Stoderzinken 200km FAI

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

After a very poor night of sleep in a nearby hotel, my body was not happy to be awake and at the Sky Club Austria flight school at 06:30 in order to pay for the shuttle which was leaving at 07:00. After paying I made use of their supply of coffee, before 2 shuttle busses and a coach arrived which the large group of eager pilots quickly climbed into. After the long drive up to the end of the road my mood had not improved much, however the tension about the upcoming plan was definitely starting to build. There was a walk from the shuttle bus to the summit, where the views kept getting better and better. It was very strange to be waiting on launch so early, and also with so many high classification wings being unpacked. This was definitely not a normal distribution of pilots. This was confirmed when talking to a local sponsored pilot about if he thought the conditions were good enough for the FAI triangle, in this conversation 200km was the short option! The air felt like it must be working, but nobody was taking. Read the full article…

Lackenkogel Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

With a plan for a cross-country flight from Stoderzinken the next day, Manuel and I had the idea of making the most of the poor xc conditions by heading for a hike and fly in the Ponzgau, en-route to our destination for the next day. We elected to climb the Lackenkogel which was a really beautiful walk, much better than I was expecting to be honest. From very early on we had wonderful views of the Dachsteingebirge, which only got better as we passed the Lackenalm as we could then see into the Hohe Tauern. The path from the Lackenalm traversed around the west side of the mountain, which provided a beautiful view, but also gave us a relatively snow free ascent, it would have been a different story if we had ascended the north facing slopes. We made very good time on the ascent and were soon at the ridge up to the summit where the views really opened up, and they were absolutely fantastic. After the short ridge up to the summit we were greeted by a perfect wind to start, which was fortunate as the area was. Read the full article…