Take it to the Max

xAlps 2011 Presentation with Andy Froetscher (Italy) and Max & Penny (Canada) in Munich

2011-11-03T12:28:00.000-06:00

Thanks for everyone of who could make it for the presentation. I got told there where about 160 people in the room and it seamed no one was bored with our plus 2 hour presentation. Andy and I had a ton of fun and even learned more about the race while doing the presentation. After all, what really counts to have a great time with your loved once, friends, learn more and pass on the positive energy. Thanks again for everyone to make this such a great event.

xAlps 2011 Presentation with Andy Froetscher (Italy) and Max & Penny (Canada) in Munich

2011-10-20T09:43:00.000-06:00

October 25th 2011 at 20:00 Uhr
xAlps 2011 Presentation with Andy Froetscher (Italy) and Max & Penny (Canada) in Munich

For the Paragliding Club "Bodenlosen" in Munich we will do a presentation about the 2011 race together
More details at
http://www.bodenlos.de/aktiv/2011_10_25_Xalps.php

Flying over the castles and the Dolomite's Tour - part 2

2011-10-13T12:01:00.000-06:00

Day 6:
Intro and briefing at www.BlueSky.at in Sillian in the morning. The German intro and weather forecast was very detailed and the guests were informed of details with a lot of graphs. The Canadian intro version was "Sunny and Hot" and watch out to not get blisters on your ass from flying too much.
With that, we headed to Monte Piano and set a task to fly from Monte Piano to the 3 Zinnen, via Cortina to Arabba and land right at the hotel Olympia. I think this is about a 40 km flight and right though the middle of the Dolomite's. The conditions started weak and with a lot of east wind. 2 hours later, the thermals got stronger and blocked the wind. After launch, there were some nice, but not strong enough thermals to get over to the 3 Zinnen. Being patient, and on my second attempt to cross over, I reached the 3 Zinnen at half the summit height. To get higher, you needed to scratch close into the towers of the 3 Zinnen and I have to say it was very spectacular watching the rock climbers on the walls and slowly "thermalling" to pass them on the wall, and eventually reach the summits of the the "the 3 summits". Once I was about 300 meters over the summit, I headed south and fueled up more height over various exposed summits before crossing over to Mount Christallo. Mount Christallo worked very well and at 3300 meters I crossed over Cortina and scratched along the west side of Cortina but barely crossed a low ridge over to the foot of theTofane. I was very low and was close to landing at the gravel field below the massive 1100 meter rock face of the Tofane and literly at my landing approach my vario started to beep and I could do one figure eight along the gravel, gaining about 20 meters. From then on I kept scratching and slowly worked myself up this massive and never ending wall right to the summit. I have to say that this was my most rewarding flight I have ever done. Just amazing to soar so close in absolute gentle lift up to the summit along such a massive rock face. Once I got about 300 meters above the summit things got a bit rough with the east wind kicking in, but I continued my flight to Arabba and landed right at the hotel. After I landed, Frank called me on the radio to say he already had a couple beers ordered. He had the same experience as I had on the Tofane and agreed that this was the absolute highlight. The only part Frank missed was the 3 Zinnen as he was to eager to get the beer first. The rest of the group landed either at the regular landing site and 3 others landed in Cortina. Our 2 non-pilots had a great day hiking around the 3 Zinnen and Kari discovered the mountain named after her family name "Paterno". Very cool as well.

Day 7:
Sunny and hot. So we headed to Col Rodella and after watching some crazy take offs on the east side we started flying later on the SW side of the mountain. The conditions were superb and I had an amazing flight over the Lang Kofel, the Sella, the Marmolada, again along the Sella to the east and back to Arabba to the hotel again. Everyone had great and safe flights and the non-pilots were hiking on top of the Col Rodello.

Day 8:
Sunny and hot again. The thermals were a bit weaker, but we flew the same route as the previous day. Our 2 non Pilots did a great hike from the top of Sass Pordoi.

Day 9:
Sunny and hot again. This time we decided to take the Gondola up to the Sass Pordoi to enjoy an amazing view of the Dolomite's. After that we headed to Col Rodella again and once again we flew all over the place, including the Marmolada. Our 2 non-pilots headed for an overnight trip to Venice and had an amazing time.

Day 10:
Guess what.... yes, Suny and hot again. This time we parked on top of the Passo Pordoi and hiked for about 45 minutes to the Belvedere. Most people flew to the landing site and then up again to the Col Rodella for further flights. I launched later from Belvedere and did my usual round over the Marmolada and back to the hotel.

Day 11:
This was our last day. After checking out of the hotel, we drove back to Monte Piano to fly over the 3 Zinnen again. The conditions looked a bit weak, but we set the task to fly over the 3 Zinnen, over to Sexton and then to the www.BlueSky.at office in Sillian. The conditions turned from weak to amazing again and everyone flew over the 3 Zinnen. Most of the group landed in Sexten and Cyril, Wendelin and myself managed to get to Sillian.

What an amazing week in the Dolomite's. Every day we were able to have incredible flights and flew all over the place! I even had a double bonus, as I was able to hike every morning to the Sella rock face, with Wendelin (best BlueSky guide), before we started the tour. It was a great morning flight along the rock-face and we landed right at the hotel. The pictures below will tell more than my words.

Day 12:
Back in Germany and the weather was sunny and hot. We visited the "Free Flight" at Tegelberg. The "Free Flight" was not as good as we hoped for and a lot of manufactures did not attend. We still had a great time getting a couple more flights in, and enjoyed the beer tent. One thing I was very impressed with at the show was the Atos with all the different motorized versions.

Day 13:
Some morning flights from Buchenberg and then on our way to the Oktoberfest in Munich. The Oktoberfest is so huge and the grounds are massive. It was wild how many people were there, but we only managed to see the first 50 meters of the grounds as we got sidetracked with the partying and dancing in the Paulaner Beer tent.

Day 14:
Sunny and hot and lots of traffic to the Munich airport.
Wow what a couple of weeks this was. Simply amazing and almost unreal for both pilots and non pilots. I think we will offer a package like that for next year again. Let us know who might be interested to join us next year.

Flying over the castles and the Dolomite's Tour - part 1

2011-10-09T23:46:00.000-06:00

This years "Flying over the castles and the Dolomite's" tour needs to be written up in 2 parts as there was so much happening and too much to write in one blog. Although, I could just do a very short version and simply say .... awesome, awesome, awesome, flying every day!! The only hard part was the blisters we got on our behind from flying too much.

Here is how it started:
Day 1:
I picked up Frank, Tracye, Mike, Dave, Chris and Karie at the airport in Munich. First we headed to Kempten to have coffee and Oma's homemade Zwetschgen Datscahi with my Mom and Dad.
The weather was sunny and hot and we still had enough time to head to Tegelberg to fly over the Schloss Neuschwanstein. Everyone had a great flight and I did a tandem with Erik.
Tracye, Karie and Katia had a nice walk and found a hidden hut where we ended up for a beer after the flight.

Day 2:
Winds were light and forecast was sunny & hot again. This time we headed to Breitenberg. Conditions were light but a couple of us managed to get up below cloud base over Ruine Eisenberg and flew down the ridge towards Fuessen and back crossing the valley across Pfronten and back to the landing site.
On the way to the Schloss Neuschwanstein to drop off Chris, Karie, Tracey and Dave for their castle tour, we stopped at a BBQ chicken and haxen trailer. We had spare rips and "Schweins Haxen". Man that was good and a lot of food. After we dropped them off at the castle, Frank, Mike and I headed to Tegelberg for another flight. Mike and I hiked up via the "Gelbe Wand" which was not a good idea with a very full stomach. The flight was great and rewarding and we all met down at the hut for beer again.
Penny was flying with us at Breitenberg, but had to head home to get the kids from school. Thanks for the train network here in Europe, Penny could walk from the landing site to the train station to get back to Kempten.

Day 3:
The forecast was sunny and hot with a low cloud base in Germany, so we drove 25 minutes to Hahnenkamm by Reutte. The thermals started week, but we got some great flights right (up to 2.5 hours) right to cloud base and into the Tanheimmer tal and back. After some good bratwurst, beer and schnaps we headed to the Neunerkoepfle im Tanheimer tal. The gondala was already clsoed and we headed via the Oberjoch pass to Sonthofen for Coffee and beer. After this we picked up Penny from Kempten and drove to the Sudhaus for dinner. The Sudhaus is a micro brewery with a rustic restaurant for local food. The evening went from a dinner to a singing party with another group. Too bad I did not video the songs everyone was singing.

Day 4:
All of us, as well as the kids, started the day with a visit the Viehscheid in Heubach.

After the Viehscheid we drove to Neunerkoepfle for another great flight. There were a lot of pilots and almost too busy, but the conditions were great and I did a 1.5 hour tandem with Katia.

After the flying, I dropped off the group in Fuessen where they had a great italian Dinner an we headed back to Kempten.

Day 5:
There was a concert with 100 Alphorn's on top of Breitenberg. After the concert I did a 1 hour tandem with Erik over Ruine Eisenberg and another tandem with Katia. The conditions were way better then we anticipated.
See the video Mike did of the Alphorns.

Later this afternoon we drove 3.5 hours to Sillian to get ready for the Dolomite tour.
Part 2 of the blog will be about the Dolomite's

Flying in Slovenia at the "Serial Cup"

2011-09-16T07:59:00.001-06:00

After the xAlps we spent some quality time with the family and bought a new Bion 37 (Tandem from Nova). The kids love it and I am very impressed with the handling and performance. After a couple flights with the kids (and Penny flying beside us) we headed down south to Tolmin, Slovenia for the "Serial Cup". I normally do not fly competitions at all, but this was a great opportunity to combine a couple things at once, such as meeting Brigitta & Dushan, getting to go to Slovenia and meet other new people.
The campground Gabrje (at Gabrje) is new and has it's own landing site and is beside the river (Soca) and below Mrzli.vrh (1306 m high peak). The river is cold, but the kids and Penny didn't seem to mind, and with such hot days, they were in it every day! Mrzli.vhr is a great mountain to start the day, and there is nothing better to start it with a 1100 meter hike ending at a huge grass field to enjoy the 1st flight of the day. I was lucky with the weather and time to be able to hike it 3 mornings. One morning, Dusan and Idris ( from the UK) joined me, which made this even a better experience.

The comp was very well organized and it is very different and pretty cool to have everything organized for you.

This starts with:
when to get up,
when to get into the bus,
where to fly and when to launch.
And to top it off, you fly with a lot of very nice people showing you where it works or not.

The only problem I had was that I enjoyed flying way too much and it took me a while to get into the racing grove. At this cup there where a lot of pretty serious people and in a very short time it was very easy to get behind. First I felt a bit ashamed to be on the slow end but realized pretty quickly that only 1/3 of the pilots were flying up to DHV 2 wings. Now I fly the Mentor2, which is a great and fun wing, but when you race mostly on speed-bar beside the other DHV2 and 2-3 wings, you can see the difference. I was much slower. After I talked to a lot of the other pilots racing very seriously about the flights, such as the Adriatic cost line, and certain peaks and other landmarks, I realized that most did not see and experience the flight like I did. Most of them could tell me how beautiful it was before the race started and after that they only saw their instruments and the other pilots, and did not even look around to enjoy the beauty and scenery away and beyond. Well, I guess that is what a race is all about. I think if you have flown here (or anywhere) a couple times, it is easier to get into this "race" mode.

I have to say, I really enjoyed this "organized x-country flying" where you do not need to think about the weather forecast, where to go, how to get back and you meet and party with a lot of new people.

The meet was great, we could fly every day, the organizers and campground staff were great and the rest of the family had a blast as well. Penny would have liked to have flown more, but she did manage to get a few in. We will be back when we are in Europe again.

