November 4th, 2011 | 
Author: Andy and I had a ton of fun and even learned more about the race while doing the presentation.
After all, what really counts to have a great time with your loved once, friends, learn more and pass on the positive energy.
Thanks again for everyone to make this such a great event.
October 25th 2011 at 20:00 Uhr
xAlps 2011 Presentation with Andy Froetscher (Italy) and Max & Penny (Canada) in Munich
For the Paragliding Club “Bodenlosen” in Munich we will do a presentation about the 2011 race together
More details at
http://www.bodenlos.de/aktiv/2011_10_25_Xalps.php
Day 6:
Intro and briefing at www.BlueSky.at in Sillian in the morning. The German intro and weather forecast was very detailed and the guests were informed of details with a lot of graphs. The Canadian intro version was “Sunny and Hot” and watch out to not get blisters on your ass from flying too much.
With that, we headed to Monte Piano and set a task to fly from Monte Piano to the 3 Zinnen, via Cortina to Arabba and land right at the hotel Olympia. I think this is about a 40 km flight and right though the middle of the Dolomite’s. The conditions started weak and with a lot of east wind. 2 hours later, the thermals got stronger and blocked the wind. After launch, there were some nice, but not strong enough thermals to get over to the 3 Zinnen. Being patient, and on my second attempt to cross over, I reached the 3 Zinnen at half the summit height. To get higher, you needed to scratch close into the towers of the 3 Zinnen and I have to say it was very spectacular watching the rock climbers on the walls and slowly “thermalling” to pass them on the wall, and eventually reach the summits of the the “the 3 summits”. Once I was about 300 meters over the summit, I headed south and fueled up more height over various exposed summits before crossing over to Mount Christallo.
Mount Christallo worked very well and at 3300 meters I crossed over Cortina and scratched along the west side of Cortina but barely crossed a low ridge over to the foot of theTofane. I was very low and was close to landing at the gravel field below the massive 1100 meter rock face of the Tofane and literly at my landing approac
h my vario started to beep and I could do one figure eight along the gravel, gaining about 20 meters. From then on I kept scratching and slowly worked myself up this massive and never ending wall right to the summit. I have to say that this was my most rewarding flight I have ever done. Just amazing to soar so close in absolute gentle lift up to the summit along such a massive rock face. Once I got about 300 meters above the summit things got a bit rough with the east wind kicking in, but I continued my flight to Arabba and landed right at the hotel. After I landed, Frank called me on the radio to say he already had a couple beers ordered. He had the same experience as I had on the Tofane and agreed that this was the absolute highlight. The only part Frank missed was the 3 Zinnen as he was to eager to get the beer first. The rest of the group landed either at the regular landing site and 3 others landed in Cortina. Our 2 non-pilots had a great day hiking around the 3 Zinnen and Kari discovered the mountain named after her family name “Paterno”. Very cool as well.
Day 7:
Sunny and hot. So we headed to Col Rodella and after watching some crazy take offs on the east side we started flying later on the SW side of the mountain. The conditions were superb and I had an amazing flight over the Lang Kofel, the Sella, the Marmolada, again along the Sella to the east and back to Arabba to the hotel again. Everyone had great and safe flights and the non-pilots were hiking on top of the Col Rodello.
Day 8:
Sunny and hot again. The thermals were a bit weaker, but we flew the same route as the previous day. Our 2 non Pilots did a great hike from the top of Sass Pordoi.
Day 9:
Sunny and hot again. This time we decided to take the Gondola up to the Sass Pordoi to enjoy an amazing view of the Dolomite’s. After that we headed to Col Rodella again and once again we flew all over the place, including the Marmolada. Our 2 non-pilots headed for an overnight trip to Venice and had an amazing time.
Day 10:
Guess what…. yes, Suny and hot again. This time we parked on top of the Passo Pordoi and hiked for about 45 minutes to the Belvedere. Most people flew to the landing site and then up again to the Col Rodella for further flights. I launched later from Belvedere and did my usual round over the Marmolada and back to the hotel.
Day 11:
This was our last day. After checking out of the hotel, we drove back to Monte Piano to fly over the 3 Zinnen again. The conditions looked a bit weak, but we set the task to fly over the 3 Zinnen, over to Sexton and then to the www.BlueSky.at office in Sillian. The conditions turned from weak to amazing again and everyone flew over the 3 Zinnen. Most of the group landed in Sexten and Cyril, Wendelin and myself managed to get to Sillian.
