Winner overall

1. Christian Maurer

2. Michael von Wachter und Peter Frauenschuh (both second)

 Woman Ranking

1. Anja Kroll

2. Dorothea Stichlmaier

3. Hiraki Keiko

Winner Team

1. Advance

2. Spälti

3. UP

Congratulations!

Today the second task could have been flown in the valley of Grindelwald. It got a triple winning by Swiss pilots: First was Stephan Morgenthaler before Christian Maurer and Andy Aebi: A real home game of the Bernese guys.

Early in the morning we settled up a task briefing at First take off for 11.30. At that time no one thought that we could fly a task. The sky was not blue at all, the cloud base very low because of the wetness of the last days, it was very dull and the weather forecast adjured southestwind and thunderstorms.

Nevertheless the task committee was sure to make a valid task. They settled up a short task over 44 kilometres flown in the valley of Grindelwald. The start was on First, first virtual turn point Burg, then back to First to get the turnpoint Egg, bevor flying again along the ridge to the Hintisberg, come back and got to Grosse Scheidegg before crossing the valley of Grindelwald to Alpiglen and land in Girndelwald Grund. Urs Dubach the task setter did again the optimum of the day.

The window got opened at 12.45, just right at the time when the sun came finally through the clouds. The pilots flew their “warm up”, some over and some under the clouds. At the air start at 12.45 all pilots where together again and a big field of paragliders left for the first turnpoint. The flight path was signed by cumulus clouds and the pilots found all the way long good reliable thermals.

Up to the second last turnpoint, the Gratschärm at the grosse Scheidegg the pilots were more or less together. The daily winner, Stephan Morgenthaler was at that time on 20^th place, but the pilots in front of him were much higher and they had already taken the second last turnpoint and were heading towards Nothalten to make high to cross the valley to Alpiglen and get the last turnpoint. Stephan - once competition pilot – did not fly worldcups anymore since 3 years and hat to worry if he can participate at the PWC Grindelwald decided to take risks and fly in a direct line to Alpiglen instead of making the detour to Nothalten. His GPS showed him a glide angle of 9 and his glider flies a 10, so he thought. Nevertheless he had already an alternative flight route: Flying to the rock faces of of Mettenberg and Eiger and soar up in the valley wind if he comes to low to get the last turnpoint. Fortunately his readiness to assume a risk worked out. He came to the last turnpoint just in front of the big field and flew with full sped as the first one over the goal line.

Today was the beginning of the Paragliding Worldcup in Grindelwald. The task was a 38km race to goal from take off First to Hintisberg, back to First, then to the pre-alp of Interlaken, named Amisbühl, over the Harder, the mountain of the doorstep of Interlaken and to the goal, in Interlaken. Despite of difficult weather conditions we could announce a task which was winning by the Venezuelan pilot Michael von Wachter before Urs Schönauer, Peter Frauenschuh and Christian Maurer.

Due to south wind the weather circumstances were not the bests. However the task committee with Urs Dubach, Martin Scheel and Xavier Muriillo announced a short but interesting and difficult race. Just after presenting the task and opening the window, the whole area around the take off and the valley was covered by clouds and the thermals stopped. This was the reason for closing the window immediately just before someone has got in the air. As soon as the sun was shining again and the first few cumulus clouds were seen at the sky the window got open again and the race could get started. But then there was a lot of downwind because the good and reliable First-thermals absorbed all the air around. Pilots could hardly launch – a big running sprint was necessary.

Once in the air it got better and better. Shortly after the race start the top group was ahead with a big distance to the next few pilots. Unfortunately the leaders couldn’t fly over the ridge so they had to go a long way round the mountain which costs them a lot of time. The second group with Christian Maurer made it better. They flew over the ridge and crossed the valley – but deeply so that they arrived very low at the harder, the mountain at the doorstep of Interlaken. As they were still occupied with gaining altitude the third group with Urs Schönauer and the daily task winner Michael von Wachter crossed them high. The third group was a lot behind, but they found nice strong thermals at the First ridge which let them fly a lot higher then the pilots ahead. So they could use their speedbar and they flew straight to the last two turnpoints and directly to the goal, the Höhematte in the heart of Interlaken.

Even though only one third of the pilots made the goal, in the evening there were only happy faces of an successful first flown race .

We hope the weather is getting better and that we can fly more good and interesting tasks to show the pilots more the beautiful scenery of our Jungfrau Region.

photo: Martin Scheel www.azoom.ch

23.5.2008 / We have slightly corrected the flightmap and turnpoint lists. And we added the long expected wpt and the Google Earth files.

Have a look at the Pilot Info -> Flight Map.

17.05.2008 / Due to heavy snowfalls during the winter the main take-off of the competition is still covered with much snow.

But this doesn't matter, the weather conditions are well and local piltots had already several good flights.World Cup Pilot and local club member Chrigel Maurer did a long 255km flight in the competition area on thursday 8.5.2008.

In the following video it seems that he enjoys the snowy landscape.

• Movie: Chrigel enjoys the snowy take-off (12MB)

filmed by Kurt Stämpfli