After the meet we headed down south to Rovinj (Croatia) to spend a couple days at the Adriatic sea on the beach. It was like a different world and just fantastic. Rovinj is a must see town and we really loved to walk through the little streets and checking out the little stores and buildings. When we were heading back to Germany, we agreed to come back again.

xAlps 2011

2011-08-08T07:56:00.001-06:00

The hardest part during the race was being away from the kids. Since we arrived back in Germany, we have spent a lot of time at the local beach, found some time to relax, as well as enjoyed a couple of hike & fly trips. Next week we get a new tandem wing (Bion from Nova) and most of the flights will be with the kids again. They can't wait as they haven't flown for a while.To the race itself, it was an amazing experience. Yes, the weather was not good at all and we had a bad start. Right from the beginning we were behind a day, which was hard to catch up unles you managed a tricky and risky flight. Martin Muller, who was behind with us, pulled off an amazing flight, and he managed to get back in the lead group. In total we flew 414 km, hiked 714 km and hiked 55 km in altitude. Without taking a lot of risk, we managed to finish 14th. By the end, we still had healthy feet, our legs were in good shape, we were still feeling strong, and we had had lots of fun, made a lot of new friends, learned a lot of lessons and gained some incredible experiences.The most amazing part of the race is the mind over matter game. There are so many mental aspects you need to deal with, such as the bad start, competing with the last group in the race not to be eliminated, hiking for endless hours in rain and snow, hiking up high mountins and dealing with the 50/50 chance to fly and keeping a pace you can handle for at least 2 weeks.The weather was one part what made the race harder, and the route turned ot to be way harder then expected. The Dachstein turnpoint was way harder then anticipated. If it could have been flown, it still was hard due the restricted airspaces (this is where Ogi got disqualified and 5 others had 24 hour penalties). No one could fly around the turnpoint and everyone had to deal with crazy and difficult hikes. The big difference in routes was the option of taking the longer way in distance and an easier via ferrata (climbing routes) or the shorter distance with a very difficult and power drainging via ferrata (Simone Scharte). We (Matin from Argentinia and me) got up to the turnpoint late and decided to stay up on the glacier with the hope to get to fly off in the early morning.5:00 am, the wind was only about 25-35 km/h, but the valley botton was coverd in fog and we had to wait. Once the valley fog lifted we had about 70-80 km/hr winds. So we ended up climbing down about 800 meters the via ferrata and ended up taking off below the gondola cables. This flight was unexpectedly incredibly smooth and it was fantastic to soar up the Dachstein rock faces and heading more west along other peaks. I had to cross a valley to the south and I got cought in the stronger Foehn (Chinook) winds and was forced to land half way up the ridge I wanted to cross. I packed up fast and hiked to the top and looked for a managable takeoff site to get airborne again. The takeoff was in very strong winds going up and down , forward and backwards between trees until I managed to get out to more open space. The flight ended up further than expeceted and I decided to hike up another 600 meters to get another 8 km covered in the air instead of walking.After this flight, we ended up walking and hiking in the rain and on the way to the top of the Gross Glockner pass I met up with Andy Froetscher (Italy). The weather got worse and we ended up in 15 cm new snow on the trails. After we crossed the "Hochtor" at our break we decided to call the race doctor as Penny's knee started to look worse. The doctor sent her right away to the Lienz hospital to get it checked out. The doctor in Lienz diagnosed the knee as a sports injury (even though the x-rays showed nothing!) A couple days later, her whole leg was swollen, and she was forced to go to the hospital in Bruneck, where they treated her for a bad infection caused from a bug bite. Penny was put on antibiotics and later in the race the race doctor drained out the infected liquids from her knee. At this point, Penny was beside herself thinking that she might have to quit the race. She could not walk. We lucked out that I stayed at a hut that night, and Penny could keep her leg up down in the valley, and the next day once I had landed, the rain started and she didn't have to walk with me on the road, so she got a little bit of a break. We had to make a decision about whether we could go on like this, as she couldn't hike with all my additional gear and food up the mountains, which is her "main" job!! The antibiotics kicked in though, and although her knee was not "normal", she was back to hiking and in better spirits. Today Penny is all back to normal and keeps her running a bit on the easy side. Anyhow, after the "Hochtor" Andy and I hiked towards Kals and stayed overnight on the Glorer Hut. Staying on the hut was the right choice, we got some great food and had a bed for a good rest.The next day we mananged to fly down to Kals in the early morning. The flight was great, but the landing in the Kals valley was rather challanging due the strong north winds. After talking to some weather guys we decided to hike up over 1000 meters for a flight into the Defreggen tal and then to Toblach (valley before the Dolomites). This decision was not easy as the winds at the landing site peaked at over 60 km/hours. Sure enough, once we were up, the winds were only around 15-25 km/hr. Andy and I got some good launches and thermaled right up to 2600 meters. Crossing the Matrai valley into the Defereggen valley was not a problem. The problem was the it started to overcast fast and shutting down the thermals.I decided to ridge soar into the valley as far as I could and started to hike to Maria Hilf to cross the next mountain ridge by foot. Andy was a bit more patient and could fly half way up the pass. After I hiked up the pass, the weather cleared and I was able to fly into the next valley finding some great thermals bringing me up to 2700 meters. I tried to fly accross the next ridge but had to land into the upper slopes and hiked up higher to get airborne again to fly to Toblach. From Toblach I hiked to the bottom to the Drei Zinnen, where we met Andy Froetscher again and stayed overnight.The next morning we hiked up to the Drei Zinnen turnpoint. Andy decided to fly off and sunk out near the Misurina lake. I decided to pack up and hike more into the wind and flew back the route we hiked up. I decided not to fly out to Toblach as I decided to walk towards Cortina and hike accross the Dolomites to Brixen.On the way to Fanes de Sennes I stayed on the "Sennes" hut for a great meal and a good nights rest. Penny had to go back down and drive around the mountain to where I hoped to land the next morning. The next morning ended up to be a race from the fog and low clouds. I managed to get airborne from a 2600m high alpine launchsite resulting into a dream like flight between clouds and fog part way up to the Würzjoch pass. Hiking past the pass was in pouring rain. Just before Brixen we managed to get a another short flight in down the valley from where we reached Feldthurns in a couple of hours.The next day we opted to hike up to the "Klausen" hut and hoped to fly down the other side. I ended up in a snow storm and on the other side they even had to shut down the gondolas due the strong winds. Once down, I had not choice to hike up the other side to Meran 2000, the weather got nice but we had at least 80 km/hr Foehn winds resulting and a hike down to Meran.Andy (Italy) Steve (GBR1) Richard (Braz), Oriol (ESP) and I all met up at Mutkopf (Meran) to fly into to the Stilfzer Joch. Amazing that after 8 days, we were all there together, and Martin (Argentina) was not far behind. We had a great flight around a lot of clouds and it seamed that my Mentor2 (DHV 1-2 wing) could perfrom very well with the 2-3 rated wings. I ended flying the furthest with Richard and Oriol. We packed up and rushed up to 3100 m to get airborne again to keep on flying to Piz Palue. The flight was awesome and we could thermal out a couple more times until the overcast shut us down. From there we hiked to the Pass da Val Viola where we stayed overnight. The next day we hiked south of the PizPalue into the turn point radius and flew down to Lago di Poschiavo. From there we kept on hiking to Sondrio.The weather forcast was very wet for the next day so we decided to split from Richard and kept on walking until 11:00 pm. The next morning the forecast was still calling for rain and we started to walk fast and strong to Como Lake. During the morning the weather looked better then forcasted and everyone seamed to hike up for a flight. It turned out they could not pass me due the weather conditions and I managed to hike another 2000 meter up to Pass de Jorio. We were luckey enough to get to a take off site from where we could launch at 8:30 pm and fly towards Biasca. Too bad I could not take off any earlier as I had to spiral down over 800 meters to land 2 minutes before the 9:00 pm night time flying restriction.I kept on hiking until 11:00 pm and layed down beside the road in my paraglider for a nap. Penny still had to hike down the mountain and then drive around the mountain, around a lake, through a couple of valleys, only to to get me at 2:15 am to the spot I was sleeping. She got me up to sleep in the van, and then we were up again an hour later to get ready for a 4:00 am hike to Biasca and then 2000 meters up for another flight. Penny managed again to hike with me. Once I got to the top the wind was from behind (north/east) and it was not easy to take off into the wrong direction. If I would sink out, i would have to do a lot of hiking to get back on track. I was able to scratch my way north and on the end of the ridge to find a thermal from where I managed to cross the ridge and fly towards Airiolo. This all was very tiring and I could feel how I started to fall into some short naps during the flight. Gladly the flight was ending soon and I could rest a bit. While I walked towards Ariolo, I started to get hallucinations and realized that I was simply too tired to proceed. I tried to call Penny, but her phone was not working and I had to keep on going which was not a good experiance at all. Once I met up with Penny, we both had a nap for 40 minutes and things got better. That night, I was able to hike halof way up to Nufenen Pass. After 3.5 hours of solid sleep I hiked up to the top of Nufenen Pass and after a couple launching attempts (wind from behind) I managed to fly down to the Wallis. I had to land before the restricted airspace and hiked passed the controll zone and hiked up again over 1000 meters for a take off spot. We took it easy as I was pretty tired from the day before. This was just perfect in timing as the conditions turned on later that day from where I managed to fly almost down to Visp. I had to land short of Visp due very strong valley winds, but this flight saved me from a 35 km walk.In the mean time Andy Froetscher (Italy) was working hard to catch me. He seemed to always be about 10 km behind me for the last 3 days and tried several moves to catch up. At the last flight the valley winds got very strong and I managed to fly 5 km further then Andy to the next ridge where I could climb up high and was able again to be ahead of him. It might have been the timing that I flew further, but I think part of it is the Mentor2. The glide is amazing, but more so I stayed in full speed bar even if it got rough and when the wing collapsed I just got off the bar for a short moment. Now most 2-3 wings would fly faster but in rough conditions most can not use the extra speed they have. During the whole race I was very pleased with my wing, which allowed me to take off and land in very challenging terrain.After the flight I headed up to the Matterhorn turn-point with Andy following behind me. Just before 11:00 pm I called Andy and told him that I would like to finish the race with him and share the 14th position unless the conditions were flyable, then we would fly for the 14th position. Andy was all for it, the next day was completely overcast, we called Christoph (race director) and told him our plans and met up at the Matterhorn turn-point. Penny was prepared like always and hiked up with some cold beer for the finish. What a way to finish - way better than running a couple km ahead just to claim one better spot. Sharing an accomplishment is more rewarding especially when you raced so many days together.After the finish we had a long shower at the campground and headed to Monaco for the party. It was great to meet with the others and to share the stories. Stories and experiences seem to be the most important part, more so than the ranking. This also got confirmed at the awards by Hannes Arch. This is also what we could hear from so many other people who followed the race for these 2 weeks. They got addicted to the online "Live Tracking", photos and videos. Overall a great experience and entertainment for everyone.I would like to mention a couple thank you's to the people and companies who made this all possible:Nova Wings and team for the tips and the Mentor2Andreas Boehl and Flight design for the use of the CT to check out the route and the for giving me weather updates.Oma & Opa to watch the kids for the 2 weeks.Hannes Arch and Ulrich Grill for putting on the event, and to their whole teamThe Columbia Valley businesses and friends who donated services and products for the fundraiser (see details at http://www.flyingmax.com/xalps/sponsors-and-supporters/)And to all our friends and family who have given us so much support

Photos of the preparations just before the race

2011-07-16T07:53:00.000-06:00

Once we got the van set up, we drove to Innsbruck to get the Mentor2 light and from there to Fuschel am See to get ready for the race. Every team has to be there from July 13th on for meetings, orientations, press conference and some photo and tv shooting.

Enjoy the slideshow below

Current updates of the race at

2011-07-16T07:51:00.000-06:00

I wish I had some more time to update more of the last couple of days. We are very busy with the program, last minute preparations and the kids.

We are missing the kids already. Thanks again for Opa and Oma to look after them while we are gone.

You can get daily updates in text, photo and video about and off us at

http://www.redbullxalps.com/no_cache/athletes/athlete-diary/max-fanderl.html

Thanks for all your cheers and support.

Max, Penny, Katia and Erik

The clock is ticking ...

2011-07-09T07:49:00.001-06:00

We are getting closer and closer to the race start.
The last couple of weeks have passed very fast with all the action.

First of all, I am very happy to have my family back. Penny, Katia and Erik came last week and things have been even busier than before. (no surprise though) .

To go back a couple weeks....After I completed the flights with the CT (www.flightDesign.com), I traveled to Innsbruck to get my wing for the race.
The wing was a proto Factor2 which was has never been flown before. After my first flight, we decided to let Pipo (Nova Test Pilot) fly the wing as well to get his comments and feedback. It turned out the large Factor2 was by no means ready yet. They needed to do some changes within the canopy and as well as it needing to be trimmed. Time is running out, so Nova and I have decided that Nova build a Mentor2 in a light version. I am glad we did that instead of trying to finish the large Factor2, as it is already so late in getting the wing before the race start. Believe it or not, I still do not have it, but will pick up the wing on our way to Salzburg tomorrow.
Just to clarify, the Factor2 in small and medium sizes are finished and certified, and the large is just about there as well. I flew with Steve Nash (Team UK) for one week and he is very happy with his small Factor2.

For the past couple of weeks, Nova gave me a large Mentor2 demo wing, in order for me to get used to the wing. After Insnsbruck, I headed to Silian to meet up with my friends Stefan, Susanne and Wendelin at www.Bluesky.at. They are such super people and so friendly, and I only can recommend to stop by their store/school when you are going to the Dolomite's. Wendelin has competed for several years in the Dolomite Man competition, and seeing him a couple of weeks ago, gave me a great opportunity to discuss with him route details.
While staying at www.Bluesky.at, I met Richard Pethigal (Team Brazil) and we both hiked and checked out the route from the Tre Cime to Meran. The weather was not good at all and I headed back to Germany as it was time I put a couple of solid days of work in.

Not long after, I met with Steve Nash (Team UK) in Innsbruck. I traveled there by train and we continued to Meran to check out the route from Meran to PizPalue. We did it by train so we could move forward without having to worry about the car. The weather was only semi good for 2 days and the rest of the week we had some rain and the north Foehn. The first day we hiked up in the Meran area and stayed in a hut. The day after, we flew for about 20 km in north wind conditions (not the best for this area). We ended up on the Stilfzer Joch (second highest paved pass in the Alps at 2770m) via train and bus. The next day we hiked up to 3000m to find a great launch site. We managed to get off around 11:00 am and flew west of Bormio. The winds got stronger and we were not able to fly the route we planned. After landing and on our way to Livigno a local pilot convinced us to go up again for another flight and it turned out to be very mellow this time, but still not bringing us there where we wanted to go.
Later that day we headed to Livigno and the day after to the Piz Palue turn point. The "north" route was actually more challenging, as we thought it would be. It is the shortest way, but certainly not the easiest due the high mountain passes.