What an amazing week in the Dolomite’s. Every day we were able to have incredible flights and flew all over the place! I even had a double bonus, as I was able to hike every morning to the Sella rock face, with Wendelin (best BlueSky guide), before we started the tour. It was a great morning flight along the rock-face and we landed right at the hotel. The pictures below will tell more than my words.
Day 12:
Back in Germany and the weather was sunny and hot. We visited the “Free Flight” at Tegelberg. The “Free Flight” was not as good as we hoped for and a lot of manufactures did not attend. We still had a great time getting a couple more flights in, and enjoyed the beer tent. One thing I was very impressed with at the show was the Atos with all the different motorized versions.
Day 13:
Some morning flights from Buchenberg and then on our way to the Oktoberfest in Munich. The Oktoberfest is so huge and the grounds are massive. It was wild how many people were there, but we only managed to see the first 50 meters of the grounds as we got sidetracked with the partying and dancing in the Paulaner Beer tent.
Day 14:
Sunny and hot and lots of traffic to the Munich airport.
Wow what a couple of weeks this was. Simply amazing and almost unreal for both pilots and non pilots. I think we will offer a package like that for next year again. Let us know who might be interested to join us next year.
Here is how it started:
Day 1:
I picked up Frank, Tracye, Mike, Dave, Chris and Karie at the airport in Munich. First we headed to Kempten to have coffee and Oma’s homemade Zwetschgen Datscahi with my Mom and Dad.
The weather was sunny and hot and we still had enough time to head to Tegelberg to fly over the Schloss Neuschwanstein. Everyone had a great flight and I did a tandem with Erik.
Tracye, Karie and Katia had a nice walk and found a hidden hut where we ended up for a beer after the flight.
Day 2:
Winds were light and forecast was sunny & hot again. This time we headed to Breitenberg. Conditions were light but a couple of us managed to get up below cloud base over Ruine Eisenberg and flew down the ridge towards Fuessen and back crossing the valley across Pfronten and back to the landing site.
On the way to the Schloss Neuschwanstein to drop off Chris, Karie, Tracey and Dave for their castle tour, we stopped at a BBQ chicken and haxen trailer. We had spare rips and “Schweins Haxen”. Man that was good and a lot of food. After we dropped them off at the castle, Frank, Mike and I headed to Tegelberg for another flight. Mike and I hiked up via the “Gelbe Wand” which was not a good idea with a very full stomach. The flight was great and rewarding and we all met down at the hut for beer again.
Penny was flying with us at Breitenberg, but had to head home to get the kids from school. Thanks for the train network here in Europe, Penny could walk from the landing site to the train station to get back to Kempten.
Day 3:
The forecast was sunny and hot with a low
cloud base in Germany, so we drove 25 minutes to Hahnenkamm by Reutte. The thermals started week, but we got some great flights right (up to 2.5 hours) right to cloud base and into the Tanheimmer tal and back. After some good bratwurst, beer and schnaps we headed to the Neunerkoepfle im Tanheimer tal. The gondala was already clsoed and we headed via the Oberjoch pass to Sonthofen for Coffee and beer. After this we picked up Penny from Kempten and drove to the Sudhaus for dinner. The Sudhaus is a micro brewery with a rustic restaurant for local food. The evening went from a dinner to a singing party with another group. Too bad I did not video the songs everyone was singing.
Day 4:
All of us, as well as the kids, started the day with a visit the Viehscheid in Heubach.
After the Viehscheid we drove to Neunerkoepfle for another great flight. There were a lot of pilots and almost too busy, but the conditions were great and I did a 1.5 hour tandem with Katia.
After the flying, I dropped off the group in Fuessen where they had a great italian Dinner an we headed back to Kempten.
Day 5:
There was a concert with 100 Alphorn’s on top of Breitenberg. After the concert I did a 1 hour tandem with Erik over Ruine Eisenberg and another tandem with Katia. The conditions were way better then we anticipated.
See the video Mike did of the Alphorns.
Later this afternoon we drove 3.5 hours to Sillian to get ready for the Dolomite tour.
