Scuol

Taking advantage of the only good day this week...

Well: supposedly good day, because the thermal forcast for today had been much better than the actual conditions. But I've not been the only one who had been 'mislead' by the fcst: a group of Austrian pilots from Tirol had planned to fly from Scuol to Landeck (their home); but - like me - they also had become customers of public transport for their trip back...

Gymnadenia rhellicani (common name: dark vanilla orchid or black vanilla orchid

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In German: 'Männertreu', a kind of orchid

But at least I've met some friends who - in winter - often paraglide in Arosa: Marlies and Peter :-))

 

pix by Marlies - thanks!

Calanda

 

Sorry, works only in (Swiss) German...

Fiesch

Finally some nice wx in the fcst ;-)

Sunday evening after dinner I departed for Fiesch picking up Andy along the way.

Monday: great weather, but a) the gondola Fiesch-Fiescheralp suffered a technical problem and was not running for several hours; b) the NE-wind (Bise) was strong than I had anticipated so in the end we didn't fly. Instead some sightseeing: hanging bridge (at Fürgangen) and Binntal.

For dinner I tried the local speciality 'Cholera' (-funny name, but nothing to do with the illness.)

Tuesday: Much better (wind) conditions!

Schwarzes Männertreu (Nigritella rhellicani aggr.)

Great flying conditions with cloudbase >= 3700m :-) I headed East until Sidelhorn (near Grimselpass) where I turned around. Back to Fiesch-Kühboden (launch) and landing in Niederwald close to where I had parked my car. I cant't remember ever having flown so fast here: average 24.5 kmh for the 44.5km.

Fiescherglacier / Finsteraarhorn

Pano looking North: Finsteraarhorn (left)

Pano looking East towards Grimselpass

 

Wednesday: conditions looked similarily well. I had a good launch and reached cloudbase unusally quickly. But after the crossing to Bellwald: where ever I went looking for thermals: (almost) nothing! After 45' I landed (again) in Niederwald...

Pano looking East towards Bellwald

Niederwald

Rain :-(

 I'm not saying it's raining hard, but Noah just stepped by and announced:

'DEPARTURE in 30 minutes!'