Season's greetings

Wishing you all a healthy, prosperous New Year with lots of great flights!

 

PS: Sorry some of you might have received this card by mail - but with a 'wrong' year ;-)

Arosa

Zur aktuellen Situation:

'Da hast du ein Leben lange versucht, dich mit Gleitschirmfliegen ums Leben zu bringen und jetzt hast du Angst vor einem Impfstoff'  ;-)

 

I've spent a couple of days in Arosa, making one flight a day - landing always in Arosa; twice the wind has been too strong for a second flight. On some days the 'Hochnebel' wouldn't have permitted flying to Chur...

...just an attempt... (assisted by Oli)

With the predominat winds from NNW to N launching has often been rather tricky.

attempting (!) to launch towards WSW (despite the northerly winds).

...just airborne... (Webcam)

Peter N.

Today (Mon, 20.12.) there have been some really nice thermals above Arlenwald and Prätschli permitting a rather unusual long flight (and this just 1 day shy of the shortest day of the year!) :-))

'Strong the wind blows' - another epic adventure by Benjamin 'Dirt' Jordan

 

With the lousy weather here 'killing' almost any outdoor activity I finally got around to watching another of  Benjamin 'Dirt' Jordan's adventures, called 'XBC': flying 1000km from Vancouver across the Canadian Rockies to Calgary. He is (so far) the only paragalider pilot who has attempted this flight and also made it - enjoy watching at 'Strong the wind blows'.

'Fly Monarca' - another paragliding adventure by Benjamin Jordan

red - fly / green - hike

 >>  Fly Monarca

>>  Monarca expedition

 

Like his other movie 'The Endless Chain' (> infos here) this one is also well worth watching !!

2 days in Arosa

Sat, 20.11.

When I feft home, the wind on the Weisshorn showed NE -perfect for launching. While getting to launch I could see a pilot over 'Prätschalp' maintaining altitude, which is rather unusual for this time of the year and also for the time of the day - therefore I had been hoping for a nice flight. Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to launch the wind has dropped and even showed some tailwind :-(

tailwind...

I tried to launch once in these conditions, but didn't manage to get away...

As in Arosa the cable car was running this weekend (they call it 'Novemberhoch') a surprisingly large number of pilots have found their way to the Weisshorn.

Luckily after having waited close to 2 hours the wind started to change: first S, then SSW, which permitted launching on the 'FIS'-slope.

Webcam at 1240

Contrary to the slope direction NE (where I had tried to launch earlier) this ski slope here had not yet been machine packed; so it took a while for all pilots to launch (single file for setup and launching). But as long as I could watch everybody got away without major problems - me included ;-)

Chur - looking West (direction Ems, Bündner Oberland)

No thermals, as the temperature in Arosa has been even a bit higher than in Chur. Meanwhile in Chur the wind had picked up quite a bit: North with 25-30kmh, but at 250m/gnd there had been a southerly flow (about 7kmh)...

Sun, 21.11.

Same as yesterday: little wind, just enough for an easy launch; the temp predicted at -0.5°/100m (above 2000m), which - of course - is not enough. But I still could feel some rising air above 'Arvenwald'; landing on the Obersee after 15 minutes.

Unfortunately when I got back up to Weisshorn for a second flight (this time to Chur) I was told that a pilot which had launched just a few minutes earlier had crashed below launch and had come to rest in very steep and difficult terrain. One of his friends had descended to him and had been able to secure him until the REGA crew arrived. I don't have any idea of the cause of the accident nor any information about his injuries etc. It took a very long time until he could be airlifted from that position and flow to Kantonsspital Chur - so it seems that it has been a very difficult rescue. I hope he'll be able to recover completely!

REGA crew preparing the long-line rescue in oder to have the doctor transported to the injured pilot

So I didn't make a second flight, even though conditions for launching looked pretty good; but I felt that I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the flight...

3.12. Today I read in the newspaper that unfortunately he didn't survive the massive injuries caused by sliding down that ravine - RIP!

MA -return flight

Friday (5.11.) This has been the first night here in Marocco where the temperatures have been really low. Not unusally low for the season, but the lowest on the whole trip.

My trip ended with a smooth ride, great views and punctual arrival in ZRH, where I have been picked up by Ruth.

RAK airport

EdelweissAir A320 at RAK

Tanger (GMTT)

Pyrenees

Swiss Alps: Dufour-Spitze, Matterhorn...

Marocco - Sightseeing (no PG)

 

After the rest of the pilots had departed for Zurich on Monday afternoon, Khalla brought me to a nice riad in the City-center.

Tuesday at 0900 I've been picked up for the first day of my 3-days sightseeing trip across Atlas, Anti-Atlas and to the edge of the dessert near Zagora and back to Marrakesh on Thursday afternoon. My paraglider has remained in RAK...

My flight to ZRH is scheduled to depart on Friday at 1215.

Pix can be found here.

