Bohinj & Bled

A group of us went to visit Bohinj and see the waterfall Slap Savica and explore around the lake. The sky was an incredible blend of clouds, sunshine and falling rain.

Železniki

After the Ratitovec Open we have spent our time exploring Slovenia because the weather has not presented good opportunity for flying. Hikes in the rain, exploring towns and memorials occupy our time.




Pete and Joanna pose on a peak near Ratitovec during a moment of sunshine.

Ratitovec Open

Congratulations to 1st Jurij Vidic, 2nd Borut Hafner & 3rd Dušan Durkovič in the open category of the 2009 Ratitovec Open, and to 1st Melnaie Pfister in the women's cagetory.


I ended up 14th in the open category. We have been hanging out with a local pilot, passing the time as rain has bombarded most of Europe. The clouds have just broken and spots of blue sky are visible.... with luck we will fly tomorrow. The Slovenain Open/pre-PWC starts Sunday, more fun flying in the Slovenian Alpes!






Puddle fun: Melanie was a little slow to realize that when we said "don't get hit" we meant by the puddle, not by the car!

Slovenia

Allison has departed for NYC, and my heart is sad. Just in time to cheer things up, Melanie arrived from SLC and we began our travels by fixing our oil leak with a €10 part so that we don't need to spend €30 on another liter of oil. That's about a 10x price difference between Europe and USA for a quart/liter of oil.


We arrived late Wed. to Železniki, Slovenia for the Ratitovec Open. This comp has some serious prize money, with €500, €400, €300 going to the top 3 places. This is my first time to Slovenia besides quickly passing through this tiny country on the train in previous trips en-route to Eastern-Europe. I am so stoked to be here, as the place is amazingly beautiful, the flying is awesome, and the people super friendly.




Melanie, feeling left out of some of Allison, Jens', and my earlier cow adventures had to befriend a cow herself. Ski lifts climbed to the peaks above launch, and we got to explore a bit before today's 57km task. Yesterday we had a 72km task. I came in below the final turnpoint, and with no lift in the valley I had to glide into goal a little sad for not completing the task but stoked to have had such a fun and amazing first flight in Slovenia. Today both Melanie and I made goal!!!

Heidelberg

We spent Allison's last day in Heidelberg. Our guide, Jens, is a true Heidelberger, and the famous Heidelberg Castle is visible behind the trio. Tomorrow we go to Frankfurt Flughafen to do a chick swap: Allison departs for NYC and Melanie arrives from SLC.

Interlaken, Switzerland

This is my first time to Interlaken, where the Eiger, Monch, & Jungfrau dominate the eastern skyline. We didn't get any XC during this short visit, but had a number of fun flights and I saw some friends I hadn't seen since I was in Europe two years ago.





We didn't need an alarm clock as we were awoken by dozens of curious cows visiting our camp at 6am, each wearing a large and very loud cow-bell.

Coupe du Monde

This is one of the coolest paragliding competition posters I've seen. I just missed making the selection, so after nearly a week in France we are soon departing for Interlaken, CH.

Talloires

Our last couple nights around Lac Annecy we spent sleeping under the millions of stars twinkling high above the Rhône-Alpes. The forecast perdicts another day of brilliant weather before potential over-development. We are thinking about going to Interlaken in a day or two.

Life around Annecy

We are getting to know the area quite well, and the weather has been great for flying. Camping, flying, cooking, brilliant sunsets and starry nights, with the occasional shower/thunderstorm to keep things exciting... ahhhhh life in the Alps!




We've perfected a provincial lentil stew topped with a tasty regional cheese and of course enjoyed with a fresh baguette. Leftovers fill our bellies at lunch the following day. When we're not flying we invent ways to try and elude gravity.

Lac Annecy

Allison, Jens and I have arrived to Annecy. The Rhône-Alpes have huge flying potential, and we are psyched to be here.

Rainy Daze

Yatze, Speed, California Speed, Backgammon... the things we do to entertain ourselves on rainy days. Jens and I have the car packed for the Rhône-Alpes and he is printing a site guide for French flying sites. Tomorrow morning we pick Allison up at the Zurich airport and on we go to Annecy!



Between storms Jens & I wandered the forest trails behind his house, we just returned and dinner is in the oven... mmmmm I can smell it cooking!

Paragliding Worlds on ABC News

I first saw this right after the worlds in February , and wanted to share it with those who haven't seen it yet. The short clip about the Paragliding Worlds is very well edited and features Jim Orava reflecting on paragliding from it's early days to today.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7432260

BaWü Overall Results!!

Today's task was canceled because of high winds and development, and so after two tasks I remain in 2nd place overall! My UP Edge is such a sweet ship. Congrats to Davide Licini in 1st, Peter Jung in 3rd, Caroll Licini 1st of the ladies and everybody for a fun exciting meet!



Results can be found at http://www.dhv.de/typo/Ergebnisse.5430.0.html

BaWü Task 2

Yesterday we didn't go up to launch because of very strong winds both in the forecast and also observed in the morning. Allison and I went exploring in the forest and had a picnic lunch.

Today we called a 46.6km task, also to Landeplatz Bleibach, which is just 3.5km from Jens' house. It was very difficult to get out of the Oppenau valley today due to high winds and not getting very high. Just when I was almost giving up and heading over the valley I caught a great climb to some dark high clouds which made it easy to run downwind and establish on the high terrain. I flew alone the next 30km, only seeing Markus just before goal. Today there were fewer pilots in goal, as most pilots landed on course.

Oppenau: BaWü Air-Games

I am competing in the BaWü Air-Games in Oppenau, Germany. This is a huge festival, with performances by base jumpers, d-bag speed gliders, sky-divers in speed suits, Chrigel Maurer and Gabor Kezi doing infinities and syncro, John Heiney doing hang-gliding loops and acro, and model airplanes and helicoptors. The competition is fully subscribed with 115 pilots.



Oppenau is a great place to fly. The valley you launch into has been very windy, but once we were on course the winds weren't so strong. cloud base was about 1600m. We flew a 58.8km task, I made goal pretty fast, very happy to get 6th for the day. visit the site at: http://www.bawue-airgames.de/