After a break from flying due to Christmas, we were both keen to get out flying again as soon as the weather allowed. On our first weekend where we were both back in Germany the weather aligned and we headed back to Choralpe, with a friend from our paragliding course. It was a wonderful day of flying with 10 degrees on the summits, zero wind and blue skies, it did feel more like spring than winter! The only downside of the warm weather was how wet out gliders were when we got them home.
As a child on a family holiday about 20 years ago I did a tandem flight above Morzine and since then I have expected to learn to paraglide at some point in my life, but had always assumed it would be much later in life and I certainly had not considered learning in 2021. However, due to a knee injury our mountaineering options were limited for our September holiday, so Becky suggested that we learn to paraglide as one of our friends had recently learnt in France and was raving about how fun it was. I am sure that people normally decide to paraglide and choose a flight school with more than 3 days notice, which resulted in us drawing a circle around Munich and looking for any flight schools within an appropriate distance which were also doing ground courses on the first Saturday of our holiday. We found a couple of schools within an appropriate distance of Munich and ended up selecting Cloudbase in the Zillertal. Given our experience on the course, this seemed to turn out as an excellent decision as it was a great valley to learn. Read the full article…
Another year has passed and what a year it was with some outstanding high points due to living so close to the alps, but also with plenty of covid induced low points in the first half of the year. The year started with the first variant and a full on lockdown in the UK, which resulted in Becky being unable to travel backwards and forwards as required for her job and me staying in the UK until mid February. It was my first full year living in Munich and I certainly made the most of living an hour from the alps and regularly had my mind blown about what I could achieve without even taking any annual leave! I am not sure I have ever had a year in which I have spent so much time in the mountains, and I am really looking forward to Becky also discovering this properly this year! Winter After heading back to Germany in mid February winter was looking pretty bleak, with most of the snow in Bavaria having melted and no travel possibilities to the higher mountains in Austria. However, the lack of. Read the full article…
After 3 days of wonderful skiing above a persistent cloud inversion, it was a treat to drive up the valley this morning and see the peaks from the valley. This could mean only one thing, time to ditch the skies and get into the sky! Due to some fog in the morning I was not entirely sure about if a take off would be possible when I left the valley, so set off with my skis and glider. After a quick blast down an easy run, I caught the lift up to the take off at Choralpe and was pleased to see that the fog was clearing and the landing site was clear. This meant it was time for my first take off with skis on, and needless to say it was a bit of a faff, but the actual take off and landing was very easy. After a bit more skiing with Becky when her lesson had finished, we called it a day and headed down to the valley to ditch the skis and pickup our gliders. We then caught the lift up, walked across to Choralpe and then. Read the full article…