From Piz Palue we headed to St. Moritz and explored the route from there to Bellinzona, which included a great hike in the rain over a high pass. The weather did not look very promising and we decided to take the train to Locarno and then further west to Santa Maria Maggiore to see how the route would look heading direct to the Monte Rosa area and then over the high glacier pass, which Maurer took 2 years ago. This is for sure the shortest way, but for sure a very difficult stretch to fly around the no-fly zone and with a narrow valley below.

After that experience we headed back to Bellinzona and with no accommodation to be found, we ended up staying overnight beside the bike storage area of the youth hostel, which was also booked up. We stayed overnight x-alps style, sleeping in my wing.

The day after we headed up to the Sankt Gotthard pass without any flights as the north foehn was just too much. The weather did not look too promising to keep on going, so we took the train to Kempten (Germany) and we managed to get a great hike and flight the next day at Tegelberg flying over the Neuschwanstein Castle before Steve had to head back to the UK.

Since then I got a couple very good x-country flights with the Mentor2 before picking up Penny and the kids.

The week with the kids and Penny has been fantastic, and thanks to Oma and Opa, Penny and I have had some good times hiking and flying in the Allgauer Alps.

Now we picked up the rental car, got all the supplies organized and will be heading to Innsbruck to pick up my wing and then to Fuschel am See to camp with the kids and the grandparents. This will give us some time to explore the Salzburg to Dachstein area with hiking and flying.
Everything is coming together very nicely and our spirits are high. We are looking forward to the last week of preparations.

Max and Penny

Checking out the the route from Monaco to the Matterhorn

2011-06-18T07:44:00.002-06:00

Rain and thunderstorms everywhere. I guess we picked one of the worst weeks to check out the xAlps route from the air.
I took advantage of the weather and connected with Lloyd Pennicuik's (2009 Team Australia) friend Maria who stored all his maps at her place. Lloyd is lending us his hiking maps from the last race. Now I had some time checking out the maps and got confirmed what I could find out with Google Earth. Anyhow, the good old paper sure feels beats Google Earth on the trail, thanks Lloyed.

Evening June 9th, Andreas phones and tells me to get ready for the next morning as he thinks we have a chance to get down to Monaco and the day after we might be lucky to see more on the way back. June 10th at 7:00 am. It is miserable and raining in Kempten, Andreas phones and thinks we should wait one more hour. An hour later it is still raining and Andreas phones and asked me to come to the airport at 10:00 am. The weather is clearing in the west and south, but here it was not good at all. After Andreas phoned the airport in Konstanz to get a local weather update, they meant that you might be able to fly a circuit, he decided to go. After we where airborne we flew west in rain and min VFR and got pushed to the north due the weather and visibility.

At Geneva the weather got better and we were able to fly into the mountains at Albertville. From there we explored the xAlps route along Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne and headed up the pass via Valloire. The top of the pass was clouded in and and we had to head back to Albertville and fly to the west and following the big range of mountains passing by Grenoble. This roue was very interesting and now flying there makes a lot of sense why Alex Hofer flew this route in 2007. If you have a NW flow and cloud-base below 2600m this is the way to go as you have a long ridge to fly along instead of crossing big valleys and climbing big clouded in passes.
We flew right down to Barcelonnette and headed up the Colde la Bonette pass. From there we decided to fly back and land down in Barcelonnette to get some fuel. The airport guy was super nice and told us to fly to Gap as the fuel is way cheaper there. So we did, fueled up and flew back to Colde la Bonette pass and followed the valley down to Isolo. We did the mistake and turned into the Isolo valley as we thought that would be the way to go. Pretty soon we found out we were one valley to early. Good thing to find this all out in a motorized aircraft instead a paraglider. Even from there down to Monaco was not as obvious as you would think. I am glad we flew an extra loop around Sospel and Monaco as this all does not look as clear you would think.
From Monaco we explored the route back to Barcelonnette and stayed there over night.
The next day was blue sky and we started flying around 8:30 am and headed north from Barcelonnette to Col de Vars and then to Guillestre. From there we checked out the valley up to Briancon and then up Col du Galibier. The pass at Col Du Galibier is where we had to turn around the day before. From there we explored the Col de la Madaleine pass. From there we checked out the area going to Mt. Blanc. Mt. Blanc had a wild wave cloud on top.

Anyways, the weather was still go to check out the whole route around the Mont Blanc right to the Matterhorn. From the Matterhorn on it started to cloud in and we able to get to Furkapass and Neufenen Pass and the south was all covered in low cloud. I was happy to get in as much as we did and we headed back to Germany which was overcast but dry.Thinking back what we have done June 3/4th and considering the weather conditions, flying the CT was absolutely outstanding. The CT from www.flightDesign.com is an amazing airplane and really puts Ultralight flying into a different dimension. The speed, fuel economy, space (for 2 people) and handling is outstanding.
Thanks again Matthias and Henry to lend us your great plane for this job. We do appreciate this sponsorship a lot and will be proud to have your logo on my paraglider.
Also, I could not have done this without Andreas, as I like to mention, having the best tools does not really mean you are the best crafts man, thanks again to Andreas Boehl (www.flyingBoehl.de) who is not just an excellent pilot but also an amazing guy understanding the weather in the Alps.

Left Canada and now I am all over the place

2011-06-07T07:40:00.002-06:00

I left Canada on June 1st and since then I am all over the place.
The hardest part leaving Canada was the last 2 weeks in Canada as I missed the kids already then (and of course Penny as well). Now since I am here things are moving along pretty fast.
On June 3rd, I arranged my phone and Internet connection plans and headed to Krumbach to meet Andreas Boehl. Andreas is a former Phantom fighter jet pilot and logs 3000 hours in glider flying. Andreas offered to help me out in exploring the route with the CT from www.flightDesign.com.
For everyone who wants to get into powered flying in Germany and or is considering to buy the "best" ultralight on the market, check out his website at www.flyingBoehl.de.

The first day was very busy as we had to get the plane from Bagnang (airport near Stuttgart). We manged to get airborne from Bad Wörishofen at 6:00 pm and headed south into the Alps. We flew by the Schloss Neuschwanstein down to Innbruck and tried to get to Brixen over the Brenner Pass.

We had to turn around at the Brenner Pass due heavy rain showers, so we headed East and found a clearing where we could cross the main ridge of the Alps to check out the area around Brixen and up to Meran. In Meran the weather was terrible again and we had to turn around to the East. This way we could checked out the route backwards from Meran to Brixen, then south of Kronnen Platz to the Drei Zinnen (xAlps turn point) and then over Sillian to Lienz. Due the weather we decided to keep on flying east to Mauterndorf as we hoped to have a better chance to fly north across the main ridge of the Alps the next day. We landed at 9:00 pm just before dark and found a nice hotel for the night. Once we arrived at the hotel, it started to rain and kept raining hard the whole night. The next morning it was still a bit of rain, ground fog and dense overcast, not looking promising to get north over the main crest of the Alps. A local pilot told us about a pass where is always a approx. 50 m clearance to get to the north side or the Alps. We decided to give it a try and sure enough after circling up a valley between clouds we found the passage to bring us to the north side of the Alps.

The weather was good on the north side and we headed to the west and flew up to the Grossglockner. We where able to fly right up the Grossglockner pass but then the clouds stopped us to check out the higher elevations. From there we turned around and flew to the Dachstein Glacier (2nd turn point) and then to Salzburg and checked out the Gaisberg (first turn point of the xAlps). To get a better idea of the route, we flew from there again to the Dachstein and to the Grossglockner. It was well worth doing it and I got a much better idea about the route then just checking it out via Google Earth. From the Grossglockner we headed over Kufstein direct to Bad Wörishofen (Germany). The flight for this day was 3.5 hours.

The amazing part is, that we only burned about 72 liters of fuel for 6.5 hours (both days) of flying and flew an average of about 170 km/h (top 200km/h). Again, flying the CT is not the same you would think about flying an Ultralight, this plane outperforms a small Cessna, way more fuel efficient and you can fly through some pretty wild weather.

The next couple days I spend in Germany and I started to get back into my training routine. The first day I did a 4 hour climb up the "Gelbe Wand" via the new Klettersteig up to the Tegelberg. Wow, that was way more challenging then I expected. The climb itself took me just over an hour.

The day after I hiked from Immenstadt to Mittag, Steineberg and Stuiben (about 20 km) and ended up in a huge thunderstorm. The lightening show was fantastic and I was glad that we where not flying at all.

Today I hiked up Gruenten and had a fantastic view of the Allgaeur Alps right down to the Bodensee.

Tomorrows weather forecast looks promising as the thunderstorms are moving east and we have a chance to fly to Switzerland and then to France. Lets hope the weather will cooperate.

Max

flying in the Rockies

2011-05-30T07:36:00.001-06:00

We still had a lot of snow in May. The weather was very unstable and had very strong conditions. I got a couple nice flights in which was great to get used the new "Advance Lightness" harness. It took me a while to get it set up right. Flying with it is very comfortable and it took a couple flights to get used to it. I am very happy with it and the combination with the backpack is a very good combination.

Overall training went very well and adding the Invermere Fitness Centre aerobic and yoga sessions rounded up the whole training. Penny is in a very good shape as well.
Last weekend she did a 25 km trail run at Nippika and she came in 4th overall and 2nd in her age group. That is very good considering she run 27 km as she got lost in the first 10 km.

Last week I did the mistake by overstretching my back which resulted into some muscle spasm which forced me to slow down for half a week. Noting was lost in this week as I spend more time with Google maps to study the route.

Now I am getting ready to pack up my stuff as I will fly to Munich in a couple of days. Penny and the kids will follow June 29th and I miss them already.

Copper Point Resort is sponsoring Team Canada

2011-05-24T07:33:00.003-06:00

What a surprise.... Copper Point Resort had its first opening day on Friday May 27th and gave us a $2000 check to support Team Canada for the www.RedBullxAlps.com. We flew with BobbyJo (Marketing and Sales Manager) off Mt. Swansea and landed right beside the resort where we received the cheque. Pretty cool, would love to do more tandem flights like that!
While we packed up we also had the chance to greet the first hotel guest checking in.
Once you get into the area, check out the new resort, which is amazing and impressive, or check out their website at http://www.copperpoint.ca/,.
Thanks again Copper Point Resort, we do appreciate it.

What a great party and fundraiser we had

2011-05-23T07:31:00.003-06:00

Thanks to everyone who donated items for the silent auction and to all our great friends who came to the party.
Wow, that was a great one. We had about 150 people show up and everyone seemed to have had a blast.
On Saturday morning about 10 people hiked up Mt. Swansea (4 from the house and the rest from half way up the mountain). The flying conditions were not good at all as we had very strong SE gusting winds. No problem though, we just had a reason to start the party earlier as planned, and all of us had a nice hike down together.
Thanks again to Frank and Tracye for hosting the party at their house., and welcoming so many people to their home. Thanks also to Brian and Judy, Tracye's parents for all their help and hard work throughout the day and the evening, and to Brad for keeping the barbecuing going, and to Sarah for all her hard work with the silent auction. The best babysitter for the kids was the bouncy castle which Frank and Tracye organized. And a big thanks to Cheri for face-painting so many excited kids. The faces were just awesome. Also a huge thanks to everyone else who helped out to make the whole day such a great experience.

The party (BBQ and Silent auction) brought in just over $7000.00, which is amazing and a huge wow. We knew before applying how much money this race would cost us (about $20.000), but it is amazing how much support we received from the community willing and wanting to help us with our endeavour. See the list of supporters at
http://www.flyingmax.com/xalps/sponsors-and-supporters/

Check out the pictures (thanks Kathy Tam as she did most of the pictures) and everyone else who has some pictures, please load them up as well.

Team Canada xAlps fundraiser party

2011-04-22T07:26:00.001-06:00

Frank and Tracy are hosting the
Team Canada xAlps fundraiser party
May 14th
at their house at Lakeview Meadows.
Camping is available at Frank & Tracey's place or at our place.

FOR NON PILOTS:
BBQ, Silent auction, and jam night.
Burger & salads: $10/person (Kids: $5)
Burger, salads, keg beer (as much as you want till it's gone): $20/person

Silent auction:
Lots of great items to be auctioned.
If you have any items or services you would like to donate, please contact Penny.

Tracye organized a bouncy castle and Cherri Hann will do face painting for the kids.

Jam with Duncan McDonald.
Bring your instruments and friends who would like to jam it up. Dancing all evening too.

We will also have several harnesses set up as flight simulators, for anyone who would like to feel how it is to fly.

FOR PILOTS:
9:30 am pilots meet in front of Frank and Tracye's house
$10 for pilots who are hiking
$20 for pilots who want to get their wing driven up
$40 for pilots whw want to have a ride with their wing

X-country task will be assigned on launch.