Part 2 of the blog will be about the Dolomite’s
Posted in Alps, Dolomitten, Gleitschirm, Paragliding | 
Tags: dolomite's, dolomitten, flyingmax, Gleitschirm, Paragliding | 
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After the xAlps we spent some quality time with the family and bought a new Bion 37 (Tandem from Nova). The kids love it and I am very impressed with the handling and performance. After a couple flights with the kids (and Penny flying beside us) we headed down south to Tolmin, Slovenia for the “Serial Cup”. I normally do not fly competitions at all, but this was a great opportunity to combine a couple things at once, such as meeting Brigitta & Dushan, getting to go to Slovenia and meet other new people. The campground Gabrje (at Gabrje) is new and has it’s own landing site and is beside the river (Soca) and below Mrzli.vrh (1306 m high peak). The river is cold, but the kids and Penny didn’t seem to mind, and with such hot days, they were in it every day! Mrzli.vhr is a great mountain to start the day, and there is nothing better to start it with a 1100 meter hike ending at a huge grass field to enjoy the 1st flight of the day. I was lucky with the weather and time to be able to hike it 3 mornings. One morning, Dusan and Idris ( from the UK) joined me, which made this even a better experience.
This starts with: when to get up, when to get into the bus, where to fly and when to launch. And to top it off, you fly with a lot of very nice people showing you where it works or not.
talked to a lot of the other pilots racing very seriously
about the flights, such as the Adriatic cost line, and certain peaks and other landmarks, I realized that most did not see and experience the flight like I did. Most of them could tell me how beautiful it was before the race started and after that they only saw their instruments and the other pilots, and did not even look around to enjoy the beauty and scenery away and beyond. Well, I guess that is what a race is all about. I think if you have flown here (or anywhere) a couple times, it is easier to get into this “race” mode.
The hardest part during the race was being away from the kids. Since we arrived back in Germany, we have spent a lot of time at the local beach, found some time to relax, as well as enjoyed a couple of hike & fly trips. Next week we get a new tandem wing (Bion from Nova) and most of the flights will be with the kids again. They can’t wait as they haven’t flown for a while. To the race itself, it was an amazing experience. Yes, the weather was not good at all and we had a bad start. Right from the beginning we were behind a day, which was hard to catch up unles you managed a tricky and risky flight. Martin Muller, who was behind with us, pulled off an amazing flight, and he managed to get back in the lead group. In total we flew 414 km, hiked 714 km and hiked 55 km in altitude. Without taking a lot of risk, we managed to finish 14th. By the end, we still had healthy feet, our legs were in good shape, we were still feeling strong, and we had had lots of fun, made a lot of new friends, learned a lot of lessons and gained some incredible experiences. 
The most amazing part of the race is the mind over matter game. There are so many mental aspects you need to deal with, such as the bad start, competing with the last group in the race not to be eliminated, hiking for endless hours in rain and snow, hiking up high mountins and dealing with the 50/50 chance to fly and keeping a pace you can handle for at least 2 weeks. The weather was one part what made the race harder, and the route turned ot to be way harder then expected. The Dachstein turnpoint was way harder then anticipated. If it could have been flown, it still was hard due the restricted airspaces (this is where Ogi got disqualified and 5 others had 24 hour penalties). No one could fly around the turnpoint and everyone had to deal with crazy and difficult hikes. The big difference in routes was the option of taking the longer way in distance and an easier via ferrata (climbing routes) or the shorter distance with a very difficult and power drainging via ferrata (Simone Scharte). We (Matin from Argentinia and me) got up to the turnpoint late and decided to stay up on the glacier with the hope to get to fly off in the early morning. 5:00 am, the wind was only about 25-35 km/h, but the valley botton was coverd in fog and we had to wait. Once the valley fog lifted we had about 70-80 km/hr winds. So we ended up climbing down 
