Hike and fly in Åre

Today the alpenglow was shining bright on Åreskutan. It looked so beautifull that i just had to go for some hike and fly.

Winds were on the light side, atleast for Little Cloud, and the lentis in the sky was old and weak

Jonna and Sepe joined me for the walk to Olympiaplateau.

Sun was enjoyed and there was zero wind while walking up. The weather was to change by the looks of it, so i got the glider out right away and took off as soon as i could. A short but sweet flight and a nice landing down at skysport.

I felt great after the hike and fly so me and Jonna went for a afterflight at Lok å Latte. A suiting finish for a nice day. Life is good.

Photos by Jonna

Life in Sweden in november as how i see it…

Hehe, lack of ideas on short titles ended in the above sentence…

I got one very short flight a couple of days ago. In crap weather. But still alot of fun. Me and Pål Rognöy went to Hummeln to check the road. I thought we could atleast get some pictures with our kits on our backs. We ended up flying, shortly. Pål on his Seven18 and me on my Little cloud 18.

Again minigliders and acrogliders rule!!!  

I made a mess…;-)  

Pål smiled and took some pictures.

But hey, winter is here, almost. 

Sepe, the german shepard that is on vacation with us, likes the snow.

But it rained all day yesterday so now the snow is more or less gone…

I have a pair of Scarpa Denali XT in size US 11(45:or) for sale. 1500 skr. Good conditions.

Our new shack… the cuckunest

Jon(in green hat)on the pictures is our landlord.

I have had alot to do lately, moving in to our new home takes time and effort. We have been on two shopping trips sofar.

One to Östersund and one to Trondheim.

Sorting stuff in my storage facility;-) has taken it’s time…Kaos.

Also i have managed to attend the Swedish paragliding instructor meeting in Arlanda. Me, Martin Kjellman and Lars Hedström took the train to Arlanda airport! and stayed at a nice hotel for two days. It was a good weekend. It was good to see all the guys(no girls)who are instructing in paragliding.

Before leaving Stockholm we had Indian food and went to the movies, Inglourious Basterds was realy good entertainment! Lars Hedström in Stockholm City.

Swedish way of puting design on a powerline , or? anyway it has been given prices for it’s design.

A beautiful day on Åreskutan.

Well i’m back home in Åre, Sweden and i like it alot. It feels good to be back home!

On my way home I sat down in the airplane from Nice to Stockholm and met a friend from Åre, Henrik Winstedt, who had been down in Monaco for a couple of days. Had a chat with him about the last and the coming winter. We both looked forward to a good winter.

Yesterday i woke up in the clouds. Base was low. So was the top of the clouds :-). Meeting up with the Åreposse at Skysport and driving up to Hummeln(at 880m) with cars took us above the clouds. Sweet. But the clouds in the valley made it impossible to safely fly down.

So we hiked to Kabin berg, 1270m, and it was a lovely walk up. We walked in first layer and open goretexpants. Almost no wind and just perfect conditions for a walk. Also flying was nice. I had my Little Cloud and my new Supair Escape airbag. A very nice kit for this type of excursions. Very light and very fun…

Emil, Micke and Jonas were the others on the hike. Emil and Jonas both had new gliders so lots of fun was had flying down to Hummeln in the sunny sky.
All but Micke landed on Hummeln. Micka had been mumbling about gps and flying down through the clouds…

Bad idea. He found a hole in the clouds. But the hole ended in the lake. Luckily on the spot where the lake is super shallow. He stod in the middle of the lake with his floating device inflated. Phoned his brother who got he clubboat out and fetched him and his kit. Lucky Micke. I hope he wont do it again. Swiming in the lake in november is not a good idea. Especially not with his pg kit…

UP trango x-light for a short munch…;-), and some thank U’s.

Yeah, i got around to try it shortly in Araxá, Brazil. Just abit of strong thermic wind groundhandling and a short thermic/soaring flight before the breifing. Had to topland and give it back to my good friend Phillipe Rigall… He also took the pics of me flying it.

What i thought? well the handling is very exact and the glider is dynamic and talkative. Braketravel is not to long and the break pressure is not to heavy. Just what i like. I only had 5-10 minutes on it so no serious test but a little snack… It flyes realy well. I could just get in there and go, easy to understand.

Photo: Phil Rigall

In my eyes this is a visualy appeling glider. Clean design. The material choosen are not ultralight but light enough i recon. The leading edge has rigidfoils insted of mylar walls. Riser are racy with pitchtrimmers. I did not play around with them at all.

Photo: Phil Rigall

I cant wait for a longer flight with the Trango X-light. Gliding far and away will be a pleasure. Hopefully i might be trying it later in november…;-)

I realized that there’s some guys i have to say BIG THANK’S to, Durval who picked me and Kingy up in Uberlandia and drove us  to the hotel in Araxá. Come to think of it, he even paid our pizzas… Durval is King!!!

On our last day in Brazil Bruno Neumann drove us back to Uberlandia airport. Bruno was the owner of the Sol Torck i flew during XC Open, Bruno also took us to a truckers restaurang along the road. Fantastic bbq. Brazilian lunch is topnotch. Bruno rock’s!

Bruno

Geraldo, guided me to a couple of skateparks in Araxá. He took me to a park in the outskirts of Araxá. Very few tourists go there. I was the only gringo on the market… Good fun! Thank’s Geraldo.

Geraldo.

Also i’d like to thank Hans B who very friendly invited me and Marcus King to the XC open in Araxá.

Hans and Matt

The funny looking bloke on the right side of Hans B is Matt Church.

Fred and big girl.

Brazil, i will be back.