Blog Posts in Category: Austria

Schmittenhöhe Paragliding

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

There were excellent conditions forecast in the Pinzgau so I took the day off work, hoping to do my first 100km flight. Despite the good conditions forecast in the Pinzgau, I wasn‘t 100% sure what the day would bring, as further north there were very strong winds forecast. I made use of my Deutschlandticket and Austrian Bahncard and travelled to Zell am See by train, which was a very relaxing way of arriving, other than the spring for the bus to the cable car from the Zell am See train station! Conditions after take off were wonderful and I was soon up at altitude and enjoying a brilliant view, there was a northerly wind, but it wasn’t too strong, even when I descended into the lee of it. I made good time to Pass Thurn, however this is where the conditions started to unravel, there was a very strong wind rushing down the valley which gave me a terrible glide to an almost guaranteed thermal source on the other side of the valley crossing. I actually gave up trying to get there as the headwind was so bad, as I. Read the full article…

Volbiv from Stubai to Olang-Antholz

Alastair BegleyAustria, Italy, Paragliding Short Link

One of my aims this year was to do a VolBiv, which is where you travel from A to B by air with a paraglider, along with a tent and other associated camping equipment. As this was my first VolBiv and I only had 3 days, I had set myself some simple rules to make it easier/more enjoyable: In the week running up to the VolBiv the forecast for Friday-Sunday was very good, with Friday and Saturday looking great and Sunday looking OK, which resulted in me planning a route which started in Stubai with the flying crux on the first day, flying over the Stubai glaciers and the main alpine ridge. Once over the ridge, it should have been plain sailing along the south facing slopes of the Pustertal. I didn‘t have a specific objective, but had planned routes to Lienz and onwards to Spittal an der Drau. The advantage of this route was that there was a trainline all the way along the route after I reached the Pustertal, so getting home on the Sunday would be easy no matter where I finished. I gradually packed my equipment. Read the full article…

Gamskogel

Alastair BegleyAustria, Walking Short Link

With a mixed weather forecast and following a lot of rain in the mountains we decided to head to the Gamskogel with the IMG, as it was relatively low, easy to access by train and shouldn’t have been too bad following the recent heavy rain. Due to the introduction of the 49 euro ticket in Germany, most of us took the train the Kufstein to start the walk, which was a nice social way to start the walk. The ascent to the Gamskogel was mostly in the forrest, but it took us up some nice scenery next to the Kienbach with glimpses out of the forest across and out of the Inntal, where there were some fairly ominous looking clouds. Thankfully we made it to the summit before it started to rain, where we had a lovely view in every direction, but unfortunately due to the forecast it certainly wasn’t a day to be hanging around. We made a quick descent down to the Weinbergerhaus for a lovely lunch, before making the descent back down to Kufstein for some ice cream and the train back to Munich.

Ruderhofspitze 3474m

Alastair BegleyAustria, Ski Touring Short Link

This winter has not been a good winter for ski touring, with a distinct lack of precipitation and plenty of warm days, so running up to this weekend I was unsure if we would actually be able to make the tour. However thankfully there was some fresh snow in the last few weeks, and the weekend ended up having a good, if warm, forecast. Our plan for the weekend was to stay in the Franz-Senn-Hütte for two nights, with the primary objective being the Ruderhofspitze, a tall but relatively isolated peak, with a stunning snow arête up to the summit from the ski depot, so it looked like an excellent mountaineering objective. We headed down to the Stubaital early on Friday morning, with the thought that we would get to the hut and then go up and do something relatively short, however this was not to be as by the time we got to the hut it was really warm in the afternoon sun and we all needed to cool off after the ascent in the sun! The next morning we got up for first breakfast and were leaving the. Read the full article…