about 800 meters the via ferrata and ended up taking off below the gondola cables. This flight was unexpectedly incredibly smooth and it was fantastic to soar up the Dachstein rock faces and heading more west along other peaks. I had to cross a valley to the south and I got cought in the stronger Foehn (Chinook) winds and was forced to land half way up the ridge I wanted to cross. I packed up fast and hiked to the top and looked for a managable takeoff site to get airborne again. The takeoff was in very strong winds going up and down , forward and backwards between trees until I managed to get out to more open space. The flight ended up further than expeceted and I decided to hike up another 600 meters to get another 8 km covered in the air instead of walking. After this flight, we ended up walking and hiking in the rain and on the way to the top of the Gross Glockner pass I met up with Andy Froetscher (Italy). The weather got worse and we ended up in 15 cm new snow on the trails. After we crossed the “Hochtor” at our break we decided to call the race doctor as Penny’s knee started to look worse. The doctor sent her right away to the Lienz hospital to get it checked out. The doctor in Lienz diagnosed the knee as a sports injury (even though the x-rays showed nothing!) A couple days later, her whole leg was swollen, and she was forced to go to the hospital in Bruneck, where they treated her for a bad infection caused from a bug bite. Penny was put on 
antibiotics and later in the race the race doctor drained out the infected liquids from her knee. At this point, Penny was beside herself thinking that she might have to quit the race. She could not walk. We lucked out that I stayed at a hut that night, and Penny could keep her leg up down in the valley, and the next day once I had landed, the rain started and she didn’t have to walk with me on the road, so she got a little bit of a break. We had to make a decision about whether we could go on like this, as she couldn’t hike with all my additional gear and food up the mountains, which is her “main” job!! The antibiotics kicked in though, and although her knee was not “normal”, she was back to hiking and in better spirits. Today Penny is all back to normal and keeps her running a bit on the easy side. 
Anyhow, after the “Hochtor” Andy and I hiked towards Kals and stayed overnight on the Glorer Hut. Staying on the hut was the right choice, we got some great food and had a bed for a good rest. The next day we mananged to fly down to Kals in the early morning. The flight was great, but the landing in the Kals valley was rather challanging due the strong north winds. After talking to some weather guys we decided to hike up over 1000 meters for a flight into the Defreggen tal and then to Toblach (valley before the Dolomites). This decision was not easy as the winds at the landing site peaked at over 60 km/hours. Sure enough, once we were up, the winds were only around 15-25 km/hr. Andy and I got some good launches and thermaled right up to 2600 meters. Crossing the Matrai valley into the Defereggen valley was not a problem. The problem was the it started to overcast fast and shutting down the thermals. I decided to ridge soar into the valley as far as I could and started to hike to Maria Hilf to cross the next mountain ridge by foot. Andy was a bit more patient and could fly half way up the pass. After I hiked up the pass, the weather cleared and I was able to fly into the next valley finding some great thermals bringing me up to 2700 meters. I tried to fly accross the next ridge but had to land into the upper slopes and hiked up higher to get airborne again to fly to Toblach. From Toblach I hiked to the bottom to the Drei Zinnen, where we met Andy Froetscher again and stayed overnight. 
The next morning we hiked up to the Drei Zinnen turnpoint. Andy decided to fly off and sunk out near the Misurina lake. I decided to pack up and hike more into the wind and flew back the route we hiked up. I decided not to fly out to Toblach as I decided to walk towards Cortina and hike accross the Dolomites to Brixen. On the way to Fanes de Sennes I stayed on the “Sennes” hut for a great meal and a good nights rest. Penny had to go back down and drive around the mountain to where I hoped to land the next morning. The next morning ended up to be a race from the fog and low clouds. I managed to get airborne from a 2600m high alpine launchsite resulting into a dream like flight between clouds and fog part way up to the Würzjoch pass. Hiking past the pass was in pouring rain. Just before Brixen we managed to get a another short flight in down the valley from where we reached Feldthurns in a couple of hours. 
The next day we opted to hike up to the “Klausen” hut and hoped to fly down the other side. I ended up in a snow storm and on the other side they even had to shut down the gondolas due the strong winds. Once down, I had not choice to hike up the other side to Meran 2000, the weather got nice but we had at least 80 km/hr Foehn winds resulting and a hike down to Meran. Andy (Italy) Steve (GBR1) Richard (Braz), Oriol (ESP) and I all met up at Mutkopf (Meran) to fly into to the Stilfzer Joch. Amazing that after 8 days, we were all there together, and Martin (Argentina) was not far behind. We had a great flight around a lot of clouds and it seamed that my Mentor2 (DHV 1-2 wing) could perfrom very well with the 2-3 rated wings. I ended flying the furthest with Richard and Oriol. We packed up and rushed up to 3100 m to get airborne again to keep on flying to Piz Palue. The flight was awesome and we could thermal out a couple more times until the overcast shut us down. From there we hiked to the Pass da Val Viola where we stayed overnight. The next day we hiked south of the PizPalue into the turn point radius and flew down to Lago di Poschiavo. From there we kept on hiking to Sondrio. 