Here are some photos from the 2009 fundraiser.

Hope to see you all.
Max & Penny

Easter meet at Panorama

2011-04-18T07:20:00.000-06:00

Easter is still a week away, but the Panorama Ski Resort closed on April 10 so we decided to hold our annal Easter Meet the closing weekend.
Friday was a perfect blue sky day and later in the afternoon some good flights could be logged. Trevor with www.SoarTheRockies.com did a maiden flight on his rebuild "Libelle" over the summit and between the paragliders. It was a fantastic show for everyone. When I arrived at Panorama and headed up the mountain, I watched Frank climb out and head out to the valley, and he landed at the Lakeside Pub. I got up there late and had to land at the resort, as we had another xAlps presentation for the resort in the early evening.

23 pilots showed up on Saturday, and between everyone, there were about 86 flights with lots lasting up to about 40 minutes. It was kind of high overcast and the sun was not strong enough to create the bigger thermals. It was a great day for pilots and spectators, as the sky was filled with pilots, and at the end of the day we had 8 pilots landing at the day-lodge.

On Sunday only about 7 pilots managed to get a flight in before the wing got too strong and was very cross at take-off. We wrapped up the event at noon and then enjoyed the "Slush-Cup" and some great afternoon skiing with family and friends.

One of my highlights was flying tandem with Katia and Erik. On the end, Erik and I shared 1st place for the event, as Erik dropped his easter egg from 300 feet right into the target and we ended up landing on target. Katia and I had a great flight but missed with our easter egg drop. The kids were very proud when they received their own trophies as the youngest competitors of the event.

I have put up some pictures at my picasa album, check them out and add more if you have some.

Happy landings from Erik, Katia, Penny and myself.

Training in March

2011-03-31T07:17:00.000-06:00

Training in March is coming along very well.
Even though spring does not seam to show any signs yet, training switched from X-country skiing to to hiking and walking.
Live and work is very busy and if I am not able to train during the day, I am spending a lot of time hiking and walking during the night hours.
I pretty much train every day to get into a routine. Most of my training is now walking and hiking for several hours with a full backpack. The backpack makes a big difference as this will also strengthen my core and shoulders.
Most of my walks I combine with climbing stairs. We do have a 40 meter vertical set of stairs going down to the beach which I will do at least 3-5 times after a multi hour fast walk including all my gear. The hikes are still in the snow and when the snow gets to soft or to icy I am wearing my snow-shoes. My plan is to do multi- hour walks/hikes for several days in a row and then train for a day or 2 in the gym.
You can see my progress on my MovesCount page or even see how I am doing compared to the other xAlper at http://www.movescount.com/groups/group1115-Red_Bull_X-Alps_Athletes

Penny at the cross country worlds masters in Silverstar

2011-03-14T07:15:00.001-06:00

Last week we headed to Silverstar with the whole family. Unreal how much snow these guys have and how much still was coming down in the week we stayed there.
Penny participated in 3 races and had the following results
15 km classic ski, 6th overall and fastest Canadian
1o km classic ski, 8th overall and fastest Canadian
30 km classic ski, 6th overall and fastest Canadian
Way to go Penny we are all so proud of you. Considering Penny raced only a 15 km and a 30 km in cross country ever before. Some of the worlds best coaches say "if she would now learn how to ski, she will be for sure one of the best skiers in Canada.
We had an excellent time there, we shared a suite with the Tamelin's (3 kids from 6 to 12) and the kids never had a dull moment. We spend time cross country skiing, down hill skiing, skating, toboggan, hot tubbing with rolling in the snow and tubbing. The kids loved tubbing the best.
I had enough time to get work done as we had very good internet connection and i got about 10 hours of cross country skiing in. Most of my skiing was at night and sometimes challenging due the poor visibility with all that snow. Skiing at night for up to 2 hours with poor visibility defiantly hones your orientations skills.

Training in February

2011-02-28T07:06:00.001-07:00

: Photo by Calum Neff

How is training going?

That is what I get asked most of the time from people meeting on the road.
All started very good except when I had a nasty cold which was affecting my lungs resulting of a no training period for about 10 days in January and February.
After the first week in February I could start in the gym and slowly get outside to hike, cross country ski, ski and walk.
Beginning of February we had same melting temperatures which got replaced soon with very cold temperatures dropping as low as -30 C and more snow. This season is a very good snow year here in the Rockies. Even today I was hiking up Mt. Swansea in a blizzard and there is no sign of spring yet.
Most of my hiking was with snow-shoes due either the sheer ice on the bottom of the mountain and the deep snow at the summit. When it got to cold I spend a lot of time in the gym to work on overall core strength.
Based on MovesCount.com I still logged 62 hours of training in February alone.
Suunto is behind MovesCount.com and has sponsored 10 xAlps athletes with T6d watches, a heart rate monitor, walking pad and biking attachment to log our training.
For February I was training most hours of the athletes who logged their times, this does not mean I was working out the hardest as this is not my goal. My goal is to work out every day and slowly bring it up to a level where I can train hard for 4-6 hours a day at least 5-6 days in a row without feeling any fatigue.
Keep on checking out our xAlps MovesCount Group to see what kind of training everyone is doing. Also make sure to check out my profile often at http://www.movescount.com/members/maxfanderl as I can win 1000 Euro if we get most of the hits/visits until the race.

xAlps presentations in the valley

2011-02-15T23:31:00.002-07:00

We have been asked several times to talk and do a presentation about our experiences during the 2009 xAlps and how we are preparing for the 2011 xAlps.
A week ago we did 2 "motivational" presentations for the Windermere Valley school and are most likely going to do the same for the other schools in the valley.

We were also asked to do a presentation for the "Wild Voices" which is part of "Friends of Kootenay National Park" and "Parks Canada".
We love to support this project, and this also gives us a great opportunity to, once again, thank all the local businesses who donated services and products for our 2009 fundraiser and all the other companies who supported us with gear and equipment we used in 2009.

The Presentation is Tuesday Feb 22nd, 7:30 pm at the David Thompson Secondary School in the theater.

See you there
Max & Penny

Paradise Ridge the easy way up.

2011-02-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

A friend (Rob Gardner) called me and asked if I had some time to play and could take a break from training. As mentioned in the previous blog, my lungs are plugged up and I need to give them a break, so I was game for a snowmobile tour up to Paradise Ridge (2500m ASL). This ridge is across from Panorama Mountain Village (local ski hill) and offers great views down into the valley we live.
We met more guys up there on their snowmobiles going skiing and boarding the "Canadian Style" and I managed to get a great flight in even with quite some wind from behind on take off.

How is training going?

2011-02-02T21:49:00.001-07:00

How is training going? - That is the questions I get asked the most the last couple of weeks.
Right now, I am not doing to well as I got a cold and it went right into my bronchitis. Meaning I have to slow down to give it a chance to heal. In the meantime I give Google Earth/maps quite a workout, which is as important as fitness.
In regards to fitness, Suunto sponsors 10 of the xAlps athletes a Suunto watch and heard rate monitor to log our training at www.movescount.com. Who has the most visits will get Euro 1000 from Suunto.
I will keep updating my training and I hope you keep watching my training process to count up my visits.

Happy watching/training

Follow my Moves at

Flying at our local ski hill - Panorama Mountain Resort

2011-01-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

We had some great holidays at home and got some good skiing and flying in at Panorama Mountain Village.
The weather was great and not to cold (compared to Calgary)

NOTE, our Easter Paragliding meet will be moved to April 9 and 10 as Panorama will be closed by Easter (April 24)

The video below was done December 30th.

Seasons greetings and a happy, healthy 2011

2010-12-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

Seasons greetings and a happy, healthy and successful 2011 to everyone.

We are having a wonderful time at home in Invermere with family and friends with swimming, skating, x-country skiing, downhill skiing and paragliding at Panorama.
Christmas day Penny and I flew down to the day-lodge. Penny was dressed up as an elf (more like a present with lots of loose green and red tissue wrapper) and me as Santa.

What a great day to fly as Santa and as an elf and then go skiing after with the kids.

xAlps training in Canada

2010-12-07T10:52:00.001-07:00

We are now in full swing with our training and will slowly work to our peak by mid June.
As most of you know, my better half and supporter, Penny Powers (she does not just sound powerful, she lives up to her name) has worked out and written an x-alps training program for me.
The goal is to be able to do 4-5 hour hikes with full gear for 4 days in a row without getting tired during and after the hikes.
Besides hiking and flying, I have a weekly schedule to train on the Lakeview Meadows stairs, at our rec-center to swim, and in the gym to work on core strength.
Right now the lake is frozen which also gives me the opportunity to Nordic ski at least 3 times a week in the evenings.
I am very lucky to be able to do all this training right from our house. As I work from the house, it allows me to work 8-10 hours a day and still have fun with my young family.

The video shows a couple hikes with toboggan rides and flying over the ice.

Paragliding at Panorama Mt. Resort

2010-12-04T11:44:00.001-07:00

The new owners of Panorama Mt. Resort are welcoming the Paragliding pilots for the 20010/11 season. This is now our 14th's season up there and we are getting again a special deal for pilots (if it is flyable).
Check out the guidelines at our Panorama page and get your wings and skis ready.

We are also planning to do some Santa flying over Christmas.
Anyone interested?

Seasons Greetings from Erik, Katia, Penny and Max

Nova Wings now available at www.flyingMax.com

2010-12-03T22:07:00.001-07:00

At our last trip to the Dolomite's, we had the chance to try the new Nova Mentor2 and this wing is just outstanding. I think most of you know that the Mentor 2 was at least the same or better performing then the Omega 8 from Advance in a bet between Tom Payne and Hannes Papesch.

This is absolutely amazing to have a 1-2 wing with a smaller aspect ratio and such a performance .

We also met with Nova at the Team meet and we talked about Nova sales in Canada. There are only 2 dealers, one on Vancouver Island and one in Ontario but no one in the Rockies.

Well we changed this now.
If you have any interest in a Nova wing, send me an e-mail to max@flyingMax.com

xAlps preparations are on the way and still having fun with the family.

2010-11-20T23:36:00.003-07:00

Since we got the news to be selected again for the 2011 xAlps, we are working hard on logistics and the mapping. This time we are working together with Steve Nash (Team UK). Steve and I are both Nova Team Pilots and decided to work together on the prep-work to get a good chance to be in goal with the others.

Besides working on maps and logistics we started already with some easy training on the mountain 3 times a week, Yoga 1-2 times a week and the odd time in the Gym.
Penny worked out a super cool program for me, which I am very excited about it. It is all about to be able to workout hard 4-6 hours a day for 5 days in a row without getting depleted.
Sounds impossible, but I am convinced with Penny's supervision it all can be done.

In the mean time I have tons to do with www.Appointment.com and still have time to enjoy my family with skating, hockey, bike rides, playing in the snow, reading with Katia and yes also with flying.
Have a look at the video I flew with Penny and Katia. Erik was kind of bummed not to be in the video, but believe me, he gets his fair share of flying as well.

RedBull xAlps 2011

2010-10-25T22:55:00.002-06:00

Today we got the news that we have been selected to be one of the 30 teams to compete in the 2011 www.RedBullxAlps.com. We are super excited to be there again.
I sometimes wonder what it is that brings us back to this event? It is very time consuming and expensive to get prepared for it and during the race, which takes about 2 weeks, it drains all your strength and power one has. But it's addictive and an experience and challenge like no other, and Penny and I are in it together.

I like to stress one important part, this all would never be possible without the help from Penny and the kids, they are the best I can ask for. And thanks for all the support and help we have from our community, family and friends.

Fun with the kids - heading to the Dolomite's

2010-09-18T22:03:00.002-06:00

Already September??? Man, time is just flying by here.

August was great and we had a ton of fun. Right after the www.LakesideEvent.com event we spend a lot off time at the beach and in the air. I did a ton of tandems with the kids and friends. Flying x-country is fun, but very cool is if your own kids want to share your hobby with you.

End of August we headed up to the "Nation Lakes" (3 hours North of Fort St. James). We did a 9 day kayak and canoe paddle with the whole family and the Kubian's (Rick, Ange, Micheal and Adam). This was a true adventure to travel only by Canoe and Kayak over 130 km and not to see anyone.

Follow this link to see pictures, be warned there are a lot of pictures and they might get boring for you.

After we got back, the weather was not the best for flying so I started with my training to loose some of the accumulated weight. This involves about 4-5 Mt. Swansea hikes per week with and without gear and with yoga sessions. All feels good and it is amazing how fast you can get back into shape again.

Today we (Penny and I) had a intro to kite surfing at Cochrane. Pretty good fun and we love it. We think we are going to start this winter on the lake.

Another reason why we are in Calgary is that I am heading to Germany tomorrow evening. First we planned to go with the kids, but now with Katia going to school (yes grade 1) I ended up going myself. I will meet up with 4 other Canadians to visit the "Free Flight" expo at Tegelberg and after this we are heading down to the Dolomite's with www.Bluesky.at. This will be a bit hectic as I will have to keep on working during the evening hours with my daytime job for www.Appointment.com.

I will keep you posted during the trip.

