Three hours

Three hours until everything changes.

It took two years to get to this point.

When the start gun goes, the relaxed mood of attention and preparation will be replaced with focused race mode. We're in good shape. Jon is in the best physical and flying form of his life. The atmosphere in the support van is good. Richard and I are working well together.

The weather forecast is OK for the Gaisberg area: some E'ly wind and cloudbase around 2000m, but the airmass is quite humid, and there's a chance of thunderstorms during the afternoon, especially in the high mountains and Dachstein area. With a mixed forecast, airspace to negotiate, several tens of kilometers to cover on foot, and a 3000m mountain to climb all in the first 24 hours of the race, it is sure that this year's X-Alps will be technical and challenging right from the start.

Game on.

Last kit...

Saturday before the race at 4pm - last bit of kit has just arrived (in the nick of time!) - a carbon footplate for my super lightweight pod harness from Ozone (the 'Ozium' harness).  Another 200grams saved!

Now everything is set - just the start tomorrow and then the fun begins...

Final preparations in Fuschl am See

The full team is now assembled at Race HQ in Fuschl am See, a few kilometers from Salzburg. In these few final days before the race we're making the final adjustments to the race equipment, being briefed by Red Bull on all aspects of the race, and preparing the media aspects. Here's a quick summary of what we've been doing.

The race vehicle in Fuschl

Harness tweaks

Race equipment:
- made final adjustments to harness and speed bar
- replaced risers (the originals stretched too quickly)
- tested Flymaster Live (vario, GPS, and live tracking) and Peips Globalfinder (satellite-based live tracker, emergency beacon and backup live tracking)
- checked all mountaineering equipment (we're going to need it!)

Some of the race electronics

Support and communications:
- made checklists for key operations (morning, pit-stop, evening, and night pass)
- packed and organised support vehicle
- tested and mounted Go Pro HD Hero 3 Black cameras
- configured laptops download tracklogs, display maps, and edit video
- set up phones for internet connections

Communication briefing

Briefings:
- route
- safety
- medical
- technical
- communication

Equipment test flight from the Gaisberg

So far - touch wood - everything is going smoothly, and we're well prepared for the race start on Sunday.

Having a plan...

Today went according to plan.

We turned up at the race office first thing and sneaked through the registration and equipment collection before anyone else made it there.  We then got through the technical checks on the glider and the rest of the equipment with ease (everything being in order).

The gear provided this time is excellent - great clothing from Reebok, a black edition GoPro as well as an Ambit watch from Suunto.  We also get some equipment just for the race - a Flymaster Live (for the live tracking) and Pieps Globalfinder device amongst other stuff.

We'd only just had time to look through all of this before we dashed up the Gaisberg to go for a fly.  My plan was to fly down to the Dachstein and back.  About half of the X-Alps field were there on take off and, spread over about an hour we all left heading south east.  Conditions were good, but even so the transition across the Abtenau valley to the Dachstein required some focus.  Once established on the Dachstein the conditions were excellent, with strong climbs and amazing views.  I didn't hang around though, the sky looked like it was going to overdevelop so I sped back to Fuschl as fast as my little LM5 would carry me.  Despite the headwind I made excellent time and was landing back in Fuschl after only 3hrs 30mins in the air - not bad for just under 100km!  The picture below is approaching the Dachstein turnpoint at 3000m!

Our route to Fuschl

After several days of stowing stuff in our Duracell provided campervan, finally on Saturday we were ready for the off.  With a better forecast in the western alps than in Austria we headed for Fiesch. 

Sunday morning, however, dawned damp with low cloud, well below Fiesch take off. So instead we headed up and over the Furka pass.  Up in the high mountains cloud base was higher and with almost nil wind on the pass I took off on the east side.  Although it was early conditions were surprisingly good and a short but very technical flight got me to just a couple of kilometres short of the top of the Oberalp pass. A quick lunch and I tried the same trick heading towards Chur but with a low base and strong valley wind I was soon defeated, so we gave up and headed for the Dachstein in Austria.

 

Our plan was to check out the paths up the south side of the Dachstein on Monday morning, fearing that the via Ferrata's could still be blocked by snow.  In fact, it was worse than we expected, even the access to the via ferrata's was deep in snow and avalanches and rock falls were regularly tumbling down the slopes as the sun warmed the snow.  Walkers coming through the col at Tor told of thigh deep snow even there.  This will be an interesting discussion in the route and safety briefing as I cannot see all this snow going in a few days time!