The weather forcast was very wet for the next day so we decided to split from
Richard and kept on walking until 11:00 pm. The next morning the forecast was still calling for rain and we started to walk fast and strong to Como Lake. During the morning the weather looked better then forcasted and everyone seamed to hike up for a flight. It turned out they could not pass me due the weather conditions and I managed to hike another 2000 meter up to Pass de Jorio. We were luckey enough to get to a take off site from where we could launch at 8:30 pm and fly towards Biasca. Too bad I could not take off any earlier as I had to spiral down over 800 meters to land 2 minutes before the 9:00 pm night time flying restriction. I kept on hiking until 11:00 pm and layed down beside the road in my paraglider for a nap. Penny still had to hike down the mountain and then drive around the mountain, around a lake, through a couple of valleys, only to to get me at 2:15 am to the spot I was sleeping. She got me up to sleep in the 
van, and then we were up again an hour later to get ready for a 4:00 am hike to Biasca and then 2000 meters up for another flight. Penny managed again to hike with me. Once I got to the top the wind was from behind (north/east) and it was not easy to take off into the wrong direction. If I would sink out, i would have to do a lot of hiking to get back on track. I was able to scratch my way north and on the end of the ridge to find a thermal from where I managed to cross the ridge and fly towards Airiolo. This all was very tiring and I could feel how I started to fall into some short naps during the flight. Gladly the flight was ending soon and I could rest a bit. While I walked towards Ariolo, I started to get hallucinations and realized that I was simply too tired to proceed. I tried to call Penny, but her phone was not working and I had to keep on going which was not a good experiance at all. Once I met up with Penny, we both had a nap for 40 minutes and things got better. That night, I was able to hike halof way up to Nufenen Pass. After 3.5 hours of solid sleep I hiked up to the top of Nufenen Pass and after a couple launching attempts (wind from behind) I managed to fly down to the Wallis. I had to land before the restricted airspace and hiked passed the controll zone and hiked up again over 1000 meters for a take off spot. We took it easy as I was pretty tired from the day before. This was just perfect in timing as the conditions turned on later that day from where I managed to fly almost down to Visp. I had to land short of Visp due very strong valley winds, but this flight saved me from a 35 km walk. 
In the mean time Andy Froetscher (Italy) was working hard to catch me. He seemed to always be about 10 km behind me for the last 3 days and tried several moves to catch up. At the last flight the valley winds got very strong and I managed to fly 5 km further then Andy to the next ridge where I could climb up high and was able
again to be ahead of him. It might have been the timing that I flew further, but I think part of it is the Mentor2. The glide is amazing, but more so I stayed in full speed bar even if it got rough and when the wing collapsed I just got off the bar for a short moment. Now most 2-3 wings would fly faster but in rough conditions most can not use the extra speed they have. During the whole race I was very pleased with my wing, which allowed me to take off and land in very challenging terrain. After the flight I headed up to the Matterhorn turn-point with Andy following behind me. Just before 11:00 pm I called Andy and told him that I would like to finish the race with him and share the 14th position unless the conditions were flyable, then we would fly for the 14th position. Andy was all for it, the next day was completely overcast, we called Christoph (race director) and told him our plans and met up at the Matterhorn turn-point. Penny was prepared like always and hiked up with some cold beer for the finish. What a way to finish – way better than running a couple km ahead just to claim one better spot. Sharing an accomplishment is more rewarding especially when you raced so many days together. 