34th annual LakesideEvent.com

2010-08-14T08:16:00.001-06:00

The 34th annual LakesideEvent.com splash down was simply said amazing and magical. Friday we had huge thunderstorms and the weather forecast for Saturday was so so.
Saturday morning the valley was covered by fog and low clouds. We had 15 Hang glider pilots and 30 Paraglider pilots show up at the 8:30 am morning briefing. Once we got up to the launch (around 10:00 am) the south wind already picked up and the clouds and fog was breaking. See some pictures from Stewart's Photo Album.

Eventually the south wind got to strong for paragliding and only hang gliders where in the air. We had a lot of spectators on the beach and even Brewster come down with a full busload of spectator. While hang gliders where flying we did a ground-handling demonstration. One with a modern serial class wing and I had the opportunity to play with a 1989 Birdwing (I flew this kind back then). What an experience for me and spectators could see colored wings and activity. I think I even saw Jeff starting a hula-hop competition. Then just as asked for, the wind died down and we could start flying again.The wind shifted from south to north and eventually got to strong to land at the Lakeside Pub (around 5:30 pm). Everybody could get their flights in and some could log up to 4 flights. I did 3 tandems, one with my son Erik and his teddy, the second with the Columbia Valley Pioneer reporter Kate and the last one with Penny's sister's son Declan. Katia (my daughter) did not feel to good to go flying and the wind got kind of to strong anyways, so she enjoyed the beach and the many other kids to play with.

The www.LakesideEvent.com is not a hardcore flying meet where pilots fly long distances. This meet is more to show all the non-fliers what we have fun with and to raise interest in our sport. This event is also a social event for all the pilots, friends and families to get together to socialize and have fun. And this is exactly what we did, after the flights, everyone enjoyed the beach and then headed to the Lakeside pub for dinner. They had a great buffet ready which was leading into a fantastic party and dance with the Electric Squirrels. The Electric Squirrels are a great dancing band playing just about anything, thanks again for playing until 1:30 am.
Before I forget, during a music break we had our boat race between Hang glider pilots and paraglider pilots. This was a close race and had to be done twice. This year the paraglider pilots will be on the trophy (sponsored by CJ92). Can't wait who will be on it next year.

All in all it was a great event, for everyone who did not come, you missed a good one.

Here are a couple thank you's to make this all happen. First I like to thank Frank and Tracey to run this event and to keep everyone inspired and more so to back it financially, meaning to somehow make this work with the needed cash sponsors. Also a huge thank you to all the volunteers for their time and efforts and to the Search and Rescue group who come up from Kimberly to monitor the top of Mt. Swansea.

Sponsors and supporters where:
www.CopperSideCondos.com, www.InvermereHardware.com, www.ColumbiaRiverOutfitters.com, www.Appointment.com, www.PanoramaResort.com, www.MullerwindSports.com,
Inside Edge Sports (Invermere), Kickinghorse Coffee, Rocky River Grill (Invermere), Rona (Invermere), The Rainbow Dunky (Kids clothing in Invermere), Valley Foods (AG foods Invermere), Valley Hair Styling (Invermere), Oasis Gifts (Invermere),

Flying meets in the summer

2010-08-06T10:40:00.001-06:00

Spring and beginning of the summer was not the best for flying. We had a lot of wind or it overdeveloped very fast.
July 17th (start of the "Willi") was the first opportunity to get a bigger flight in, I called Stewart Midwinter and Ron Ford and sure enough we got a flight from Golden to Invermere (110km). It must have been at least 5 years back that I flew with Ron this flight the last time. Steward landed at the Invermere airport and got a ride back to Golden to retrieve his car. I was not able to participate in the remaining week of the Willi due work.

The following Friday evening I watched Eric Oddy from Brisco when he did his kind of training and warm up for the Rocky Mountain thermals. Check out the video, he was not able to fly the day after as planned, but he flew in the Canadian Nationals.

On the last day of the "Willi" I tried to fly from Invermere to Golden for the big dinner party, but got washed down at Edgewater (40 km from Invermere) by strong north winds. Later this evening we (the family, Frank, Dominic and Jeff) drove to Golden for the dinner. What a blast we had to meet all the old friends and the many of the new pilots. Most pilots did not fly this day as the conditions where very strong and rough. Later this evening the pilots go further challenged with Katia's hula-hoop competitions. Just great to see that kids can have a lot of fun at events like this as well.

The next day (Sunday) we got in a morning flight with Penny and a tandem with Erik. I headed up again and got another great flight from Golden to Invermere (112 km)

Monday morning Stewart and I drove up to Golden for the pilots meet. I am not really a comp kind of guy as I like more x-country flying without watching how some people act and let things get into their heads due a competition. Yes, a comp is something to take serious, but you still can have fun with it to. I had a blast at the Canadian Nationals and really enjoyed to fly with over 40 people the whole week long. The best flights/tasks where the first 2 days, one was going down to Invermere (108 km task) and the 2nd was going north to Donald Station, back to Mobily and then land at Chris Mullers old place at the Blaeberry (I think 50 km plus). The other days where some times windy or the forest fires in the province shut down the thermals. Thanks to Bruce and all his volunteers to make this such a great meet. If you like to get more details, follow this link to Nicole's blog where she posted all the results.
Another thing what stood out was the new Ozone R 10.2 glider. Man, that things is very impressive and I have to say it certainly sets a new standard in performance. Even when it got windy and more tricky to fly, these guys where still finishing tasks when most of us where not able to finish the task.
These guys certainly made me think about to get one. At the same time I wonder when this knowledge can be used in the serial wings. Right now we have great wings to thermal but as soon we need some speed, we are done. Although, it is already impressive where we are today when I think back to my first flight in 1987.

The last week I was back at work and we are just getting ready for the 34th www.LakesideEvent.com.

Hope to see many of you there.

Lumby meet

2010-06-23T15:33:00.001-06:00

June 11th to 13th we took our VW Westfalia camper van to Lumby with the kids. What a great experience, the kids loved the camping, Lumby days with all the activities and the parties in the evenings. Randy Rauck did an excellent job organizing the event and what really made this event so great was that all pilots/friends/families could camp on site, party and share their stories.
Friday was very warm but still very unstable we only got a couple sled rides done late afternoon.
Saturday started great but turned to a stable day. Only one person (Claudio) made goal in paragliding and John McClintok in Hang gliding. The days where hot and I am certainly not used to wait for a long time on sunny launch sites without a hat. After 2 hours of flying I got a huge headache (due dehydration) which made me land (after a total of 2.5 hours flying time). I was kind of bummed as I knew I could have done better then 10th for the day.
Sunday was sunny and hot again with a strong wind in the forecast. After we where on launch at Copper, the task got moved to Saddle Mountain (across from Copper) we decided to follow Randy Parkin and fly at "Boldy" (by Vernon) After I launched I could sky out to over 2000 meters and headed to Lumby. The winds got stronger and the wind was blowing along the Lumby ridge, which forced me to land just south of Lumby.
Overall a great flight considering that really no flights could be done from Saddle Mountain and the comp ended with only one task.
Sunday was also the 1st day of the Canadian Hang gliding Nationals and there was a great crowed for Sunday night as well. We stayed one more night and again I could see again how much fun the social part of flying events can be.
My message is to not only see a Comp/Event as a serious competition and get stressed about it. See these Comps/Events as a reason for a good party, good flying and a great learning experience as you fly and talk to many people alike.
Our next meet we will attend will be at Wasa, BC for the fun XC meet on July 2,3 and 4 2010.
More details at http://hpac.ca/pub/?pid=229

May had a lot of unstable weather - Equipment review

2010-06-09T16:48:00.000-06:00

April started out great for flying, May had a couple good days but overall it was very unstable and not many flights were happening. In the mean time we have been busy with the canoe's (incl. camping), bike rides, kids' soccer and at the Skateboard park (Erik's favorite place to ride his bike).
Penny did a lot of training and got super fit for her 25 km trail run at Nippika. They had a couple hundred participants and Penny was 3rd overall and got 1st place in her age group. Way to go Penny!!!

In the mean time I'd thought I'd share some of the questions I. have've had. Several people have asked me about the harness/backpack and the MBT's I used during the race.

The Altirando XP from Supair was the harness I used and still use. This harness is excellent and I just love it. Here are a couple remarks of what I love most about it.

The backpack is very comfortable to carry and most outstanding is the ability to pack it flat and tall as this keeps the weight close to your body. The further you move weight away from your body, the heavier it will feel. My pack weighs about 14-17 kg depending on supplies (5.5 kg the wing, 3.9 kg the harness/backpack, 1.4 kg reserve plus helmet, clothes, GPS, Vario and water/food.
The harness is very comfortable to fly and allows you to assist turns with weight shifting. The Nova Triton needs a harness which allows you wight shift in combination with break-line input as it can not only be flown by break-lines.
The extra bonus is the leg fairing or pod you can attach (0.850 kg). This is excellent as it saves you from wearing extra pants or a flight suit (a flight suit alone is at least 1.3 kg). It is warm, streamlined and fits nice with the front-mount reserve. The front-mount reserve is also serving very well as a cockpit for your Vario and GPS.

I am very happy with that harness as it is way more compact and with the extra packing space if needed I can add more stuff to go traveling with this pack alone.

In the video below you can see how the pack carries and a short clip about MBT sandals. MBT is not a good shoe for trails in the mountains as it an unstable shoe with far less traction than proper mountain shoes. But at the same time, I have to say that I would not have been able to walk these long distances (especially in the valley's) for this many days in a row and to be able to recover so quick with only a couple of hours of sleep a night, had I not been wearing the MBT's. I am still wearing MBT's every day as I have sandals, runners and dress-shoes.
Here are the reason what I like on these shoes the most.

The round sole virtually makes you walk and feels very soft.
The MBT system forces you to have a upright posture and this is a mayor advantage as a upright posture will provide you with a good blood circulation for the organs and you will not get tired as fast as with a bend over posture.

First I got told to use MBT only for training as it builds up your core strength but not to use them for the race. After all the experiences I had with MBT, I am training with them and would use them in the race any time again.

Picking up a VW Westy by air.

2010-05-16T21:30:00.004-06:00

This year we are staying at home (Canada) and Penny really wanted a camper van. Well we kept looking on the net and came across a 1984 VW Campervan (290.000 km) and in good shape. There is some rust which needs some attention, but other then that it is a beauty.

The only problem we faced was to get to Vernon (6 hour drive) and back. The weather was great and we could rent a Cessna 172 from www.BabinAir.com to fly to Vernon and get Calvin (from BabinAir.com) to fly back the plane.
So we started to get my check out "Touch & Goe's" in Invermere before heading to Vernon. The flight to Vernon was just amazing, blue sky, a couple clouds here and there. There is still a lot of snow in the mountains and the glaciers looked magnificent. We flew from Invermere to Panorama Mt. Resort and crossed the Purcell's over Jumbo Pass. What a great view, a ocean of mountains and glaciers. We could see from the Kokanee Glacier up to the Bugaboos. We crossed over the Arrow Lakes (by Nakusp) to Lumby and down to Vernon.

I have flown over the Purcell's many times and every time it is like a new experience. All I can say to all the locals and who is coming to this area, go to www.BabinAir.com and take a flight as words and pictures will not justify the experience. For all the Paraglider pilots, hang glider pilots and people who like the no-motorized flying, see Trevor at www.SoartheRockies.com and to take you up to the glaciers with his Duo Discuss.

Early start to fly XC in the Valley

2010-04-23T14:00:00.001-06:00

Since we are back in Canada, we had a lot of good weather and great flights. Beginning of April I had several flights to cloud-base (+3000m). The thermals where big and easy to fly but my hands got cold very fast and I had no intension to go XC.
Now last Wednesday (April 21st) we had up to 27 Celsius at our yard and great flying conditions. Jeff, Dominic and I got ready around 1:00 pm to head up Mt. Swansea. The thermals came already through and we launched right away. The first 15 minutes in the air where a bit choppy with a SE wind drift, but soon I could get high enough to head north. It was a blue-thermal day which made things a bit more challenging but the conditions got better by the hour. I planned to fly to Golden and back, but once I got to Harrogate (about 4:30 pm), my ground speed slowed down to 10-15 km/h as the wind from the north got stronger, so I decided to turn around and fly back home. On the way back at Spillimachine I got up to at 4000m (with a small cloud) where I had a great view of the snow covered Rockies to the east and the Glaciers at the Purcell's in the west.
Flying home from there was easy going and I got back to our house with plenty of height. I could have flown at least to Fairmont Hot Springs of even to Canal Flats which would have resulted in a 165 km plus flight. But after 5 hours and 125 km in the bag it was much nicer to land right at my backyard watching my kids play and Penny getting ready to head up for an evening flight. After I packed up and we where just about to head up the mountain again, the North wind got to strong on the ground and we ended up drinking a "Landing Beer" with friends.

