With a decent forecast I dug out a route which I had planned a few years ago, but never had the chance to properly fly. It was ambitious for the day as it would have been around 130km if it was fully closed, however the forecast made attempting it reasonable, even it I expected that there was a good chance for a bomb out part way around.
We decided to head up to the upper launch at Kössen as, in my experience, it is typically easier to start early here by flying around to the south face. After getting to the top and casually setting up our gear it looked like the day was starting so we launched and quickly made a climb up to cloud base from the eastern face. Thankfully it as still quiet at this point, but I set off quickly from cloudbase as lots of people were now starting to climb up.
The start of the route along the Steinplatte was easy with strong climbs and cloudsuck making for quick progress, the next challenge was the crossing above Lofer, so after gaining as much height as possible I set off for the crossing, into a headwind which is less than ideal as it is a long crossing. I arrived lower than I would have liked, and to get the thermal out required some committed flying into some horrible air, but with a strong thermal it soon improved and I was quickly climbing back up to cloudbase.
The next section along to the Steinernes Meer was very straightforward with good climbs and stunning views, unfortunately here I made a bad decision and ended up dropping down into the Lee of the north easterly wind, but I stayed committed and glided around until I got into the sunny faces and hit a very strong and punchy Lee thermal which took me back up to cloudbase and then an easy glide to the first turn point.
With the high cloudbase the next section onto Zell am See was very easy and I was soon making the climb out before the valley crossing, making sure I had enough height to remain above the Zell am See airport airspace. Along the Pinzgau I was slower than I should have been due to some poor tactical decisions, most of which were OK, but one definitely slowed me down as I was washed down into the Lee, but with some perseverance I managed to ride another Lee side thermal back up to cloudbase. I was also very surprised to have a westerly headwind along the Pinzgau on a day which was forecast for north easterly regional winds – who knows!?
I enjoyed a climb with a number of sailplanes just before my final turn point with breathtaking views of the main alpine ridge, before heading back north. Here the good progress rapidly ended with a very strong northerly wind which made for poor glide ratios and challenging decision making. Unfortunately I didn’t quite manage to glide over the Karstein next to the Kitzbüheler Horn and ended up in a horrible basin. I was preparing to land here as I caught a weak thermal which was very windblown which just about took my up high enough to bail over into the Lee side and down into Kitzbühel to land.
All in all it was a brilliant flight, but it would have been much more satisfying too make it over the Karstein and glide north in the direction of goal to land, rather than having to bail to the west.
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