After the finish we had a long shower at the campground and headed to Monaco for the party. It was great to meet with the others and to share the stories. Stories and experiences seem to be the most important part, more so than the ranking. This also got confirmed at the awards by Hannes Arch. This is also what we could hear from so many other people who followed the race for these 2 weeks. They got addicted to the online “Live Tracking”, photos and videos. Overall a great experience and entertainment for everyone. I would like to mention a couple thank you’s to the people and companies who made this all possible: Nova Wings and team for the tips and the Mentor2 Andreas Boehl and Flight design for the use of the CT to check out the route and the for giving me weather updates. Oma & Opa to watch the kids for the 2 weeks. Hannes Arch and Ulrich Grill for putting on the event, and to their whole team The Columbia Valley businesses and friends who donated services and products for the fundraiser (see details at https://flyingmax.com/xalps/sponsors-and-supporters/) And to all our friends and family who have given us so much support
Once we got the van set up, we drove to Innsbruck to get the Mentor2 light and from there to Fuschel am See to get ready for the race. Every team has to be there from July 13th on for meetings, orientations, press conference and some photo and tv shooting.
Enjoy the slideshow below
I wish I had some more time to update more of the last couple of days. We are very busy with the program, last minute preparations and the kids. We are missing the kids already. Thanks again for Opa and Oma to look after them while we are gone.
You can get daily updates in text, photo and video about and off us at http://www.redbullxalps.com/no_cache/athletes/athlete-diary/max-fanderl.html Thanks for all your cheers and support. Max, Penny, Katia and Erik
We are getting closer and closer to the race start. The last couple of weeks have passed very fast with all the action. First of all, I am very happy to have my family back. Penny, Katia
and Erik came last week and things have been even busier than before. (no surprise though) . To go back a couple weeks….After I completed the flights with the CT (www.flightDesign.com), I traveled to Innsbruck to get my wing for the race. The wing was a proto Factor2 which was has never been flown before. After my first flight, we decided to let Pipo (Nova Test Pilot) fly the wing as well to get his comments and feedback. It turned out the large Factor2 was by no means ready yet. They needed to do some changes within the canopy and as well as it needing to be trimmed. Time is running out, so Nova and I have decided that Nova build a Mentor2 in a light version. I am glad we did that instead of trying to finish the large Factor2, as it is already so late in getting the wing before the race start. Believe it or not, I still do not have it, but will pick up the wing on our way to Salzburg tomorrow. 
Just to clarify, the Factor2 in small and medium sizes are finished and certified, and the large is just about there as well. I flew with Steve Nash (Team UK) for one week and he is very happy with his small Factor2. For the past couple of weeks, Nova gave me a large Mentor2 demo wing, in order for me to get used to the wing. After Insnsbruck, I headed to Silian to meet up with my friends Stefan, Susanne and Wendelin at www.Bluesky.at. They are such super people and so friendly, and I only can recommend to stop by their store/school when you are going to the Dolomite’s. Wendelin has competed for several years in the Dolomite Man competition, and seeing him a couple of weeks ago, gave me a great opportunity to discuss with him route details. While staying at www.Bluesky.at, I met Richard Pethigal (Team Brazil) and we both hiked and checked out the route from the Tre Cime to Meran. The weather was not good at all and I headed back to Germany as it was time I put a couple of solid days of work in. 
Not long after, I met with Steve Nash (Team UK) in Innsbruck. I traveled there by train and we continued to Meran to check out the route from Meran to PizPalue. We did it by train so we could move forward without having to worry about the car. The weather was only semi good for 2 days and the rest of the week we had some rain and the north Foehn. The first day we hiked up in the Meran area and stayed in a hut. The day after, we flew for about 20 km in north wind conditions (not the best for this area). We ended up on the Stilfzer Joch (second highest paved pass in the Alps at 2770m) via train and bus. The next day we hiked up to 3000m to find a great launch site. We managed to get off around 11:00 am and flew west of Bormio. The winds got stronger and we were not able to fly the route we planned. After landing and on our way to Livigno a local pilot convinced us to go up again for another flight and it turned out to be very mellow this time, but still not bringing us there where we wanted to go. Later that day we headed to Livigno and the day after to the Piz Palue turn point. The “north” route was actually more challenging, as we thought it would be. It is the shortest way, but certainly not the easiest due the high mountain passes. 
