Skiing Zillertal

Just a quick 2 day trip, since it was a long wait from the sH Pre-Season bash in early December until the Birthday Bash in February.  Plus I wanted to practice a few of the things we'd covered in Tignes (bumps mainly), and I'd wanted to re-visit Zell am Ziller and ski over to Gerlos.

Day 1: Zell am Ziller and Gerlos

See the route on endomondo.

Day 2: Kaltenbach

See the route on endomondo.


All of the photos from Obertauern, Tignes, and Zillertal are in one album.

Photo Every Week 2012

After managing a full 365 photos in the One Photo Every Day challenge in 2010, and an aborted 365 in 2011 that turned in to a One Photo Every Week, I decided to stick with a One Photo Every Week again in 2012.

My favourite photos each month are those below:

Jan: Burg Frankenstein


Feb: Ice Sculpture


Mar: Mushroom


Apr: Sunny Sunday


May: Wasp


Jun: Liechtenstein


Jul: Nutter


Aug: Lapwing Lodge


Sep: Meadow


Oct: Red


Nov: Art?


Dec: Oooh, Powder!

There is also a full slideshow of all 52 photos.

Skiing Tignes (2nd try)

About the same time last year, I visited Tignes for the first time, as part of the snowHeads Pre-Season Bash. Back then the place was basically grass everywhere, except for the glacier, and the "Double-M" red run down to the Valley, and that was largely man-made and icy snow-cannon snow.

Originally I had thought about visiting Meribel for a ski clinic, but decided to return to Tignes, again on the snowHeads PSB. This time it paid off. It basically snowed all week, and significant numbers of runs were open, although some lifts closed from time to time due to wind etc.

I put my name down for a handful of lessons too, since I'd not been on any for a few years. 1 Moguls/Bumps clinic, and 3 group lessons for mainly piste performance. Glad I did - lots of things to practice on the next bash in February (and a private weekend in January).

Eventually (ie Thursday), the Sun did start to make a brief appearance. The powder was rather epic, and it was time to make best use of the visibility.

And then it became nearly a bluebird day.

There'd better be a PSB next year! I'm going back!

All skiing pics for 2012-2013 are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/SHSkiing20122013

Ski Amade

So it's the end of October, Graham says he has 2 days of leave to use up, then Nicky says "ditto", and then well so do I.  Thought that would be the end of it, but within a few days we'd booked a trip to Radstadt in Austria to sneak in a quick warm-up ski trip before the snowHeads Pre-Season Bash, with Pete, Jamie and another Graham along for good measure.

I sussed out that there's a train direct from Darmstadt to Radstadt, once per day, so booked that on bahn.de there and then.  Rather convenient being able to get to a ski resort with no changes, no airport carriage charges and no autobahn jams.

We stayed at Haus Susanne run by even more snowHeads, where some of the others had stayed previously, in winter and summer. From there the best option, given that it was still November, was to drive 15 minutes up to Obertauern for the skiing.

The rental car, brand new, blacked out windows, 7speed automatic, full screen satnav:

The crew - Graham, Jamie, Pete, Nicky, who's hiding behind Angela, and Graham:

And proof that Austria is not too low to snow:

All skiing pics for 2012-2013 are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/SHSkiing20122013

IRW 2012

Well doesn't August come round again so quickly?  It certainly doesn't seem like a year since the last IRW, but the calendar doesn't lie.  This year was my 20th attendance, out of a total of 21 IRWs, and like last year, was based at the scout camp just outside Paisley.

Sun/Mon/Tue
A handful of us turned up early, so the first couple of days was setting up, and a trip in to Largs for the day, like last year (partly to waste loads of 2p coins in the arcade).  Then it was the event proper...

Wed
Only flew an Estes Rampage on a C6-5. This was a kit that I'd won in a raffle somewhere. Flew pretty well and drifted a fair way, but was found OK.

Thu
Just spectating.

Fri
Flew the Rogue Aerospace Interdictor spaceplane on a C6-5. This is one of my favourite kits, but sadly is now out of production, so I'd rather not lose it. There are pdf plans available though.

Next up was another flight of my old L2 cert rocket, the Rebel Pirate on a Pro38 I285-10 (Classic). This must have just caught on the rail a bit, and part of the airframe was broken near the rail buttons. Flight was good though, and was easily found.
Finally, I had to do a flight of the Art Applewhite 7inch Saucer, on a D12-0 again. These are such simple kits, can fly in any weather, and prep time is minimal.

Sat
Just spectating again.

Sun
For the first time in years, the Estes Black Brant flew, again on a D12-7. This used to be my most flown rocket until that record was taken by Art Applewhite kits. The nozzle ejected, though, so the thrust was very low, but since the Black Brant weighs so little, it actually flew and landed safely.

The Rogue Aerospace Interdictor got another outing on a C6-5, but this time the shockcord snapped.  The nosecone and streamer landed about 100m away, and was found very easily, but the main body tumbled down end over end and was lost... or so we thought. Eventually it was found about 2 hours later, so will be fixed and flown again :)
Since I had 1 spare D12-0, I decided to fly the Art Applewhite Saucer again, which as usual was a good flight.
After that, it was time for the traditional camp fire and BBQ.  Another ace inferno :) and another ace BBQ :)

Mon
Home time.

More pics can be seen here...
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/IRW2012