You can see the flight details at
http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:maxfanderl/21.4.2010/19:41

Here are a couple pictures of the flight

just about 4000m looking south from Spillimachine

Same location looking north

Easter Fly-in Meet at Panorama

2010-04-06T20:37:00.002-06:00

Photo by Stewart Midwinter

We think this year was the 13th Easter Fly-in meet. Our main goal was to come back from Europe early enough to keep on running this great event. Our prep-time was kind of short, but we still had 28 pilots show up, who came along with their families and friends. The main reason why we started this event was to have fun with family and friends. This is not just an idea I have now because I have 2 little kids (Katia 5 years old and Erik 4 years old), it already started 13 or 14 years ago. We don't often see a lot of family and friends come along on flying trips, as hanging out at launch or at the landing site soon gets boring for them. But at Panorama, the resort is ideal for everyone. If the family or friends aren't skiing, they can also go shopping, go to the spa, or swim in the great outdoor pool (and watch the paragliders from there) The best part of it all for the pilots is that there is virtually no "Para-Waiting". If the winds aren't right at the moment, we go for a run, check out the landing, and go back up to try again.

Because of all this, we saw more families and partners out this year. Bob and Natalie Gardener were here with 4 generations of their family (I think about 12 people) to celebrate Easter and having fun.

Here is a quick update of the event:
Friday we got one flight in the morning before the conditions got too strong for flying. Friday night we did an x-alps presentation and showed the RedBull 2009 x-Alps movie.
Saturday we set up in the morning. and all went to the launch with our wings, but it turned very quickly into a very windy day. So "Para-Waiting" turned into a ski-day and some of us had races top to bottom with our packs. Jeff Grieve was the outright winner!. Saturday night we had a great dinner at RK Heli-plex. The rest of the night we spent at the T-Bar, and of course had our traditional "Boat Races" (thanks to Frank, sponsoring most of the beer), but it resulted to some headaches the next day.
Sunday was a blue sky day and we started as early as 9:30 am to fly. The conditions were so good that we could sky-out around noon. Stewart Midwinter and Raul could not resist the lift and decided to fly out to the Lakeside Pup in Invermere, while we were still doing target landings at the resort. After we wrapped up the meet at Lustie's patio aropund 1:00 pm several of us headed up the mountain again and 5 other pilots flew out and landed at the Lakeside Pub. Some pilots decided not to fly as it seemed to easy as Raul flew 2 times to Invermere that day (I am a bit sarcastic here). The flight out was amazing, not too easy as it started to cloud in a bit. The clouds where not big and the cloud base didn't seem too high, but we could still get high. A few of the clouds were even dumping snow. It took a while to get enough height over the top ridge. Once you got up, there was tons of lift and some of us flew between 12.000 and 13.000 feet. It was spectacular when you flew into the Windermere valley over the valley clouds. I flew right over to Mt. Swansea and ended up in snow and decided to fly back to the Lakeside Pub.
What a great weekend.
Thanks again to all the volunteers, Panorama Resort for all their amazing support and donation of such fantastic prizes, and to everyone who come. Thanks also to Glenn Derouin (www.paraglidecanada.com), Trevor Florence (www.Soartherockies.com and Kootenay Coffee for their donation of prizes.
The winner this year was Glen Comfort, 2nd Glenn Derouin, and in 3rd place was Scott Watwood.

We are back home ...

2010-03-31T06:47:00.001-06:00

ard to believe we are home already. We have been in Europe for 10 month and already back in Canada for 1 week. Now looking at this blog, we must have been busy as we did not update this since December. Well, this will change as I like to share so many ideas and new things I have seen and experienced.
Here is a short review of the last couple month. Starting with December. Like everyone else, we have been busy with Christmas and to start with the ski season. Skiing was amazing and we had most of the time very good conditions. The kids did very well on skies and started to snowboard (see attached video) as well. We did not bring our skies and run into some really good deals at one of the countless "Ski-Basars". Penny and I picked up a very good set of touring skies (binding, skins and crampons) for 100 Euro each. To get most our of the great skiing around the Allgaeu and Austria, we purchased a Season Pass (only 355 Euro) for about 20 ski resorts. Meaning we had had 580 km on downhill runs within a 45 minute drive from our home.
It even got better with the "Kindergarten" system we had the kids in. They spend 5 days a week from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm in Kindergarten and had a blast, learned to speak a better Germany then I do and we could go skiing almost every day. 3 times a week Penny was going to school and took German lessons and the rest of the time we had a very good Penny & Max time. I still could work full steam as I worked most of the time during the evening hours (from 6:00 pm to midnight or 1:00 am, which is daytime in Canada) and a little bit during the day. Everything was perfect, maybe a little tiering with the full schedule, but for sure a lot of fun. The kids had a great time with all the local activities and the Grand-Parents. It was great as they lived just one apartment below. So they could go downstairs any time and if needed we had baby sitters very close by. In January we run into a pretty sweet deal with MEC. We did a 12 day Mediterian Cruise for 798 Euro (the whole family with outside/balcony room and food) Starting in Genua/Italy, to Barcelona/Spain, to Funchal, Madeira/Portugal, to Teneriffa, Canary Islands/Spain, to Arrecife, Lanzarote (Canary Islands) / Spain, to Malaga, Andalusien/Spain, to Civitavecchia (Rom)/Italy and back to Genua/Italien. What a great experience and fun we had while I was still able to work.
We did one more weekend trip to Praque (also a must see City) and the rest of the time we enjoyed the great skiing in the Alps with our area seasons passes.

Now being back for a week, we had great weather and I already had 4 hikes up to Mt. Swansea with 2 great flights right up to Cloud-base (3100m and once at 2800m) and one day of skiing at Panorama. Now we are getting ready for our Easter Fly-in Meet next week.

Update of summer and fall 2009

2009-12-08T13:49:00.013-07:00

It is already December and we had an amazing summer and fall.
We where so busy with all the cultural events, enjoying the amazing infrastructure of the the alps, we did countless hikes and flights all over the place.
As you can see, we are still in Germany. Since September the kids are going into a German kindergarten 5 times a week from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. Penny is taking and enjoying German lessons 3 times a week.
In the mean time we have held several x-alps presentations and came up with a online slideshow here in the blog.

Everything is in best order, we enjoy every day in Europe and at the same time we miss Canada, our friends and the community. Pretty soon, in March we will be back and get ready for the easter meet.

Thanks again to everyone who was helping and cheering for us at the 2009 x-alps.

Here are a couple videos of our adventures

X-alps 2009 slideshow

Flight in the Dolomite's

Hike and fly in my local area

Here is another way how we get our heard rate up (5 times a week in the morning)

Seasons Greetings and a very good, healthy 2010

Max, Penny, Katia and Erik

x-alps statement and more details

2009-08-12T14:59:00.036-06:00

It has now been a few weeks since the completion of the Red bull X-Alps, and it has given us time to reflect and write this blog.

We are having a great time here in Germany. We are all recovered, no more dreams of having to get up to get ready for the next hike, where will we take off and what route will we go. The kids love it, Penny is settling in to the "local lifestyle", I have high speed Internet and am able to work from here without any problems, the beer is good and cheap, so everything is just pefect.

The main question I am hearing, is if I would go for the 2011 x-alps again?

I am very happy with my 13th place finish this year. I did have a good chance to be in the top 10, if I would have choosen the "North Route", as I was sitting in 9th spot with 48 hours to go. The weather seemed to be in favour for the north the days I was traveling through that section, but had already positioned myself in the south. The "South Route" did have a lot of wind and it was hard to gain distance. It is not that the north or south route is better, it all depends on the wind and weather at the time you are there. Christian Maurer (winner) took the "South Route" and Alex Hofer (2nd) the "North Route" and both where very successful in both areas. It is just how you hit it, and being in the right place at the right time.

The major aspect that seperates the top pilots from the middle and end of the pack is the skill level of these pilots and some of them, being from around here, have a lot of local knowlege. The top finishers are exceptional pilots though, are in a class of their own, and did take more risks than I did. If I would go for the next x-alps, I would have to spend at least 2 months with a motor glider (motor sail plane) to really explore the whole route and fly it several times to get more familiar with the area and different valleys and landing areas. I also think the next x-alps, you will see more professional mountain guides as supporters, as had Christian Maurer.

Another important point is if I/we are willing, and able, to to free up the necessary time for training and also the time for the training in Europe. Further more, it is a matter of money as well. This race cost us more then $20.000. We were able to raise $10.000 at our fund raiser, but our personal costs exceeded $10.000. Thanks a lot to everyone again who came out to support us and spend money at the BBQ and on silent auction items. This obviously was such a huge help to us. We had a couple product sponsors too, (which I will mention in a bit) who helped us as well. The biggest expenses are the airplane tickets, car rental costs, gas, shoes and hiking boots. (I had about 12 pairs of shoes & boots through training and the race), phone, internet costs during the race (checking google earth, routes etc), maps, GPS, light weight equipment, and the wing, not to mention the time you are not working.

We got the wing for about $3000 from Nova. I was very happy with the wing as it certainly was better then most wings in glide. Ogi even thinks that the Triton is pretty close in glide with his Bommerang. Very good from the performance perspective and even better if you look at the saftey aspect as the large Triton is rates as a EN "C" wing.

Vincene Muller with www.MullerWindsports.com sponsored me with the Apco "ChairBag" harness. This is a very comfortable harness. The reserve is under the seat and the harness is reversable and very light. For the race I ended up with the SupAir Altirando XP which I got sponosred from SupAir. The reason why I chose this harness over the Apco is because the backpack is developed by mountaineers, is extremely comfortable and perfect for the hiking I had to do. I did not once have sore sholders during the race. The harness also has an optional leg fairing (pod) and an additional bag which can be mounted on top of the backpack. The backpack itself is very large and easily fit in my large triton, helmet, and other gear.

Craft clothing line, who sponsored me with clothing, has such an excellent line of clothing for active sports people. I used a sweater which was perfect for warmth around the neck, which is so important, and at the same time it drew the sweat off my body, and believe me I was sweating!! Very impressive is their underwear. I wore this during night time hiking, and again, your body never stays wet from sweating, you stay warm, but do not over heat either. It is hard to explain, but it certainly is different from what I have used in the past. Once you use the "Craft" line of clothing, you will not use anyting else.

Ark'teryx supplied me with a light Gore Tex jacket and pants which I used as my fly gear. The pants and jacket together, weigh only 590 grams. I did not have to use the pants too often though as the leg fairing of the harness (pod) was so good and kept me very warm. The jacket was awesome, keeping all air and wind out, keeping me very warm.

Another sponsorship which I was very grateful for was the "MBT" shoes. During training, I tried a number of different styles, and found the best for me, and the best for the different conditions I would be in. The shoes made it possible to walk long distances, on the pavement and on some hikes, without any pain and too much blistering. I had no problems with my knees, as I had in the 2007 X-alps, and by the end of the race, all I had was swollen feet, swollen achilles and a couple blisters. I would say this is normal with the kind of walking and hiking we ended up doing! I did not use any regular runners, only the MBT hiker, runner or sandal, or a solid hiking boot.

I would like to mention a few people I met because of the x-alps and have become very good friends with. Thanks to Till Gottbrath (Team Nova leader and owner of KGK) who connected me with Craft, Ark'teryx and with Garmin. His connections helped me get these product sponsors. Thanks also, and again to, Michael Phol (one of the best Austrian x-country pilots and super nice guy). Michael helped me in route planning and took time off to meet and fly with me before the race. Mik Broschart, simply a super nice guy, who was always there to help any way he could. Lloyd Pennicuik and Lewis Nott - Team Australia, who I spent some time with before the race and found that we were together quite a lot during the race. And of course, our great friend, Frank Kernick - 2007 supporter, who convinced me to go me into the x-alps, who helped raise funds to cover some of the expenses, sponsored me by paying for some expenses and joined me in Europe for a week prior to the race to check out the Frensh Alps.

Since the race, we have done a few presentations about the event, with information from the preparations (training, nutrition, logistics), the race itself, and the variety of equipment we used. Please feel free to drop me an e-mail if you have any questions.

The race is over

2009-08-08T00:34:00.011-06:00

The race is over ... Not quite for our minds yet.
Our bodies are almost recovered and we are already catching up with work and getting things organized.

The race was very intense and it was impossible to update this blog. We updated our race blog at the www.RedBullxalps.com. Check it out, there you can read others and see a gallery of photos and videos as well.

I have to say that I had a lot of fun doing the x-alps adventure with Penny this time. Not that Frank was a bad supporter for the 2007 x-alps. Actually he was way easier and more human with me than Penny was. To be a supporter and a team for the x-alps is a huge test on your friendship and partnerships. We have seen some teams never talk to each other after the race, and on the other hand, it connects can also connect an amazing bond. As you all know, Frank and I are still very good friends and now Penny and I are even talking about marriage!!! Whew

I know that a lot of you want to know how we are doing and want to hear about what happened during the race. Most questions are:
How was it?
What was so special about it?
Would you do it again?