From Piz Palue we headed to St. Moritz and explored the route from there to Bellinzona, which included a great hike in the rain over a high pass. The weather did not look very promising and we decided to take the train to Locarno and then further west to Santa Maria Maggiore to see how the route would look heading direct to the Monte Rosa area and then over the high glacier pass, which Maurer took 2 years ago. This is for sure the shortest way, but for sure a very difficult stretch to fly around the no-fly zone and with a narrow valley below. After that experience we headed back to Bellinzona and with no accommodation to be found, we ended up staying overnight beside the bike storage area of the youth hostel, which was also booked up. We stayed overnight x-alps style, sleeping in my wing. The day after we headed up to the Sankt Gotthard pass without any flights as the north foehn was just too much. The weather did not look too promising to keep on going, so we took the train to Kempten (Germany) and we managed to get a great hike and flight the next day at Tegelberg flying over the Neuschwanstein Castle before Steve had to head back to the UK. 
Since then I got a couple very good x-country flights with the Mentor2 before picking up Penny and the kids. The week with the kids and Penny has been fantastic, and thanks to Oma and Opa, Penny and I have had some good times hiking and flying in the Allgauer Alps. Now we picked up the rental car, got all the supplies organized and will be heading to Innsbruck to pick up my wing and then to Fuschel am See to camp with the kids and the grandparents. This will give us some time to explore the Salzburg to Dachstein area with hiking and flying. Everything is coming together very nicely and our spirits are high. We are looking forward to the last week of preparations. Max and Penny
Rain and thunderstorms everywhere. I guess we picked one of the worst weeks to check out the xAlps route from the air. I took advantage of the weather and connected with Lloyd Pennicuik’s (2009 Team Australia) friend Maria who stored all his maps at her place. Lloyd is lending us his hiking maps from the last race. Now I had some time checking out the maps and got confirmed what I could find out with Google Earth. Anyhow, the good old paper sure feels beats Google Earth on the trail, thanks Lloyed.
At Geneva the weather got better and we were able to fly into the mountains at Albertville. From there we explored the xAlps route along Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne and headed up the pass via Valloire. The top of the pass was clouded in and and we had to head back to Albertville and fly to the west and following the big range of mountains passing by Grenoble. This roue was very interesting and now flying there makes a lot of sense why Alex Hofer flew this route in 2007. If you have a NW flow and cloud-base below 2600m this is the way to go as you have a long ridge to fly along instead of crossing big valleys and climbing big clouded in passes. 
We flew right down to Barcelonnette and headed up the Colde la Bonette pass. From there we decided to fly back and land down in Barcelonnette
to get some fuel. The airport guy was super nice and told us to fly to Gap as the fuel is way cheaper there. So we did, fueled up and flew back to Colde la Bonette pass and followed the valley down to Isolo. We did the mistake and turned into the Isolo valley as we thought that would be the way to go. Pretty soon we found out we were one valley to early. Good thing to find this all out in a motorized aircraft instead a paraglider. Even from there down to Monaco was not as obvious as you would think. I am glad we flew an extra loop around Sospel and Monaco as this all does not look as clear you would think. 
From Monaco we explored the route back to Barcelonnette and stayed there over night. The next day was blue sky and we started flying around 8:30 am and headed north from Barcelonnette to Col de Vars and then to Guillestre. From there we checked out the valley up to Briancon and then up Col du Galibier. The pass at Col Du Galibier is where we had to turn around the day before. From there we explored the Col de la Madaleine pass. From there we checked out the area going to Mt. Blanc. Mt. Blanc had a wild wave cloud on top. 
Anyways, the weather was still go to check out the whole route around the Mont Blanc right to the Matterhorn. From the Matterhorn on it started to cloud in and we able to get to Furkapass and Neufenen Pass and the south was all covered in low cloud. I was happy to get in as much as we did and we headed back to Germany which was overcast but dry.Thinking back what we have done June 3/4th and considering the weather conditions, flying the CT was absolutely outstanding. The CT from www.flightDesign.com is an amazing airplane and really puts Ultralight flying into a different dimension. The speed, fuel economy, space (for 2 people) and handling is outstanding. 
Thanks again Matthias and Henry to lend us your great plane for this job. We do appreciate this sponsorship a lot and will be proud to have your logo on my paraglider. Also, I could not have done this without Andreas, as I like to mention, having the best tools does not really mean you are the best crafts man, thanks again to Andreas Boehl (www.flyingBoehl.de) who is not just an excellent pilot but also an amazing guy understanding the weather in the Alps.
