To say that I didn't have an A4 holiday this summer would be quite an understatement. While I assume most associate their summer vacation with relaxation at the beach, I did pretty much the polar opposite.
Joining up with a friend in Germany, we picked up a small 2-seater airplane and went flying down to the Swiss Alps. Then, we did some rather easy hikes first close to Lake Geneve, then in the Alpine valley near Turtmannsee, where we walked up and then jumped down paragliding. Then, to literally top that all off, we climbed a 4k mountain for which we had to cross more than one glacier and climb a whooping 2500 meters in altitude.
I'll have to do a separate post to fully cover the climb, as there was just so much worth sharing about it. But in this post, I'll take you through each day, in what must be the most action-packed trip I ever did.
Me and my friend in front of the tiny airplane we would fly down to the Alps
Flying
The trip started off with me arriving in Baden Baden, Germany where my friend is now living whilst working on his Space Start-up. Wasting no time, our journey started at Baden Airpark where we picked up a cute little 2-seater aircraft. It was a new experience for me to go through the whole checklist of inspections needing to be made to ensure that everything was as it should be with the aircraft.
While it could be tempting to assume that everything would be ok when renting it from an aeroclub, you are still responsible for carrying out a complete readiness check of every single piece of the aircraft before going up in the air. 7 pages of items to check later, we were finally ready for take-off!
The spectacle of being in the air is a lot cooler from the front seat. When flying an ordinary commercial flight, it feels as if it's just the world that's "out there" beside you. And while that can offer nice views at times, it doesn't give you the sensation that it is you who are flying. That all changes when you're sitting in a front seat😎.
Two pictures that I took while in the air and above the clouds
Having some clouds to go above at times while heading down south also added to the experience. Without them, you lose the sense of how high you really are, since the landscape below you is small regardless of your altitude. But being allowed to go above the clouds, and having that white carpet below you, makes you feel like you’re in a different world while also adding a sense of altitude.
Paragliding
As soon as we arrived in the Alpine region, we began looking for ideal places for paragliding. The first place that we found was near Lake Geneve at Montreux. Not only were the surroundings absolutely gorgeous, but there was a hillside nearby that was ideal for take-off and a big grass field down in the city that was already being used by a paragliding Club for landing.
Seeing other people paraglide already helps confirm the most important questions when deciding on a spot, or whether to go flying at all: Are the conditions right? Contrary to what one might intuitively believe, flying a paraglider is easy, and hardly any accidents occur from poor steering. The biggest and most difficult question is always whether the conditions are right. Is the wind facing directly against the hillside from which you're taking off? Are the thermals good to provide uplift on the shoot? Are there small peaks on the way down on which the wind will make different turns, and thus potentially cause problems should you come near?
All of these are questions that must be answered correctly and certainly for it to be responsible to fly. So, when we saw plenty of people already in the air paragliding when we arrived, we knew it was the perfect spot and the right time.
As if paragliding for the first time was not exciting enough, it added to the sense of action that we were carrying all the gear with us from our car ourselves and had to take responsibility again for laying it all out properly on the ground at the spot we were going to jump from to ensure that all lines were properly in place without any knots, and all safety gear properly attached.
Thankfully, my friend has done this a hundred times, so I knew I was in good hands!
Interestingly, the only part which kept me anxious was doing the run downhill to take off. Most accidents happen at take-off, so it was crucial that we got off the ground properly and were prepared that wind could always cause us to suddenly dip down again. To solve this, you must keep sprinting as fast as you can and not stop even after you’ve taken off. Doing so means that should you dip down again, you will automatically kick off against the ground and fly off again, rather than stumbling off the mountain.
But as soon as we were properly in the air, it was all just good fun and spectacle. The views were just amazing! I’m not sure we could have picked a better spot, as you had all the nice little details you could wish for: A gorgeous lake, tall mountains, and a traditional alpine village with traditional architecture. A stunning environment to be in! With such an amazing spot, we had to do a couple of jumps before continuing our journey further south to a mountain valley in Switzerland where we would do our climb from.
Seeing as the weather continued to surpass our expectations, we also went for a morning flight in the Swiss valley to start our day off:
Something tells me I'll be back here again with more time dedicated to flying...
Climbing
As fun as the flying and the paragliding were, this was the main attraction for me. For years I've been doing long and tedious hikes in Norway, reaching several peaks and covering distances at a pace that holds respect in any hiking community. However, I've never climbed mountains higher than 3000 meters before, which offers a set of new challenges and experiences.
As I said, I will have to come back to this adventure in more detail in another post, as there's just way too much to cover in what's meant to be a summary post of all my days during this trip.
So I'll leave you with a bit of a teaser from a gorgeous lake we came across on our way with the glacier and the summit we would eventually climb later on.
You'll just have to come back for more later ;).
What about you? Did you go on any new adventures this summer?