Thwarted in our efforts to ascend the Dachstein on foot, but having achieved what we came to do, I launched below the Sudwandhutte.  From there I climbed straight out in a powerful 3m/s climb.  The day was good with cloud base at 2500m (later it went up to 3000m) so I decided to head west along the route.  The only problem was a strong headwind (10-15km/h at base), but I made it to Mittersill, just short of the Wildkogel turnpoint before turning and flying most of the way back with the wind pushing me along!


Now we are in the race HQ at Fuschl, ready to start some of the admin work tomorrow morning when the race office opens.

Bouncing up and down in excitement

The start of the X-Alps gets ever closer.

With less than two weeks to go to the start, my training plan starts to ease off dramatically in something that athletes know as 'the glorious taper'.  As I start to train less I started to think about all the people who have helped me with the physical side of my preparation.

Firstly, I have Fred Gazeau to thank once again for putting together a great training plan for me and to Laurent at New Concept Sports for sponsoring me again and providing plenty of advice.  In addition Nicolas Dominik, my physio has kept my body working properly even when I've tried my very hardest to damage it!

However, I wanted to mention someone else who has given up plenty of his time and facilities, not to mention his huge expertise, on working on my strength and co-ordination.  Fellow local pilot Pierre-Eric Thierry has spent one evening a week over many weeks building my core strength and co-ordination through circuit training and trampolining. Jumping up and down on a trampoline might not sound like the most logical activity for X-Alps training, but actually it complements the rest of my training and hopefully my improved core strength will help avoid injuries during the race.

So I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped me to get to this point and particularly to Pierre-Eric for the gruelling Wednesday night sessions!

Low cloud, wind and showers

Sounds like an X-Alps flying forecast!  So I went out flying again under the new wing, what else can you do when you have a new toy that is itching to be flown??

Needless to say conditions were not to most peoples taste, in fact virtually no one else was out on the Saleve, our local hill near Geneva. After walking up the north end I took off at the telecabine and then flew south, but big black ominous clouds just above the top made me cautious and I stayed well out from the hill working the clouds rather than the ridge.  Still, I managed to get about a kilometre past the tower at the very south end before coming back north under a rather big ugly black cloud.  I could see sun the other side so I pushed the speed bar and made it through.  It still managed to rain on me a little though!  With the cloud suck now contributing to the wind which was off to the north, I could not make headway against the wind back to Veyrier so landed at Coin before hiking up and walking across to the 'table d'orientation' launch.  Once again I had the take off to myself, so took off and, just for completeness, flew north this time right up to the very north tip of the 'petit saleve'.

What a lovely and surprising evening of flying.  The air time is quickly adding up under my new wing and I am feeling more confident on it now, even at full speed! 

Sorry no pictures today - forgot to take the Go Pro! 

First Impressions

Thanks to Tom for posting the photos from yesterday's flying.  I know many people are eager to know that the LM5 is like in the air so let me give you my first impressions from flying it yesterday.  Firstly some context - it was a windy unstable day with a low cloudbase, creating conditions Tom described as 'sporty'.  The conditions were demanding, not necessarily a first choice to try out a new wing but in fact this meant that in the 6hours and 30mins I flew the wing for, it had a pretty thorough test!

Let's first talk about the feel in the air.  Compared to my LM4 the brake pressure is much higher and the brake travel relatively shorter.  This means the handling is more direct and more precise, which is great but took me a bit of getting used to at first.  It turns beautifully, no tendency to turn out of the climb and easy to bank over tightly when needed.  In really knarly thermals (and we had a few yesterday) it was possible to be very aggressive when handling the wing - it always felt like it wanted to fly and never hung back like the LM4 could if you tried turning too sharply. 

The speed is very good, so much so that I was nervous about using the whole speed range.  On half bar it felt comfortable, despite the impressive speed, and I was happy to cruise at this speed but full bar felt extremely fast and unstable - this is probably just feeling, so I need more practise at this speed.  One thing I did notice was that there is a lot of pressure in the C risers so controlling and steering on the C's when on speed was difficult (especially with the skinny risers!).

