World Championships 2010 - Day 8

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We were close to a task today. In the morning, the weather looked nasty again. Cloudbase was almost on the ground. But in the team leaders’ briefing at 8:30, weatherman Volker said that there might be a chance for the sky to open up in the early afternoon. So there was a re-brief at 12:00. Until then, we had all just been hanging around and chatting, but when Heather said that we would go up the hill and set up, suddenly everybody was in a rush. Tegelberg was covered in, I’d say, 10 cm of snow. The pilots started setting up, and some of the helpers got the snow off the ramp and launch.

A task was set, not a long one, just up and down the ridge. Conditions did not look too bad. The sun came out. The wind was still blowing over the back or from the west (we need a northerly or an easterly to launch), but with the sun heating up the area, I was sure it would eventually turn and make launching possible. But then it turned out that a rain front was moving in fairly quick, so the day was cancelled again. It was not even possible to free fly because the rain front was moving so fast. So everyone de-rigged their gliders as fast as possible. Strong gusts came in soon, and Tegelberg was covered in a big cloud again. When we wanted to catch the cable car down, it turned out that they had to stop it because the wind was so strong. So we had a hot chocolate in the restaurant at the top, then the wind dropped, and we could catch the cable car and go down the hill.

Yesterday night, we had a movie night. DHV Chairman Charly showed hanggliding and paragliding videos. Two were from the Red Bull Speedrun in Kitzbühel, most spectacular videos. Have a look here: Red Bull Speedrun 2001. This is just crazy! Some of the pilots are here in the comp, for example Manfred Ruhmer and Christian Ciech. Manfred flies a swift, Christian a rigid wing in this comp. Charly also showed us a video of hanggliding and paragliding instruction in the old days. That was SO funny. I almost died laughing. One more good thing was that I finally managed to go to bed not too late. Definitely needed some sleep.

There is no evening program tonight. I will meet Tigran for dinner, we will eat at Giovanni’s restaurant, a place I really love. And then, of course, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for better conditions tomorrow.

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Photos

View from the ramp today
At that time, it did not look too bad. The task would have been up and down the ridge.

Set up today
... in the snow

Alex
... current World Champion (flex AND rigid wing)

Ecki & Patrik
German team physician and comp physician

Regina
... from the German team

Primoz
... flies for Slovenia

Katha & Mart
Mart is one of our Air Marshals.

Rebi & Ashanta
Ashanta is a young pilot from Switzerland. She drives for the Swiss team, but I'm sure she will be on the team one day herself.

Carol & Katha
Olli's wife Carol from Australia is helping, too.

Briefing
A task was set, but then the day was cancelled due to an incoming rain front.

Waiting for the cable car
It was really that white in front of the windows!

Cable car in the fog
At least the wind had dropped so that we could go down the hill in the cable car. But we were in a big cloud.

Toni & Katha
Rebi wanted to take some pictures with the "Rapunzel" poster in the background, so Toni and I did a photoshooting with her.