Our aim was to walk and fly without any stress from Bassano to the east. The first thing I recognized was, that my rucksack is a little bit very heavy and that it is was quiet warm as well…

At the base of the mountain “we allowed us” to youse a car if it stops accidentally next to us ;-). 5 Minutes later it happened and we could save us about 3h of walking on a steep hot asphalt road. Sometimes you have luck!….

We recognized to late that the CTR from Aviano is more close to Bassano than we expected. A tirolian deltaglider gave us the clever advice : “if  an army helicopter is coming, fly so long until the gas from the helicopter is emty”. In spite of this very useful tip we decided not to fly into the CTR.

I have to say that I was a little bit nervous flying XC only as a passenger at the beginning….

but not very long and I begun to enjoy an packed out my Camera

The sight to the south

The sight to the north. Close in front of the border of the CTR we tried to cross into the valley of Feltre. The thermals were very weak and the base a little bit to low so that we had to land on the plateau. I had about 18 Kg on my back and I was very frightend of the landing but Tomy did it perfekt!

We made a small brake and walked not very long on the top of the ridge from where we wanted to fly next to Feltre. In this harness are two sleeping backs, two camping maps, the food, some clothes. my camera an 2-3 litre of water….

on the ridge we enjoyed the beautiful sight to Feltre and the mountains around. We walked on the front line of the First World War and could see a lot of big holes that the soldiers dug durning the years.

We found a wonderful place for the night close to the top of Monte Saralol 1640m and  nearly vis à vis of the Monte Avena (Feltre)

Tomy is reading the cooking instruction of Spagetthi Carbonara.

Bassano at night and I am happy to have my big Nikon with me even it has 2, 3 kg in all

The next morning we managed to start 100m next to our camping place and glide down the valley, In front of us you see the Monte Avena our next launch site.

We orient oneself with the Garmin map and GPS. So far so good. I could made the experience of the “italian interpretation of trails” at the Bordairline in Levico Therme this spring.  So I was not so much surprised of the beginning of the way up….

we drag us with heavy ballast through jungle, prickles and overgrown ruins until we reached a more “civilized” trail again.

“Sometimes you have luck ” – the second time: After 1100m of ascent we found a comfortable shelter, 5 minutes later the rain changed into hail mixed with lightnings which stroked some 100 m beside of us…

At the top of Monte Avena Tomy shows on the mountain from which we flew in the morning.

We decided to sleep again at the mountain and to fly down the next morning. Due to the bad weather forecast in this area we decided to take the bus to Valdobbiadene on the south ridge. At 6 o´clock the wind came from the wrong direction so I did a small walk with my camera in the beautiful morning light

We had a beautiful morningflight down to Feltre – it s a lot of fun to check out the best landingplace together, “were could be the bus station? Are there power lines? It is a green cornfield or a grassland? What is plan a.b. c ?…

This time we didn´t want to be to late at the launching site Monte Cesen. So we hurried up, even Tomy carried about 30 kg and me about 14kg he was faster than me. It was a very hot day again and so he fed me with magnesia, L-carnithin and with some strange gels during the way up. I think it helped me!

jiha, in the air again! in front of us the Lago di Santa Maria. The thermal was not the best but at al the weather was more flyable than in the “feltremountains”

The sight to Feltre, it´s a good feeling to see that we did the right decision :-)

our landing place next to the beautiful old center of Vittorio Veneto

we were a little bit tiered an hungry but in Italia restaurants are closed until 7 pm…

our plan was to climb up the mountain for about some meters and do the rest the next day on the Monte Pizzoc. On the way we found an ancient ruine of a watchtower and decided to sleep there.

lets go cooking! Under us: Vittorio Veneto

the stove is a very light one with a special gas cartridge that you can twist of after using.

dinner over the lights of Vittorio Veneto- live is beautiful :-)

On the top of Monte Pizzoc was no sight because of thick fog so we had a lot of time to eat a delicious deer goulash. When we thought that the clouds have rised up a little bit, we began to prepare for the start.

We were waiting very patiently and took the only 5 second hole to fly through. After we had some sight we observed exactly the weather conditions

My function as the copilot was to check the direction to the valley and the speed because Tomy flew only with the Solario

Even we wanted to fly to Aviano we lost our nerves after we didn´t see any sun in the flatland and some big clouds beside us. With an spectacular flare out over a small cornfield (30 cm) we stand on a grass field next to Villa de Villa. That our decision was completely right could we see 15 minutes later….

finaly we managed to get to Aviano. After we become a lift up to the mountain we only could glide down again and we made us on the way home.