Austrian Arena

Task 2
The weather was pretty much a classic day on the Karwendel range. A light northerly breeze blew over the tops over the mountains. Base was around 2700m, mountains there are about 2600m. Strong climbs up high but severe stability lay low down. A 51km task was set again up and down the ridge.We took a slightly later start on the elapsed time race and found it a struggle to get up to base. the north wind around launch made for a choppy ride. We flew for about 15km without turning next to the huge craters, bowls and sheer cliffs. And still gained 300m, incredible. The turnpoint was very far out in the valley, this is where I made a tactical mistake*, sunk below the super-inversion (1500)and went down. Bummer, won’t do that again.

The guys got round quick, however Tom made a similar error but recovered well. Hannes was 2nd, well on the pace (30seconds behind), Stefan was 4th and Tom 6th. The Salzburg team Abtenau won by just one point. Unbelievably close.

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Task 1
37 k task in very stable conditions, there is still some confusion as to whether I’m allowed to score for the team, but I won’t go into detail until it’s sorted out. The mountains were impressive but so was the stability, strong cores ripping up the side of the grey cliffs.

The task was a simple blat up and down the ridge, we elected to start early to gain early bird points, all Stephan had some tactics. Only once did I climb out to base(2400m) thru the strong inversion at 2000m.

The Golden Eagle team are currently 2nd out of 16 teams from across Austria,15points below 1st adn 60pts above 3rd.

The day was won by Martin Brunn in 1hr16min, very fast.
Stephan was 4th, Tom 9th, Hannes 10th and me lucky for some in 13th.

Hopefully Sunday’s task will be even better for us with more instability in the forecast.

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This weekend is the 4th annual inter club competition of Austria. It will be held in Gnadenwald, near Innsbruck and tasks will be around the limestone Karwendel mountain range. It’s a basic format of comp where individual and team scores both count. In the team only the 2nd and 3rd places score in each task.

The Golden Eagles team will consist of Tom Walder (multiple XC league winner & former Austrian Master), Stephan Steigler (XC league winner, PWC veteran, former World Champion and Austrian League winner), Hannes Huber (one of the fastest guys in the Austrian league in recent years and member of the 200 club) and myself. Stocky dubbed it the dream team. I’m pretty sure the club are hoping for a podium place if not the win.

I’ll be posting some pics and reports, the weather is looking perfect at the moment.

KF

* Not investing the time to get to 100% to base when needed. Plus I flew too fast and lost too much height.

TASK 1
The Sunday was too windy to hold a task.

TASK 2
Monday was looking good, a 70km task was set around the usual route, after an average start most of the leaders were flushed with some pretty nasty leeside climbs towards the forst turnpoint. There were 2 routes to take from there towards the next TP.

I found my route ok but slow going and a few pilots went down on route, I split from the gaggle I was in and got a whole climb ahead but being too cautious from the last turnpoint cost me another 20mins and the guys caught me. After a arse clenching final glide glide 10km down the lake with almost no landing options I finished 45mins off the pace and in 32nd place for the day.

Quite disappointing really, but a nice day out if a little frustrating at times. Russel Ogden won the day 5mins in front of the next man.

Looking good today despite the forecast. I’ll post something later when I get a chance.

TASK 3
A short 55km race was set and then changed to a 61k race as conditions were looking better. The start was fast and the first gaggle pushed out to the cliffs to the west, it was hard going but when we got there I realised that the wind was more to the south and this left us too early on this west side and with a wind blowing hard along it. Many pilots got flushed and it looked like the other route(normal) route was better/faster/safer. The climbs on the 2nd ridge were over 8m/s and pretty nasty really. One pilot crashed into the trees in this area.

After my second flushing I decided to have one more attempt at the turnpoint which was in the lee and then gave up,. I don’t fly in the lee in Zillertal and try not to when I’m free flying. A very dubious turnpoint. Myself and Kai Coleman landed together totally in the boonies. Only 15k from launch but about 60k by road.

TASK 4
A 67km out and return was set with a forecast of NW in the high level. The start was busy, stable & windy. After the first turnpoint over Lambruise some pilots went over the col low into the next valley/LEE. Didn’t look that great, I wanted at least 300m over the ridge before following then unhappy with the traffic and turbulence I witnessed a reserve deployment and decided enough was enough and headed back to St Andre. After landing I heard that the task was cancelled. Good decision, as I felt we were playing russian roulette with pilots safety.

Another task today maybe, forecast of lighter winds from the SW/W.

all results on www.pgcomps.org.uk

TASK 5
A 98km task was set along the Dormoise run, reports were of very sparky conditions and Dave Snowden took a cravat and lost around 400m putting it back together.

I’m sorry I can’t comment further as I decided not to fly the task as I’d flown that route before and although impressive terrain, I was some what unimpressed by the lack of landing options and strength of conditions.

A run report for this task is on pgcomps.org.uk

TASK 6
A forecast of moderate SW winds and embedded Cb’s later on. A short 45k task was quickly under way. I put myself in a good position at the start, however the highest guys route under convergence to the first turnpoint was slower than the low soaring route.

After a 6m/s climb on the South flank of the Cheval Blanc I climbed out in a lee side with Russell Odgen and Mark Hayman. However to the NW trouble was brewing, a Cb had formed. We pushed on to the aerials and climbed again before heading east to the final turnpoint. I was in around 15-20 position at this time. We expected a straight line, fast glide to the Pic Chematte and back to goal. At this time the slower pilots still on the Cheval and Lambruise ridges were calling a ‘level 3′ (dangerous conditions). Nigel Prior threw his reserve and landed ’safely’. The gust front had caught them.

After taking the turnpoint we turned into wind and the task was stopped. It was an extremely uncomfortable ride down going backwards in a 50k wind to land in a narrow valley. The weather came in extremely fast and it was a good call to stop the task, however 30mins earlier would have been better.

TASK 7
The wind is howling in the LZ but most pilots have headed up the hill for some reason, maybe to keep us here for prize giving tonight?!

As it stands it looks like Craig Morgan has won the 2008 British Championship. Well deserved and has shown the ability to push full speed in very lively air, he obviously wants it more than me

KF

Well the local boys beat me to it, I’ve been casing a route into the big mountains using the Filzen launch and going left into the huge mountains at the end of the Stilluptal.

Most of you will know it as the ridge on the way to the border with Italy. Well on Sunday the boys launched on the south side of the Filzen and did just that. A first for them and I gotta say it looked stunning, they report 6m/s thermals and smooth as silk as there was a little west wind up to 3600m.

I had little chance to join them as I was guiding less experienced pilots on the Penken, helping them get their thermal technique right, amongst other things.This picture is of the ridge they went down and back after climbing out. I’m looking forward to some time off in Autumn to try it for myself.

KF

Check out the latest article in Cross Country magazine, the Zillertal is featured as the subject of the ‘Classic Routes’ series. The article will be available here in the next few days as a .pdf file.

Next week is the last round of the British Paragliding Championships in St. Andre, France. This comp is well over subscribed with around 150 pilots attending, also the Dutch Nationals will run side by side at the same time. There will be many good pilots looking to secure their places on their National team.

I’ll be writing a run report daily as it unfolds, together with pictures and results…

KF