Here is in short was I/we think about it:

I have to admit, having my kids and Penny as my partner is still the most exciting adventure of all. But following in excitement right behind is the x-alps. What makes it so unique is that you are so fully involved 24/7 for numerous days on end. Nothing in the outside world even filters into your mind, work, kids, news, rumours. For both myself and Penny, we realized the focus we had and the concentration you have on the moment, you are absorbed in everything about the race. You do know the overall plan for the race, in where and how to go, but being able to do it physically, you need to concentrate on the moment you are in and this allows you to push the limits of physical stress or fly in conditions you never would fly in.
If someone tells you that you only can sleep 2-4 hours a day and have to hike up to 4000 meter in elevation or 50 km or further distances a day, for 12 days without a shower or bath, everyone would say you are crazy. The most amazing part is how the power of your mind can allow your body to do it.
As an example, one day I started hiking at 3:30 am, almost fell asleep walking along the road at 6:00 am, but Penny gave me a Red bull and I was a new person!! Then was flying at 11:00 in lee thermals while we had plus 100 km/hr winds build up behind the mountain. Eventually I got flushed down and managed to land in very steep and alpine terrain in the dolomite's, hiked over another pass (1000m elevation gain) and decided at 5:00 pm to hike up the 3300m Marmolada Glacier and rock climb in 120km/hr winds and to be down at 10pm in time for a pub to still be open and feed us spaghetti and beer. All this in one day and we were out there for a total of 12 days or so ( I already forgot how long it was) This was also one of two meals we were able to eat in a town at a restaurant!
Out of this ordeal, all I had was a couple blisters at my toes, heels and hands. I had swollen feet and archilles tendon which is all good again.

I am more amazed how Penny did all she did. She kept the van clean, had my bed ready when it was needed, got up an hour before I got up to have breakfast ready and the morning worked out, worked on the computer checking other athletes routes and updates on weather, had all the technical details in order, cooked, and made sure I have all the liquids and gear I needed and to top it off, she hiked all the mountains with me and most of the peaks to help carry up gear and supplies. Ask her how much her backpack weighed and she will tell you at least 30lbs of extra gear, food and water - she was probably right. Where ever I flew down, she hiked back down, up to 2500m elevation differences, and somehow found time to stop in at a grocery store to restock, and then catch up to me again. Most amazing part is that she always had a smile in her face and was still talking as much as usual and what you know of her.

Now would we do it again?
Hard to say, It is an amazing adventure. The competition is extremely strong (Paragliding World champions and world cup winners) and the main benefit to most of the Europeans is that they know the alps and routes very well. They had alternate route plans and take off sites dependent on weather conditions, winds and time of day. Most of them are extremely good pilots and willing to take huge amounts of risk in how they fly and where they fly. To compete with these kind of guys is very hard. If I would do it again, I would have to spend at least the same time in physical training as I did for this race and next time I would travel the route for 2 month with a motor glider (sail plane).
It is too soon for me to make a decision on whether I would go through all this again. We still have some some time to think about it.

Even though my body's aches and pains and feet are back to normal, and the fatigue has diminished, we are both still having "nightmares" about where to launch, how is the weather, what are the valley winds doing, have we over-slept. It still takes both of us a couple minutes to realize where we are and that the race is actually over. We have both enjoyed a few flights this week.............hiking up 800m elevation gain, even when there was a perfectly good gondola right above our heads!!

We want to thank so many of you for helping us getting to this race. All your support at our fundraiser was incredible. It is a huge undertaking and a huge expense, and with your support helped make it a reality for us. And thank you too for all your comments on our guest book. I am sorry we didn't have time to respond, but we enjoyed reading them when we found a moment.

Max & Penny

Final preparations

2009-07-17T03:42:00.004-06:00

I had a couple days to get everything ready for the kids and Penny. It was about time to see them again. Thursday morning they arrived on time and a different adventure has begun. It took the kids a couple days to get adjusted to the time change. Good x-alps training... waking up at 2:00 am, singing, playing and going for early walks (with the kids). We spend 5 days in Kempten and now we are in Fuschel am See at a camp site. Thanks to Oma and Opa to help out with the kids. They will look after them while we are in the race. Right now we are in the middle of briefings and final preparations for the race. You can find more updates and sign our guestbook at www.redbullxalps.com

Max, Penny, Katia and Erik

Gross Glockner and Watzmann

2009-07-08T05:25:00.022-06:00

After I left Sillian, I drove the Gross Glockner Road to Zell am See. 28 Euro's to drive the pass - that's crazy! I drove to the little lakes east of the Gross Glockner which, if taking this route would bring us through the turning point. The weather, bad already, got worse, and with the low cloud, there was no sign of the Gross Glockner. Once I got to Zell am See, I drove to Kaprun and checked out the west side of the Gross Glockner. While asking for directions at a restaurant I met Michael (working for a company building cable lifts across valley's). Michael offered me to drive up to the dammed lakes, and minutes later we drove through a "private" 7 km long tunnel up to the lakes. From the lakes you can hike over to the Weiss See and then fly down to "Kals am Gross Glockner". Going this way will get through the turn point, but although it is shorter, it is very alpine and not along a road, allowing very few landing options.
After this little adventure I headed back to Saalfelden via Zell am See. Here, I received a SMS from Michael Pohl (Team Nova Pilot) stating that he would meet me at 8:45 at the train station in Lienz to go flying. So I turned around and drove back to Lienz, but this time via the "Tauern" tunnel.
I got up early (5:00 am) in the morning and decided to drive into "Kals am Gross Glockner to check out the area where you would come out from the Weiss See. This area looks great with a lot of landing possibilities if needed. Also once you get out and land in the valley, there are are great hiking trails across the next range down to Sillian.
8:45 Saturday morning I met Michael and we decided to take a taxi up to the Hochstein. The weather indicated that we would probably just have a glide down into the valley, so instead of rushing we enjoyed coffee and cake and chatting at the Hochstein hut. After this we hiked about 30 minutes to the Hochstein summit. While we took our time, we could see that the sky was trying to open up. After about another 90 minutes the sky was was only about 40% overcast and the sun could do her job. We launched to the north-west (due the main wind direction) and climbed up to 2800 meters resulting in a little cross-country flight of about 25 km to to Sillian. This was a great flight, nice thermals and good fun. Michael tried to fly back but got stopped by the rain which had been following us on our flight. From Sillian I took the train going back to Lienz and joined Michael for supper. We evaluated our flight and discussed our options for this area in the X-Alps. Thanks again to Michael for spending the whole day with me.

On Saturday evening last week, I headed to Zell am See via the Tauern tunnel. I camped in Zell am see and drove the next morning to Koenigs See to check out the Watzman area. It started to rain and I checked in at the closest campground to the Koenigs See. I asked a couple questions and within 5 minutes Alois arrived and greeted me with my full name. I looked at him and wondered from where and how I would know him. A lot of people do know my first name but not my first and last name. Well, it turned out that he is a huge Xalps fan and he knows everything about everything and everyone.
The day was still early and I decided to hike into the Wimbachtal and up to the See Horn. This 24 km long and 1500 meter elevation proved to be an option for the Xalps if the weather allows to fly somewhat.
I got back late to the campground, showered, and had a couple beers with Alois and Richard, also a huge Xalps fan. Wow, I got treated like a king, and was given an incredible rate for staying, eating, drinking (more then I wanted) at his brother in law's campground. The next day started with light rain and escalated into a lot of rain. I then packed up and drove to Fuschel am see to meet Nick Warren from Zoom productions. Then continued on right away to Aschau to see Till (Team Nova Pilot) to pick up his Garmin 60CX which includes all the hiking and topographical maps from the xalps tour. This is awesome and will make it easier to navigate rather than always trying to find the right trail over the mountians. I would also like to thank Garmin again for lending me the Garmin Nuvi for the supporter van and a Orgegon to see the topographical maps as well. I am sure, if I would not have used the Garmin GPS for driving and hiking, I would have had a lot of frustrating moments to navigatge throught the alps all by my self. This tool will also be a great asset for Penny during the race.
After the visit with Till I rushed to Kempten (my home town) as I knew I will have Internet access for my Monday evening conference call.
The next couple of days is to get ready with the appartment and the arrival of Penny and the kids. Can't wait to see them.

The Dolomite's

2009-07-02T23:29:00.018-06:00

Monday morning in Flims. The signs in the sky indicated another no fly day due over development. The campground I stayed at had wireless Internet and I thought it might be a good idea to cleaned up the van and wash my cloth. After this, I headed back through Davos, Fluele Pass, and the Ofen Pass to Bozano. Time was running out and I had to find a place with Internet by 9:00 pm for our Monday conference call. As mentioned before, in Italy it is kind of hopeless to find a WiFi Internet connection so I headed to Sillian (Austria). There I found a place and stayed at parking lot overnight.
Next morning driving through the town I saw some wind flags of different paragliding manufactures and pulled in. In this parking lot I met Lloyed (from Australia) and his supporter Lewis getting ready for the day. After talking to them we decided to hike up to Sillianer Hütte (1400 elevation hike) and fly from there to Sexten and then hike from there to the 3 Zinnen Hütte (1100 meter elevation hike). On the way up we must have missed a sign and ended up on a dead end. Here it goes again, making your own trail. Anyhow we found the trail and when we got up it started to rain. So we had a soup and after the rain stopped and we where able to take off and glide down to Sexten. For our Canadian paragliding friends, Sexten is the home town from Hugo Tschurtschentaler who lives now in Golden running a B&B with his wife and doing Tandem flights from Mount 7.
Lloyed could not do the hike up to the 3 Zinnen as he has some problems with his calf and needs some rest. So I hiked up with his supper Lewis and we had a great view to the huge rock faces the Dolomite's offer. The best part, besides the huge rock faces, was to see that there are plenty of landing sites up at 2300 meters once you fly in from from the Sillian Huette into the Dolimite's. From the Sillian Huette it rather looks like flying into a ocean huge towering rocks and nothing to land after or within the rocks. Now with this hike things look completely different.
In the evening we drove back to Sillian to the "BlueSky" shop.
This is an amazing place with a lot of happy and friendly people. Susan and Stefan certainly do a very good job to make you feel welcome. I certainly recommend to stop by at their shop before you head into the Dolomite's or when you are flying in the Pustertal. They pretty much carrey all kinds of gliders to test fly and buy and offer a huge stock on harnesses and other flying gear. Besides coffee, beer, a huge amount of information they also offer repair services. Lloyed, Lewis and I gives them a big thumb up. Check out their website at www.BlueSky.at. Thanks again Stefan and Susanne for your hospitality and keep up the good work.

Wednesday morning we drove into the Dolomites via Toblach to Lake Misurina. This is the other side of the 3 Zinnen and from there you can fly and head to the Marmolada via Cortina. From Cortina there are 2 passed you can drive to the Marmalada, one is the Passo di Falzarego and the other is Giau Pass. The Giau Pass is smaller and is the pass you would fly through to the Marmolada. We drove over the Passo di Falzarego to check out this area and from there I headed to the Marmolada.
I got there at 4:00 pm and I decided to do a fast hike up to the 3343 meter summit. I was lucky and could catch a kind of chair-lift (but you have to stand in) up to 2600 meters and from there I hiked over the glacier, a rock face (100 meter elevation secured by steel ropes) and the rest over the glacier again to the summit. It was fantastic and I was rewarded with great views and surrounded by thunderstorms. I only stayed up for 5 minutes and was getting down as fast as possible as I did not want to be coughed in one of the storms. 7:30 I was back down in valley and met up with Lloyed and Lewis. We then drove to Bozano to check out the site Alex Hofer flew the "South Route". It was a very interesting trip with several options. Thanks to Markus from the Roen Stube, we got all the information we needed. Markus even drove up Lloyed to the take off site to go for a flight. I hiked up and watched them take off just before the thunder storm moved in. Lloyed and Lewis just made it down in time and we headed back to Sillian.
I drove back via the Marmalada over the Giau Pass and it really showed very clear how to fly the route.
Today I hiked up about 400 meters from Sillian to have a little flight and then I will head to the Gross Glockner.

The "South" or the "North" route?

2009-06-29T00:57:00.009-06:00

I got up early Friday morning and headed from Zermatt (Taetsch) to Fiesch. I connected with the local school and got a lot of information from Xari and Benno (thanks again to everyone). I got one flight in the morning just before the thunderstorm was starting in the early afternoon.

Due the bad weather development I headed east and then to the south over the Nufenen Pass. This pass is where you come over when you travel the “South Route”.

There are 2 main routes you can go after the Marmolada.

The traditional is going via Meran, Ofen Pass and the Flüela Pass, then over Davos to Chur and over the Furka and Grimsel pass ins Wallis.

The “South Route” is going over Bozen to Sendrio, the Como Lake, then over the San Jorio pass to Bellinzona and then over the Nufenen pass into the Wallis.

Which route is the best? Well Alex Hofer proved at the last x-alps that the south-route was the best due the weather conditions. This is why I wanted to drive the “South Route” and the “Traditional North Route” to get a better idea about the terrain.

So, after getting over the Nufenen pass I drove to Dongo at Como Lake. This is in Italy and it is very surprising that the word “Internet” seams to be a foreign word. It is extremely hard to find a place offering Internet.

Saturday morning I got up early and I started to hike up to the San Jorio pass. I thought it would be good to get some more training in. Well, some training …, this hike ended up into a 6 hour hike up to plus 2000 meters elevation (1800 meter elevation gain) and a total distance of 40 km. I thought 2000-meter height is not to bad, but I did not realize right away that Como Lake is only at 200 (plus) meters. Anyhow, the hike was great. After a good shower at the campground I was heading to Meran. The “South Route” drive was very interesting and certainly has its pro’s and con’s and I am glad I drove it. At around 10:00 pm I ended up at a viewpoint overlooking Bozana. This is where I stayed overnight. The morning was awesome. I had a great view over the valley going from Bozano to Meran.

