Saturday, 9 July 2016

Arosa: Urdenfürkli

I've spent 2 days in Arosa (due to an overly optimistic fcst), wanting to fly from the 'Weisshorn'.
As I intended to board the cable car, 2 of my flying friends from Arosa just came down from the mountain without having launched, as they didn't like the conditions (ie wind direction: W-NW).
But they proposed that we could try to fly from the 'Urdenfürkli', a ridge facing west. We didn't know if anyone ever had flown from there before, but we assumed that there should be a possibe launch. In favour of this place: it can be accessed from Arosa by a gondola ('Hörnlibahn') and a cablecar ('Urdenbahn').

Station of the 'Urdenbahn': left side: 'Arosa Weisshorn', then 'Plattenhorn', 'Hörnlistein'

We found a launchable place just a few steps off the cablecar with the wind coming straight in.

looking West: left: 'Heidsee' / 'Lenzerheide'
'Heidsee'
Soon Andy (Schlegel) and Fritz were airborne; as usual it took me a little longer ;-)
Thanks to Erich (who didn't fly) for clearing a wire out of my lines!

looking South: left:  'Aroser Weisshorn'; (almost) center: 'Hörnlistein'; right 'Parpaner Rothorn'
With more luck than my friends I was able to fly for a litte over an hour, but I never able to get high enough which then would have allowed me to fly back to Arosa.

far left 'Heidsee' / 'Lenzerheide'; center: 'Churwalden'
So I landed on the same meadow as they had done. When I started to fold up, Andy arrived telling me that a bus to 'Chur' would depart in less in 15 minutes; he helped me in packing and carrying my pack to the busstop. We made it with a few minutes to spare; in 'Chur' we then had ample time to catch the train back to 'Arosa'.
Thanks guys for your help: it has been a great idea to try out this launch!

The next day (Saturday) the sky was completely overcast till after noon, so I didn't even try...

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