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!

Slovenia Revisited - August 2017

Last year we visited Slovenia and enjoyed flying there (and even met some friends from Canada!) but after just two days the weather turned bad. So we tried again this year.

And what a surprise: the first person we met this year was a Norwegian paraglider pilot we know from Valle de Bravo. The Nordic Open were held at the same time we visited. This meant 140 extra pilots in the air but didn't cause us any problems since we launched before the comp started. And all the pilots in the air were great thermal indicators.

Slovenia is nestled in the south east corner of the Alps with white limestone peaks, towers and rock walls. The flying is centered around the towns Tolmin and Kobarid. Conditions were great when we visited in late August. Thermal strength and roughness was comparable to a strong day in the Fraser Valley and quite a bit mellower than Pemberton.

There are two main flying sites in the Soca Valley: Kobala near Tolmin and Stol near Kobarid. In Tolmin a van left from the main LZ around 10 AM (or whenever there were enough pilots to fill it). The main LZ is also where the site fee of Euro 4/day is collected (if there is someone on launch collecting the fee it’s more expensive). Getting up Stol is more complicated since only organized groups drive up. Contact for a ride up, accommodation or guided tours is Wolfgang at http://www.paragliding-adventure.com/en/index.php. There is also another paragliding outfit: http://www.jelkin-hram.com for accommodation and tours. For roughing it there are plenty of campgrounds around. We stayed at Kamp Siber near Tolmin.

The main flying route leads from Tolmin 15 km northwest along the Soca valley, crossing the valley at Kobarid to get on the Stol ridge. This ridge continues for 30 km into Italy. When flying to Gemona in Italy its better to make it back too as roads don’t continue through this valley and ground transport would take many hours. On our first day there were low clouds just below ridge height and we flew all the way to Italy and back with barely a turn. Another spectacular experience was thermaling up the steep west face of Krn, with 2244m the local high point. Out and returns of 100km are relatively easy. Longer flights are more difficult due to the terrain but pilots often add more zigzag legs to the route to extend the flights.

The launch sites in the Soca Valley don’t work in north or east wind, so we explored a third launch at Lijak. It’s the last ridge before the flats that eventually give way to the Mediterranean and resembles Bassano. There is a camp ground and a regular shuttle service up the mountain.

Pete returning along the Stol ridge and flying towards Slovenia

Tolmin with castle and paragliders

Europe Fall - Leipzig, Tolmin, Bassano

This year we decided to combine the yearly visit to Germany with a trip to Slovenia and check out Tolmin and Kobarid. The cities are in the Julian Alps, the eastern extension of the Dolomites. As the name suggests, it’s a limestone/dolomite range. The Soča river in the main valley is well known in the kayaking world for its turquoise whitewater. The highest peak is Triglav (2864m), closer to the flying sites Krn (no idea how to pronounce it… 2244m). Cloud base never got above 1800m for us and we didn’t see much of the big mountains. Nevertheless the flying was nice and good enough to go cross country (+60km for Pete with a little cross border flight into Italy and +40km for yours truly) from the Tolmin launch called Kobala. Sadly a front rolled through the Alps and strong west wind put an end to the good conditions after only two days. We didn’t get to launch from Stol (the launch near the town Kobarid) but got to check it out from the air when we flew over it from Tolmin on the days before.

Too much wind in Tolmin had us search for other flying sites. The go-to bad weather spot is Bassano in Italy on the southern edge of the Alps. But since many pilots are looking for a fly-able site it makes for dense traffic and fish bowl style flying. Just like on our first visit a couple of years back the fishbowl was very murky and the air so hazy that we could barely see the ground. The south wind may be the culprit as fellow Canadian pilot Daniel suggested. It didn’t help the crowded feeling that many pilots had their own opinion where the best lift was and different interpretations of ridge-rules. After getting tired dodging other paragliders and hangliders I tried my luck out front and found a nice thermal expecting everybody to rush over to join. To my surprise I was still alone after a 400 meter climb. Even the pilot next to me kept circling patiently in his zeros below.

On the way to back to Munich we stopped at Werfenweng near Salzburg to fly Bischling. A fun flying site! It’s like small Dolomites with limestone cliffs and towers of the Tennengebirge 5 km across from launch. Although it is a popular site most of the pilots are students in training who launch, land and return. That makes for good entertainment over a coffee from the restaurant next to launch while waiting for conditions to turn on.

Some of the great things about flying in European are gondola access, restaurants at launch and landing, lots of flying sites; but the crowds can be a bit annoying. And with the end of the tourist/hiking season many gondolas shut down or operate only on weekends, so it’s a good idea to check before making plans. There are no lifts in Tolmin and Kobarid (or in Bassano). Vans drive up to launch from the LZs. The vans can be busy and it helps to call ahead to reserve a spot. For weather forecasts we used Wetterfex.com.