Germany, Austria, Slovenia

Our annual fall Europe trip took us to Germany, Austria and Slovenia (and Italy, but only shortly). In Leipzig we checked up on the Zoo, always an interesting outing! On the way to Slovenia we stopped at Koessen (fortunately we came through on a weekday as it is very busy on weekends), then continued on via Bischling to Lienz where we met a BC friend. We got to watch the Dolomiten Mann Red bull contest, flew Lienz and had an interesting encounter with the valley winds. Always something new even with over 1000 flights! After Lienz we headed to Camp Siber in Tolmin and got lucky... one of their cabins was free. Much more convenient than our tiny lightweight tent! Flying in Slovenia was fantastic again with my longest flight almost to Gemona and a couple others over the gap on Stol. I also explored for the first time the slopes of Krn. On the way back we drove up to Mangart and hiked/scrambled up the ridge.

Euro Trip Report 2017

Our first stop is the 2260 m high Kronplatz where strange sights greets us: North American tippis and Nepalese yaks. So we don’t feel so much out of place? The Kronplatz is an isolated summit with launch potential in all directions. But it was windy and the air rough so we boat around for one or two hours and then call it quits.

Next day Emberger Alm: Smooth thermaling, almost too smooth, but very nice after yesterdays rock-and-roll. Unfortunately big and black clouds develop in the afternoon and we thought it is better to land. Apparently this summer wasn’t great for flying in the Alps, almost every day overdevelopment and showers.

First day in Tolmin at the LZ; what a surprise that the first pilot we see is Ronny, a Norwegian XC tour guide whom we know from our Valle de Bravo visits. Unbeknownst to us we arrived one day before the Nordic Open Championships started. Lots of pilots in town and in the air. We meet Hans an Iceland pilot who (according to Ronny) looks the most ‘viking’ of all. He greeted me with a big hug (‘Vikings love women… and husbands too’). I have a great flight from Kobala. Low clouds on Stol ridge, cruising along (almost) without turning. My first border-crossing flight! I turn around at the gap in the ridge and made it back too. Good thing: getting back to Tolmin from Italy would have been a major headache. For some added excitement I pushed a little too far east beyond Kobala launch. Pete watched from above as I slowly make my way back around the corner. But I make it! Nice to start the week in Slovenia with a 100km flight!

On the second day it took me a while getting away from launch and then again from Kobarid. Later I joined one of the competition gaggles and thermaled up the steep west face of Krn. Wouldn’t have ventured there without the other pilots around. A very 'alpine' feeling!

Competition pilots in the air

No-fly weather in the forecast for our third day in Slovenia. So we have a rest day and hike for 8 hours. Climbed our first ‘vowel-less’ mountain: Krn! ‘Bright’ landscape with all the limestone. First world war shells, barbed wire fences and fortifications everywhere. Only very few people out but nice to chat with three young hikers from Jena and the girl up at the hut. Made it back to the car just in time before the downpour and thunderstorm starts.

Day 4: Parawaiting for the north wind to stop. We can see the clouds pouring over the ridges north of us. Still pretty rough air along the ridge but a nice climb above the old Tolmin castle. On to Kobarid, two attempts to get away from there again. I think I know every tree on the hill east of Kobarid! Finished with a second castle soaring session.

Day 5: First flight from Stol. I followed Pete across the gap in the Stol ridge where I turned around 3 days ago. We fly all the way to Gemona. The rough air at the steep face at the end of the ridge makes me wonder if this flight ends in Italy. But we find much nicer air over the smaller hills to the south. The rest of the flight back along Stol ridge, to Tolmin and back to Stol launch is much nicer. I get some cool photos of Pete on his red Taska. But it takes work to get up again at Kobarid and back onto Stol ridge at the end of the flight. It’s a 98.7 km out and return, but 108 km open distance … so I think I’ll count this as my 4th 100 km flight ;-)

Too much wind for Kobala so we checked out Lijak on day 6. The Nordic comp also moved the task to this site. Cool to watch the comp guys from above but when they joined 'my' thermal I leave to give them some room ... ;-)

Bad weather in the forecast so we drive to the Adriatic coast on country roads to avoid the Slovenia toll highway, swim in the Mediterranean, wander the narrow streets of medieval towns (Koper, Izola and Piran), eat nice seafood and watch thunderstorm and lightening over the sea from a rain-less beach.

Back in the Alps again. The cold front brought the first snow. Hiking up to the 2600 m Kreutzspitze from the town of Kalkstein in the Villgratener Alps with some traces of snow on the ground. Even at the camp ground in the valley night temperatures dropped below freezing.

Kreutzspitze summit view looking southwest to some pointy Dolomite spires

One more flight at Emberger Alm, then a stop in Salzburg for coffee with friend from the olden old kayaking days. Another 5 hours of Autobahn driving to Frankfurt and then back to YVR again.

Usually we travel to Europe in fall when its too late for long crosscountry flights. But late August turned out to be an excellent time to visit Slovenia, with 2 of my 4 longest flights ever!

Alpine Week - Last Week August

Compared to last year's Chamonix visit for two weeks, six days to explore the Austrian Alps didn’t feel quite adequate (and a day and a half of rain didn’t help either). But we had some nice flights and found lots of other things to explore.

We didn’t haul our wings to Europe in vain. On our way down south Pete and I flew for the first time in Germany, from Brauneck launch south of Munich. My favorite site was Bischling south of Salzburg, where I had a sweet flight crossing a couple of times from launch to the limestone towers on the other valley side. It was neat to fly so close to the jagged cliffs. Emberger Alm at Greifenburg in Austria's Kärnten region didn’t quite live up to my expectations. While Pete and Alex had a good XC flight on our first day, I sank out after crossing to the next ridge.

Unfortunately the weather turned bad and we had just one day of flying there before the rain arrived. We spent the next several wet days hiking (Obertilliach), via-ferrata-ing (very cool next to waterfalls in the tight canyon of the Pirkacher Klamm), exploring lakes, visiting Roman excavations (Aguntum Lienz), the Blue Sky home base in Sillian (hosts of our Dolomiti tour two years ago), garnet mines in Villach and, when the downpour started in earnest, several Konditoreien (Alex’ favorite rain time activity). Other interesting sights (Auerhuehner) and signs (Schwammerln sammeln verboten!)

On our last day in Europe we got in the air again at the Jenner near Berchtesgaden, above the super scenic Königssee with Watzmann Mountain towering behind. Family stories go that my grandmother visited here as a young woman and always fondly remembered the stunning mountain scenery. When I first heard about this there was little chance for me to ever see these sights. Leave alone fly over it with a fabric wing. But time changes ... almost everything.