Overall performance is of course difficult to judge.  The friends I normally fly with all fly R11/12's Icepeak 6's or Enzo's and frankly on my LM4 I simply couldn't keep up.  Yesterday when flying the LM5 next to Tom on his R12 I felt remarkably close in performance - at one point pushing into a strong headwind both on about 50% bar there was not that much difference in speed.  Glide we couldn't judge as we were on different lines.  Clearly the R12 is a higher performance wing - but I felt like I could 'stay in the game' which hasn't been the case earlier in the spring on my LM4. Net, I would say a huge jump in performance!

So, I still have a lot to learn but given the day was not great it is testament to the wing that I could just get on it and fly places.  The first flight was a morning flight from Plan Fait.  After the photo shoot (see previous post) I climbed up to the cloudbase at 1600m, followed the clouds to Veyrier and did a little local triangle when only 2 other wings had even scraped up to the teeth! Landing at Tailloires, more photos and lunch, and then we headed back up.  This time I set out on a 'Tour du Grand Lac' with Tom (tracklog is here).  The crossing from Veyrier to Semnoz was challenging with the low base and very strong SW wind on the north end of Semnoz.  It took forever to establish here and work south along this windy ridge.  I was having to us the bar to push low over windy ridges in turbulence (focuses the mind)!  But the glider was solid.  Once established on Semnoz, I continued to Croix de Nivelles, before dropping back into the Bauges and flying back past Annecy once again going north past Parmelan and back into the headwind to home.  Not a bad little loop to take my new toy for a spin and testing enough with such a low cloudbase (mostly around 1700m).

So awesome wing.  Thanks Ozone.

The wing in flight: photos

We had a fantastic day in Annecy today playing with our new toys. Jon's wing - a most awesome Ozone Mantra LM5 - arrived earlier this week and today Jon flew it for the first time. Jon will write up his flight and impressions of the wing in another post, but it's safe to say he rather likes it.

Here are a few photos from the day.

Sticking Sticky Stickers

After more than 2 days of stress caused by DHL losing my glider, I finally received it yesterday.  We immediately set to work putting the logos onto the wing.  With the help of Tom Payne, Quentin King and my long suffering wife we thought we'd get most of it done in an evening.  We were wrong - we are probably only half way there - what a lot of logos!!!

Testing, testing, testing...

And so finally, all my X-Alps gear is starting to arrive.  Our sponsors have done us proud with some great bits of kits, so here is a quick round up of what's here, and what's not quite here yet...

First up, I have a new helmet, enforced by the new rules which stipulate we all have to have an EN certified helmet.  Fortunately Plusmax have done us proud and provided a special X-Alps limited edition version.  I was expecting them to send me one helmet, but when I opened the huge box they sent I was surprised to see two helmets - one for Tom, my flying supporter, too!

Next the reserve.  Skyman have given me a great deal on their lightweight ultra-cross reserve, weighing in at less than a kilo, but still rated up to 100kg (more than ample for my 85kg all-up weight).  They even sent me a lightweight bridle to connect to the harness (with 12gr dyneema connects of course - no metalwork on this set up!).

This brings me neatly to the harness.  Ozone have created a superb lightweight model which is a real joy to fly. It is comfortable in the air and very sensitive to weight shift, making it really lovely to carve big wingovers and play around in the air in front of the Saleve.

Finally, my wing is in Geneva.  This is the much anticipated LM5. I know it is in Geneva from the DHL tracking website, however it is still clearing customs.  All going well I will have it tomorrow.  As soon as I get a chance to fly it I will post my thoughts here. 

Power Me!

It is with get pleasure and excitement... (intake of breath)... that I announce... (drum roll)... team GB's main sponsor in this year's X-Alps race.  Duracell will be powering our team, in some cases literally, in this year's X-Alps.

As you know, Duracell are renowned as a leading manufacturer of exceptionally high quality and long life batteries.  From flying instruments to head torches and phones to radios we'll have a plethora of gadgets that will need constant power and Duracell will obviously be taking care of all that.  Most significantly for us Duracell are also backing us by providing our team vehicle for this years race.  It will be somewhat bigger than in 2011, and it will be the HQ for Tom and Dad in the race.

However, rumours that Tom will have to wear a pink bunny outfit for the entire duration of the race are entirely unfounded!

I'm very happy Duracell are supporting us in this way and I'm very grateful to the team there for their belief in us - I'm sure we are going to have a lot of fun together!

