The current high-pressure situation will end this weekend with a disturbance approaching from the west. The exact path of that disturbance, its arrival time and its magnitude by the time it arrives are highly uncertain. This has the effect that the prognosis varies strongly between the different forecast models, and also within a model from calculation run to calculation run. At this time, everything is still possible: 2 flying days, only fly Saturday, or only Sunday, or nothing at all. We will aim for another quick update around noon tomorrow Thursday and then make the call tomorrow evening.

Wie jedes Jahr war das Toplande-Weekend bestens besucht – 14 motivierte Pilotinnen machten sich gemeinsam auf den Weg. Schon früh war klar: Das Wetter würde uns fordern. Der Wetterbericht verschlechterte sich nach der Durchführungsentscheidung nochmals deutlich. Kein Traumstart – aber genau dann zeigt sich, was in einer Gruppe steckt. Also: das Beste daraus machen. Als wir ankamen, regnete es. Statt Trübsal zu blasen, nutzten wir die Gelegenheit und tauchten so tief in die Theorie ein wie selten. Top- und Hanglanden bei unterschiedlichsten Geländeformen, Windrichtungen und Landewiesen wurden intensiv analysiert. Linienwahl, Entscheidungsfindung, Fehlerquellen – nichts blieb unbeachtet. Lars gestaltete die Einheit mit beeindruckender Detailtiefe und viel Praxisbezug – und würzte das Ganze mit erstaunlichem künstlerischem Talent. Spätestens bei seinen anschaulichen Skizzen war klar: Theorie kann richtig Spass machen. Da der Regen nicht vollständig nachliess und auch die Wolken tief hängen blieben, entschieden wir uns für ein kurzes aber intensives Uphill-Intervalltraining. Puls hoch, Beine brennend, Gedanken frei. Genau die richtige Mischung. Anschliessend folgte ein Input zum Thema „schnell und effizient packen“. Wichtig dabei: Schnell bedeutet nicht schön. Wer dabei war, weiss jetzt ganz genau, was das heisst. Die Schirme verschwanden teilweise eher „kreativ gewurschtelt“ als ästhetisch gefaltet im Rucksack – aber eben zeitsparend und funktional. Nach Lars’ Demonstration durfte jede selbst ausprobieren, tüfteln und die eigene Technik optimieren. Eine Übung mit überraschend viel Aha-Effekt. Der Abend klang gemütlich aus: gemeinsames Essen, intensive Gespräche, eine kleine Gruppe genoss die private Sauna, andere liessen sich das legendäre Après-Ski-Abenteuer im Tipi nicht entgehen. Es wurde gelacht, diskutiert, Erfahrungen ausgetauscht – und das Gemeinschaftsgefühl wuchs spürbar. Da für den Nachmittag starker Wind angekündigt war, hiess es am Sonntag früh aufstehen. Um 7:30 Uhr waren wir beim Frühstück. Wie das bei Gruppen manchmal so ist, verpassten wir knapp die erste Gondel – aber oben angekommen wurden wir belohnt: wenige andere PilotInnen und gute Bedingungen für erste Toplande-Versuche. Mit viel Feingefühl coachte Lars jede Teilnehmerin individuell. Präzise Anflüge wurden sauberer, die Speedbar-Technik gezielt trainiert – und schon bald gelangen die ersten Speed-Hanglandungen. Diese Momente, wenn Theorie zu Können wird, sind unbezahlbar. Leider blieb das Wochenende nicht ganz ohne Zwischenfall. Wir wünschen der verunfallten Teilnehmerin von Herzen gute und schnelle Besserung und hoffen, dich bald wieder lachend in unserer Runde begrüssen zu dürfen. Wie schon im letzten Jahr war ich tief beeindruckt vom Spirit dieser Gruppe. Trotz forderndem Wetter gab es viele glückliche Gesichter. Neue Kontakte wurden geknüpft, Wissen geteilt, Unsicherheiten angesprochen und gemeinsam Lösungen gefunden. Dieses Wochenende ist mehr als Techniktraining. Es bringt Frauen zusammen, stärkt Netzwerke und formt eine eingeschworene Gruppe – als Grundlage für zukünftige Hike-and-Fly-Wettkämpfe. Ein riesiges Dankeschön an alle Teilnehmerinnen. Ihr wart grossartig. Mit so einer motivierten, offenen und unterstützenden Gruppe macht das Organisieren einfach nur Freude. Vielleicht bist du das nächste Mal auch dabei?

