliding Short Link

With a week planned in Annecy, but the weather looking fairly unstable, we decided to head down a day early so that I could fly on the best day of the week. It was certainly a good decision, but it was still not a flying day due to late afternoon storms and a slow start to the day. I met a group of English speaking friends at the landing site, who I ended up spending most of the morning with on launch while we waited for it to turn on, which made it a pretty social day. When I took if it quickly became apparent that it was not going to be a big XC day, but rather a good day to get to know the site and admire the, frankly magnificent, views. The flying was pretty rough when above the lower inversion layer, with strong thermals, wind shear and another layer above that. Nonetheless it was a really enjoyable flight and it was great to have a flight without any big xc pressure. As the day went on the thunderstorms were clearly building, but I managed to squeeze in. Read the full article…

Hochiss

Alastair BegleyAustria, Walking Short Link

With Martin visiting it was time to head back to do our usual visitor circuit from the Rofanbahn, as it is such a spectacular walk without being too long. While I have now seen these views quite a few times, they never get old as they are so beautiful looking over the Achensee into the Karwendel. We made good time to the summit which meant that we were back down at the lift station for a lovely lunch and beer at the Erfurter Hütte, before we headed back to Munich for a lovely dinner.

Greifenburg Paragliding

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

With another good forecast I headed back down to the south side of the main ridge for another attempt at a big FAI triangle, yet again it did not go to plan, however on this occasion I only have myself to blame. Everything was a bit of a rush as my original plan was to head to Sillian, however when we got there we found that Saturday was the rest day for the lift, I did not think to check that a Gondola which I knew was operational was running on a Saturday! We hastily made our way to Greifenburg, where Becky drove me up to the Emberger Alm which saved some time. After a quick walk up to the start place I setup and quickly launched, it was clear that the conditions were good, but not as good as forecast with a much lower cloud base. The first leg went well until I got to the valley crossing which had to be taken in order to make the route a 100km FAI triangle, for some reason, despite knowing that I was way too low to make this crossing easily,. Read the full article…

Sillian Paragliding

Alastair BegleyAustria, Italy, Paragliding Short Link

With a great forecast for the day in Osttirol, I decided to head down to Sillian for a day, hoping to manage a 100km FAI triangle. The day started later than I was hoping, however there was still plenty of time to make the triangle as I started. The first section of the flight went pretty smoothly, although I would have liked some stronger thermals, however on my first major valley crossing I realised that there was a much stronger west wind than was forecast due to Föhn over the main alpine ridge between Bruneck and Innsbruck. This resulted in two problems, firstly I had a poor glide and secondly I dropped down into the Lee at the end of the valley crossing. When this was combined with also dropping through an inversion layer resulted in thermals which were impossible for me to climb in, really strong pockets of rising air which were far to small to complete a turn in. After fighting for ages, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t going to work and made my way to land in Italy. Thankfully getting back to Launch was. Read the full article…

Marmots above Saas Fee

Alastair BegleySwitzerland, Wildlife Short Link

After our four days in the Bernese Oberland, we were in need of a rest day which was thankfully forced on us by the weather anyway. To make the most of the day, we decided to head up to Spielboden to see the Marmots in a brief window without any rain towards the end of the day. We didn’t quite know what to expect, but went armed with some nuts which were bought from the tourist office and were very surprised. To say the Marmots were tame would be an understatement, as they quite aggressively came up to us demanding more food which was certainly a surprise. This wasn’t so good for the photography from my point of view, but the others have some entertaining photos of humans and marmots together. I aimed for some marmots which were in the landscape, which seemed more natural, even if it was still very staged. After an hour of fun it started raining and we had to get back to the lift before it shut, so we made a hasty retreat back to Saas Fee for the evening.