Catching up with Chrigel

With a strong Foehn wind already blowing in Meiringen, we headed to Interlaken yesterday to see the Amisbuhl take off and the next turn point in the 2013 X-Alps route.  The Foehn had not got this far as we arrived and people were enjoying early morning flights.  We found the take off and admired the impressive Foehn cloud on the Eiger opposite, before deciding flying would not be very smart, as sooner or later the Foehn would blow through here too.

Looking out over Interlaken

The afternoon was spent instead exploring the valleys to the south and looking at the options for crossing into the Valais from here.  This will be one of the cruxes of the route, anyone that manages to fly this part will gain significant time on those that have to hike over one of the high mountain passes.  The problem is that a day good enough to fly this part in the big mountains will almost certainly bring stable air to Interlaken, making the Amisbuhl take off a rather frustrating turnpoint from the pilots point of view, especially as we have to land there, potentially terminating what could otherwise be a good flight.  On the other hand it may just rain!

In the evening we met up with Chrigel, this being his home town.  Chrigel added to the local knowledge we'd downloaded off Phil in the morning to help our understanding of the area massively.

As for the weather, the Foehn is no longer blowing, instead we have rain and snow down to what looks like about 1000m! 

Chur to Meiringen

A shortcut through snowy mountains?

We woke to heavy rain in Chur in eastern Switzerland, with a forecast of sunshine and strong winds later. After the obligitory jokes about there being "some flying opportunities" today we explored the route along the Upper Rhine Valley to the Oberalppass and Andermatt. Both the Furka and the Grimsel passes are still closed (there's been a huge amount of snow this winter), so we drove north through the heart of Switzerland to arrive in Meiringen. Some sun was starting to peek through the low clouds, but the wind was still strong.

Here we dropped in to visit Birdwing Paragliding, meeting Hans Nagel and Roger Christian (Roger is supporting Max Mittleman as part of Team GER3). Hans happily informed us that conditions looked good for a quick flight and so we rushed up to a local take off where Phil was just about to launch.

The conditions in the air were a bit sporty, with a low cloudbase and the Bise wind crashing through the Brünig Pass just to our right. Still, the mix of sun, cloud, and mountain made for some spectacular views and a chance to check out this part of the route from the air.

This morning we caught up with the exceptionally friendly and knowledgeable Phillippe Arn of Ozone Switzerland who kindly shared his huge XC knowledge of the area over a coffee. Right now, we're heading to turnpoint six, the Amisbühl take off above Interlaken.

Phil sharing his detailled knowledge

Rain and more snow

Turnpoint 5

We drove south today following the route down the Inn valley towards turnpoint 5 at Sulden.  After crossing the Reschenpass we were soon back in familiar territory, at least for Dad and I, as we came this way from Merano in the 2011 X-Alps.  That time we were headed over the Stelvio pass, but today we turned left at Gomagoi (home of the great cheese and ham shop for those of you who have read my book from the 2011 race!) and headed to the ski resort of Sulden.  Rather forlorn out of season, this is however home of turnpoint 5 in this year's race.  We located the turnpoint itself, but there was nothing remarkable there, only a canary yellow chalet looking onto a field.
Continuing on towards Davos, the passes got higher and the weather became worse with each successive pass bringing more snowy conditions. Flying was certainly out of the question and all we could do was drive the route in order to see the terrain and plan potential options in the race.

As we could not find the usual sign for the pass we made our own in the snow!

Zugspitze

Sunshine. Lenticular clouds. An approaching front. Strong wind. Not a flying day. Instead, new country and a tourist day on the Zugspitze, turnpoint four. The Zugspitze at 2962m is the highest peak in Germany, and a rather spikey peak at that. In the race Jon will effectively have to climb the summit, but today we took one of the three cablecars up to the top to scope out potential approaches, launches, and flying routes.

Richard and Jon at the 'top of Germany' on the summit of the Zugspitze

Looking across to the Zugspitze summit from the glacier looking at routes and launch sites

Elbows and bottoms

Austria is mostly wonderfully organized, but it does miss one key item of outdoor equipment: decent maps. You can, if you are lucky, find a map of the local area (albeit usually not in most sports shops). If you manage to lay your hands on one, everything looks very clear and confidence inspiring. Until, that is, you actually try to use one to navigate. At this point you will find that the map bears only the most superficial resemblence to actual reality. Yes, there is a path here and a few roads there, but those switchbacks on the map merely mean that "the path winds around a bit here" and the topology of the road network is frequently a complete fabrication.