MA - day 13, 14, 15: the Coast (Legzira/ Nid d'Aigle) and return to RAK

 

 

Saturday: we left Col du Kerdous after breakfast, stopping in Tiznit for coffee/ tea. Here I went to the barber to have my hair cut/ beard trimmed. Every time I'm here in Tiznit I go to the same barber shop: it's a pleasure to watch the barber at work - a real master. Price: unbeatable: 60 MAD (ca 6 CHF) for 'full service'.

This time in Aglou we didn't go to Aglou Nord (where we've been earlier on this trip) but to the hill just behind the village: here a new launch has been build and work is in progress to built a kind of resort an the hill.

After an extended sledder to the beach I was able to make a nice soaring flight later in the afternoon as the wind had picked up a little bit :-)

We the moved to Mirleft (Aftas Trip) for our last 2 nights.

 

Sunset at Aftas Trip

Sunday: with even less wind in the forecast we knew, that only sledders would be possible: first at Legzira (with fish for lunch); then another at Nid d'Aigle.

 

Legzira

Nid d'Aigle: Danny flying my Leeloo

...more fish...

Monday: returning from Mirleft - via Tiznit and Agadir - to Marrakesh. Here Danny, Ueli, Götz and Günther got off at the airport for their return flight to Zurich. After unloading Khalla dropped me off at Riad Dar Alemane in the city center, close to place Jemna el Fna.

MA -day 11, 12: Izouniden

Thursday: from Col du Kerdous we drove to a place Danny calls 'Magic Ridge'. I launched (too!) early and just found some weak thermals. Until I reached launch again, conditions had really turned on and Günther and Ueli had already launched, Once I was ready the wind had become too strong and cross :-((

Sunset on the way back to Col du Kerdous.

Frirday: We tried again to fly 'Magic Ridge'. Danny took us to different launches.

On the first launch, the wind came from the back a very long time, so we changed to a different launch. Unfortunately here conditions became too strong for all of us (!) very quickly.

Therefore we descended to yesterday's launch. But conditions in the air have been less nice than yesterday...

Sunset at Col du Kerdous

MA -day 10: Aglou

Sunrise at Imsker

After an early breakfast/ departure we reached Aglou with about 5hrs driving. Conditions looked very good, so all of us launched quickly...

Aglou is the perfect training place for reverse launches, toplanding and/ or touch and go...

As the conditions weakened towards the late afternoon we packed up and departed for our next stop: Col du Kerdous, where we plan to stay for 3 nights,

Dinner at Col du Kerdous (even with beer...)

NA -day 8, 9: (Mzouda) / Amizmiz

 Monday: at 0900 we left Agouergour for Mzouda.

Mzouda: pix taken in February 2015 -this time much drier, but no actual pix :-(

While waiting for conditions to turn on, the local 'honcho' appeared and told us that this flight area has been closed and that our permission was not valid. Even a visit to the 'chief honcho' wouldn't result in a permission to fly: apparently 1 or 2 years ago there has been an accident and since then the flight area is closed...

But Danny had already made a flight in nearby Amizmiz a few years ago, so we went there. With hindsight this proved to have been a much better choice! Even though I didn't fly - as the ascent from the road to launch seemed to far/ steep for me - the rest of the group all had excellent flights in the best condittions so far on this trip: high cloud base, strong thermals, very good visibility.

Amizmiz: launch is above the left corner of the (red) luggage netting

All landed just short of the City of Amizmiz and have been greeted by lots of children...

Dinner at a local restaurant in Amizmiz befor moving to our accommodation at Imsker. 

Tuesday: As conditions had been so good yesterday at Amizmiz, we decided to go there again. This time I joined them as well. Danny carried my pack (and his!), so I was able to reach launch - Many thanks Danny!!

Today cloud base was much lower, with higher humidity and less clear visibility, but everyone had a good launch and landed short of or just beyond Amizmiz.

Pano on launch; the hike starts form the road (left side of pix), but no real path...

the 'problem': getting through the 'pass' (against the wind)...

Danny getting ready (after having helped me launching)

Amizmiz

Dinner...

Tomorrow: originally we had planned to drive via Tiz n'Test (2nd highest pass in Marocco) and maybe make a flight there. But driving time from here to launch is more than 4.5hrs and the chances for a flight are rather slim, so it has been decided to take advantage of the good looking forecast/ conditions along the coast further South.. So we'll be driving via Agadir to Aglou Beach...

MA -day 6, 7: Aguergour

Saturday: after breakfast we moved from Iminifri via Marrakesh to Aguergour, having lunch shortly before reaching our destination.

coffee stop

butcher...

 

We had to wait quite a while for the wind to die down enough before we could launch...

 

Günther

LZ and accommodation

Danny

Sunday: typical Aguergour-day: weak (wind and thermals) in the morning, becoming nice and strong (wind and thermals) after 1300; later in the afternoon a high cloud cover reduced thermal activity. All of us made 2 or 3 flights...

Danny

Pano looking NE

Ueli

Ueli toplanding