Con fare positivo ed una giornata soleggiata, ben 18 piloti si ritrovano in quel di Cimetta. Le previsioni erano corrette e nel pomeriggio una velatura ad alta quota ha bloccato parzialmente l'attività termica. La difficoltà più grande di oggi? Riuscire ad andarsene da Cimetta. Il gradiente era debole e anche arrivando a 1850 m circa, si faceva fatica a trovare una bolla che portava sui 2000m. Era difficile decidere di tentarla oppure no, nella nostra testa regnava sovrano "Ma büti o ma büti mia?". Un dubbio amletico che per questo weekend rimarrà tale, ovvero senza risposta. Una giornata dove tanta pazienza era richiesta e forse un pizzico di fortuna. Ma in tutto questo siamo riusciti ad impostare i nostri strumenti e capire meglio il funzionamento di essi. Un super volo in compagnia con tante vele in termica sopra Cimetta! Il vento era marcato sopra i 2000m e anche un po' in atterraggio, creando storie da poter mandare a Paperissima Sprint :). Per chiudere un bell'aperitivo in compagnia con tutti quanti! Grazie a tutti per la partecipazione e non vediamo l'ora del prossimo appuntamento il 28-29 Marzo!

Today was Task 6, a 77 km race with a strong southerly wind around 25 km/h. The take-off was quite sketchy with the wind strength, making the launch phase a bit tense. The start was set at 14:00, which turned out to be perfect timing — we were already well positioned about 8 minutes before the start opened. The task was designed as a square. The first leg to the north was relatively straightforward, followed by a leg to the east with plenty of cumulus clouds and some very nice lines, allowing good progress. The southern section was much more technical, with strong headwind and higher terrain to cross. Fortunately, we had enough altitude to manage it. At the last turnpoint before ESS we were still around 40 pilots together, so the race was wide open. The final section towards the south was quite decisive, with a 17 km glide into goal. Thermals were weak, giving an average glide ratio of around 7, which made efficiency and decisions even more important. A few pilots from the leading group landed before ESS, which reshuffled the results again. Results — Task 6 1 Davide Sassudelli 2 Haris Lepesis 3 Noé Court 18 Michael Sigel 26 Tim Bollinger 38 Dominik Breitinger 43 Jean Morisetti 55 Mathieu Devaud

Today we used the main take-off again, the same as in the previous tasks, with a relatively strong southerly wind around 20 km/h. The launch conditions were quite manageable despite the wind strength, and the start phase went relatively smoothly. Task 5 was a 77 km race with a maximum cloud base around 2,900 m. The second leg towards the south was quite long, with low speeds in transition due to rather weak thermals. This allowed a large part of the gaggle to regroup around Panchgani, which reset the race dynamics a bit. After that, several gaggles split depending on the chosen lines and who managed to connect the better climbs. In the end, it really came down to timing — whoever found the strongest thermal and left first had the advantage. The last 5 km were flown at full speed, pushing hard on bar all the way to goal. Results — Task 5 1 Noé Court 2 Richard Pethigal 3 Manuel Laly 5 Michael Sigel 10 Jean Morisetti 18 Dominik Breitinger 44 Tim Bollinger 49 Kaj Witzig 52 Mathieu Devaud

Today more south wind was predicted and we went to another takeoff which was better suited for the southerly winds. Unfortunately the burned down the whole hill and everything was covered with ashes. The organization did everything they could to get the takeoff as clean as possible and sent a few helpers a day before in order to get the takeoff ready for us. We arrived to a properly cleaned starting area where they have also tried to cover as much of the area as possible with plastic covers. The wind was strong and the takeoff itself relatively small (only two gliders at the time were able to prepare for taking off). Therefore the starting procedure took quite some time and also because there were many aborted starts. Once in the air, the lifts were much weaker then the days before, and we had to take 3m/s thermals to go up to cloud base. We have never had really nice clouds the days before, but today they were forming quite nicely on the task line. As it is very dusty in the air, it sometimes was hard to tell if you are flying in the dust or already in the clouds. The first TP was set around 10km to the southeast, before turning back, flying over Panchgani and crossing the lake to the north in order to reach TP2. After that, a 40km leg to the south was set, before landing in goal. During the start, there were two groups. Unfortunately almost all the swiss guys, were in the left group, which was the worse decision. Benjamin was on the right side as well together with me. We had a quite good line going in to the south and back direction Panchgani. After tacking the second turnpoint in the Nortch, Michael Sigel, who started on the left side, slowly managed to catch up and eventually made it back in to the leading group together with me, just in time to cross the flats. It was a long glide, where we did not cross one thermal. Fortunately we arrived with a good amount of altitude on the other side and managed to catch a good lift which got us high enough to start the 15km final glide. We were pushing full bar throughout the whole 15km and arrived 20 seconds behind the first pilot (which unfortunately has a slightly faster glider). Benjamin arrived only 1:45 minutes later with a very good result as well. The other swisspilots unfortunately were not able to catch up and started struggeling with weaker climbs behind us and lost a bit of time to the leaders. In the overall ranking it is now very tight with the top three only separated by 5 points. It looks like we are able to fly 7/7 tasks, so there are still 3 tasks to go. Michael Sigel is looking really strong with scoring over 980pts in every task so far and is the only one in the top 3 with no discard. Positions overall after 4 tasks: 1. Dominik Breitinger 2. Austin Cox 3. Michael Sigel 12. Noé Court 25. Jean Morisetti 26. Tim Bollinger