Today we checked out the route from the Gerlos Pass (near turnpoint three) towards the Zugspitze (turnpoint four). Jon, Richard and I hiked up from Gerlos to the open - but deserted - ski slopes above. Above us was blue sky and fluffy cumulus clouds, but also a moderate SW'ly wind. We launched into light leeside conditions and climbed out over the pass to 3000m. The views were stunning: deep green valleys, blue sky, and the perfect white of fresh snow on the alpine summits. Working our way north, we flew up the Zillertal valley (home of Kelly Farina's Austria Arena) and towards the Innsbruck airspace to land at the corner by Jenbach. A short and exceptionally scenic flight, but we also learned valuable lessons about this critical section.

 

From Jenbach we explored further along the route around the Innsbruck airspace, up until the eastern slopes of the Zugspitze.

Light snowfall at turnpoint three

We're now in the Pinzgau Valley in Austia, the paragliding superhighway from the Dachstein Glacier (turnpoint two) to the Gerlos Pass on the way to the Zugspitze (turnpoint four). It's perfect X-Alps territory: from the open and perfectly manicured valley floor at 800m, well-marked trails through dense forest take you to the grassy open summits at 2000m. The launch and landing possibilities are limitless.

Jon and I hiked from Bramberg am Wildkogel to the Wildkogelhaus at 2005m: turnpoint three. The Wildkogelhaus is a huge hotel/refuge prominently perched overlooking the entire valley. In the winter it is bustling with skiers, and the summer packed full of tourists who've caught the cable car from the valley floor. At least I imagine it is. On a cold Monday in early May the place is shut up and deserted. Thick cloud cover, snowfall above 1800m, and fresh snow on the ground from last night's weather front meant that we were alone on the mountain.

We launched two steps in front of the refuge into messy air, more wind and turbulence than anything else. It was still snowing, and the north west wind was occasionally breaking through, making the fly down interesting at times.  As we circled over our chosen landing spot, Richard arrived with the van and greeted us with hot cups of English tea and luxury chocolate chip biscuits.

And... BOOM!

Full stall! Recover immediately to stabilised tail slide position. Raise hands smoothly to reconstruct the glider's span and release to regain forward flight. Then, immediately, another BOOM! Full stall again.  Tail slide. Reconstruct. Regain forward flight. "BOOM!" Fabien shouted into the radio again and Jon deliberately full stalled his glider for the third time in less than a minute.

Full stall!

This weekend was over-the-water training in Annecy in the French Alps with Fabien Blanco of Flyeo. The objective was to build a solid understanding of the glider's behaviour - and how to recover from even extreme situations - with the guidance of one of the World's best advanced instructors. Over the lake, with a speedboat ready and waiting to fish us out of the water if needed, we were free to focus on exploring the capabilities of our gliders.

Jon and Tom with Fabien Blanco of flyeo.com

The full stall is a paraglider's "reset button": you bury both brakes, causing the wing to slow down so much that the airflow detaches. With insufficient air pressure to remain inflated, the wing crumples up and falls behind you. The sensation is like falling backwards off a chair. Now, plummeting earthwards at 8m/s, with your glider a messy ball of line and cloth above you, you have to coax it back into a flying configuration before you run out of altitude.

In the seven flights over two days, we worked through personalised programmes which for us included accelerated collapses, dynamic full stalls, and asymmetric spirals. The training was fantastically effective - and great fun - and by the end of the weekend both Jon and I were completely happy to bury the brakes, reset the glider, and rebuild it back into flying mode again all in a few seconds.

The full team GBR is now on its way to Austria - I'm writing this sitting in the back of a camper van on a Swiss autoroute. Tomorrow's destination is Zell am See, and from there we'll spend the next seven days working along the course line and checking out the route. This trip will take us through Austria, southern Germany, Switzerland, northern Italy, and back into Switzerland.

Leaving home

More snow

I was out training up on the Voiron today, and there was fresh snow from about 1000m, with a lot of snow at the summit (almost 1500m).  Incredible, it is, after all, nearly May for goodness sake!

The day was grey but dry, however the fresh snow on the trees was melting fast meaning that it was effectively raining under the tree cover so I got soaked even though it wasn't raining!  Still, there was a pleasant surprise in store - as I ascended the last 50m to the Signal de Voiron (the summit) I came through the layer of cloud engulfing the Bassin Lemanique to see the Jura across from me and a perfect sea of cloud below. A view worth every bit of the 4 hours of walking and running through the mud and snow!