After a short breakfast, I headed to Meran and planned to go flying at Laas. The weather showed signs to overdevelop again and so I decided to drive to Flims (near Chur) to check out the “Traditional North Route”.

After a long day of driving and checking out terrain I ended up in Flims at the Gondola station. There where a ton of paragliding pilots at they just rounded up the Swiss champion ships. I met Alex Hofer (he was second at the Swiss Championships) and we talked a bit about the routes. The flying for the Swiss championships where not good at all (based on Alex) and I did not miss anything from a flying point of view.

Anyhow, tomorrow I plan to fly here in Flims and hope the weather will not again overdevelop later in the day. After this, I will head back east into the dolomites.

What did I do from Monday to Thursday?

2009-06-25T11:49:00.022-06:00

Ok, here we go. This will be quite an update as I have done a lot the last couple of days.

Monday morning I met Laurant at www.SupAir.com. Laurant told me right away that the Altirondo I used is not the same as the new Altirondo. As I was sitting int he new one there was quite a difference. Laurant set me up with the pod, the reserve and made sure all is set up just right. He told me to use this brand new harness until they have the x-alps version ready (800 gramms lighter), thanks Laurant. I have to say, this harness feels great and with the pod it makes it very slick. I also like the attachment to add a pack on to top of the bag. All this is very well thought out.
The afternoon looked windy with rather big clouds, so I decided to find a "Herz" repair station to get the coolant hoses fixed as we constanly lost coolant liquid. It looks like an animal was biting into the hoses. As it turned out, they asked me to drive it until I get back to Germany and exchange it there. Anyhow, Frank did a good job taping it and it seams to hold the coolant for a couple of days.

In the evening I decided to head to Chamonix, stay overnight at a hotel with Internet connection for my Monday conference call and to catch up with work.
Tuesday morning I hiked up west of Mount Blanc to Col de Vosaz (850 meter elevation gain) from there you can launch and fly into the Les Contamines-Montjoie valley and head back up the mountians to continue south west to Moûtiers from where you can start heading up the first big pass I traveled with Frank a week ago.
After I got back, I decided to head east of Chamonix to Martigny. On the way to Martigny I found the trail head to Col de Balme late in the afternoon. I thought I go without my heavy bag and do the 1200 meter tour fast with a light bag and water. So I headed out after 4 pm and made it back after 8:00 pm. This was a great hike and cerainly worth it. On top on the Col de Balme there are great take off spots haeding to Chamonix (see picture, to the left is Mount Blanc and Chamonix below). I alos found some cool historc rock houses. All in rock including the roofs. After I got back to the Van, I had a great shower with the camping shower and haeded down to Martigny. In Martigny I was able to catch up with more work online.

The next morning (Wednesday) I headed up to Verbier as I wanted to try out the new harness and I knew that this is a rather easy flying site. Once I drove up there and looked for the landing site, I realized that the landing site was very small and when I was there last (22 years ago) that this is how far we only could fly unless it was a great day and we could fly over Verbier and landing down in the valley. Today you land in down in the valley except the vally winds are gettting to strong. So I parked the Van and hiked 50o meter elevation to a nice alpine grass launch site. The flight lasted about 30 minutes and was very smooth with some small thermals. I was very happy about the harness and the wing and got ready for a hot 800 meter elevartion gain hike back up to the van. With this hike I accumulated over 3400 meters elevation gain in 2 days.
Late afternoon this day I headed to Zermatt and had a good look at the windy Martigny and Sion Valley. Driving up to Zermatt (Taetsch) made me realize that I do not want to land anywhere from the Matterhorn down to Visp (town in the main valley). There are no landing sites at all. At Taetsch (5 km before Zermatt) I pulled in a campground. You can not drive any further as the last 5 km to Zermatt are only accesible by Train or Taxi.
The next morning I got a hold of Bruno (local Tandem pilot) and met him at the landing site at 10:00 am. This is a cool landing site as this is virtually on the train station. He was heading up to Unterrothorn which is at 3103 meters and just east of the Matterhorn. I was taking the gondola up with him and his tandem passenger and got a lot of information about the area. He made the whole area sound like a piece of cake. I flew off from the Unterrothorn (picture is with Matterhorn behind at cloudbase), crossed the valley and had a look at the turn point Schwarsee. The thermals where chopped up as it turned out the valley wind got stronger earlier then normal. Also the cloulds started to build up and later in the day we had a short thunder shower. The flight was great. I could thermal right under the cloudbase (at 3100 meters) and could get more comfortabe with my new harness. The landing was as expected in strong valley wind. While I packed up I met Ronny and his girfriend Karla from Holland. Ronny will be in the x-alkps and representing Holland. After I packed up we decided to hike up to the Turn-point Schwarzsee to get familiar with the trail. After 900 meter elevation gain (this brings me now to 4300 meters elevation hikes in 3 days) starting with sunshine and ending with some light rain and a thunder strom further south we had a special cheese sandwich ala Ronny. The sandwich is way to go but sitting heavely in the stommach. Ronny thinks this is best x-alps food (just kidding). After we had the meal, the thunderstorm and rain stopped and we unpacked out wings and flew down to the train station. The winds where very light and we had a great flight down. These flights are very good to get in tune with the new harness and wing. I do like it and hope the weather stays good to get more flying in. I will spend one more night at the campsite and then head to Fiesch. This is a very well know cross country fliging site. From there you should be able to fly to the Matterhorn and at least to Sierre (east of Sion).
Anyhow, this is it for now. I hope this is not to much writing as I do not want to bore you either.

Update about Frank and quick update from Chamonix

2009-06-24T12:55:00.003-06:00

Frank and Tracye are still in Nice and they will fly home coming up Friday. Frank is doing better every day and he enjoys the beach with all their views. Today Frank was even able to have a swim in the Mediterian Sea. As you can see, he is not in a full body cast, he wears a plastic cast as you can see in the previous blog.

People asking me for more details and some people are already coming up with their own stories.
I will add a bit more to what I wrote in the last blog.

... I landed before Frank right at the sand beach. This is about half way along the beach. There was no wind and the flight as absolutely calm. Once I landed and turned around I saw Frank about 100 meters behind me laying on his back and people walking to him. So I have not seen how it happened.
Frank's statement is the following, he felt he was a bit high to land right beside me and he did an extra turn while flying slow, then flying even slower and the wing stalled and he did not have enough height to get out of the stall. Frank had a light airbag harness (which worked just fine) and landed on his behind. The wing was not a high end competition wing as some people are stating. The wing is a large Triton by Nova and is rated as EN "C". This is the same rating as his Sigma 6 and 7. To the safety, our wings are constructed with extra light material and this will make it an even safer wing as the extreme flight maneuver will reacted slower and easier then with the heavier material. The difference between the Sigma and this wing is that the break travel is shorter and Frank was not used to this and did not watch this.

The internet coffee is closing here and I will have to write about what I have done tomorrow.
In short I hiked just over 3400 meters in elevation (this is more then 4 times Swansea) in 2 days around Chamonix. Had one flight in Verbier to check out my new harness and enjoy camping.
I will write more and add pictures once I get back tomorrow from the Matterhorn.

Frank is out of the hospital and I am heading north

2009-06-21T13:21:00.013-06:00

Frank got released from the hospital June 19th late afternoon. He was happy to be out and to go for a beer. Although you could tell that he was in pain. The day after we spend the day at the beach. He certainlky is not hopping arond and even got back to the hotel in the afternoon. He is ok, but when he is up for a while he certainly is hurting. I spend one more night with Frank and Tracye to make sure they will be fine on their own. They have a hotel right on the beach and only 5 minutes away to the Nice Airport. If all works as per program, the insurance will book a flight for them for Tuesday or Wednesday. I will keep you upated in how they are doing as I am in contact via Skype.

In the mean time, I made it back up north to Samoëns. This is between Annecy and Chamonix. Some of you might remember Nico who used to work as a electrician in Radium, this is where he lives.
I decided to drive via Turin as the shortest way from Chamonix to Monaco is through Turin. This is a shorter way if you would walk it all. There is not much of a chance to fly as the foothills are treed and you will have to cross a lot of valley's to get down south. Once you are about 50 km to the Mediterranean, the mountains are getting lower and covered up by bush/thorns and landing is virtually impossible due the narrow treed in valleys. It seams the route south of Albertville or the long route along Grenoble is a better choice. After all, it will be weather depended to see what route will work best. I am glad I traveled this section as this was a huge eye opener.

The most impressive part today was driving the route through the Mont Blanc tunnel. The view up Mont Blanc from the south seamed to be unrealistic and just humangus.

We made it to Monaco and have to do some changes.

2009-06-18T00:54:00.011-06:00

We are having to do some modifications to our plan. Frank had a landing accident in Monaco. He fractured and compressed his Vertebre (L2)and will be released from the hospital today wearing a body-brace. Frank is very mad at himself that this happend. To the accident, he was on final and wanted to land closer to me, did an extra turn, then stalled the wing from about 20 feet and ended up on his behind.

The injury is a clean fracture and needs time to heal. We are happy that it did not turn out any worse.
Today we will pick up Frank from the hospital, check into a hotel and figure out when they will go home.

Here a couple words in how we got to Monaco.
Wendsday morning, light rain. Not really what was forcasted. We took our time, cought up on work and e-mails. Once we packed up and went to the van, the weather opened up and it turned into a super nice day. We decided to go for a flight Frank and Tracye drove up and I decided to hike up. It is only about 400-500 meters in elevation and somone told us that there should be a path going up from the hotel. Well, not even the hotel owner knew about this trail and I decided to head up anyways. This little hike turned into a little adventure through tall wet grass, thick bush with a lot of thorns. I crawled through a very steep dried out creek up to the plateau reaching eventually the launch site. This was a friendly reminder in how it can feel if you try to make your own path, specially in a terrain you are not used to.
Frank flew first while I ajusted the harness and sorted out the gear. Once airborne, I realized that this older version of harness is not the same as I tried at SupAir. It was not comfortable at all. The thermals were strong and punchy and I got up to plus 2000 meters. I was trying to see where the mountain range is leading to Monaco and I could not find it. In the mean time Frank landed as he had trouble with his vario and I decided to fly out as well and check out maps and then head down to Monaco. Once I got down and checking the map and driving towards Monaco, it all made sense. The range was there but we had to drive over a 2700 meter high pass (Col de la Bonette). So from the air it looked like you would fly into instead along a mountain range. The top of the pass was spectacular and the drive down the other side turned into a 60 km narrow valley leading to Nice. Not very inviting to land. Later with Google Earth it showed that you would fly along the range and if you need to land, you would land on the east side of range in a wider and higher valley and not landing along the road as there is no way to land.
We got to Monaco around 7:00 pm and headed straight up to Mount Gros. The wind was very light, the sun was just about to be gone. The launch was easy and we had a spectacular flight looking over Monaco. Looking over the mediterian, checking out all the houses, hotels, people and ships. It was just beautiful until we landed.

As stated before, Frank will be ok and on his way home in the next days. I will head back up north and continue as planned.
I will keep you updated.

The first couple days on the route

2009-06-17T01:00:00.007-06:00

The first couple days are full on with no moment to spare.
Monday morning 4:00 am my alarm went off and 45 minutes later I was on the road to Geneva to pick up Frank and Tracye. This drive showed me what rush hour can be in Europe. I spent over an hour in stop and go traffic around Zurich and arrived late in Geneva. Not a problem as Frank and Tracye were late as well.
The first stop was in Annecy at SupAir. Laurant e-mailed me to try their new harness and check out all the new add-on's. I now have an older demo to try, but from what I have seen so far, this is a wow. The pack is rather large and very good to carry. The backbag also offers an additional bag to be mounted on the top, which does not sacrifice any carring comfort. Now the exciting add on is the "pod or fairing" for your feed. This can be added on very easy and you have a comfortable and warm harness. Anyhow, I will be back in Annecy on Friday and will decide if I will get one based on a couple of test flights.
After the visit at SupAir, we tried to go flying at Annecy but the weather was coming in faster and we just watched the last couple pilots landing. Right now Annecy is holding a paraglding world cup and it was cool to see the high aspect ratio wings coming in.
The night we spend in Albertivlle (Winter Olympics in 1992) and then we headed south to explore the route most x-alps pilots used. This was a very interesting drive through the french Alps and certainly showed how challenging they can be. Some of the challanges is the high altitude changes (up to 2000 meters) and valley crossings.
South of Albertville we drove over the Col de la Madeleine and then over the Col du Galibier pass. These are very impresive passes and very popular by road and motor bikers. We did not see anyone walk or fly there. From there we drove through Briançon and over Col de Vars pass to Barcelonnette. This is the area where Alex Hofer's route joined with the others heading south to Monaco.
We stayed overnight at a very old place 3 minutes out of Barcelonnette and we will head south to Monaco. The weather is not as forecasted and we have light rain. Lets see what the day will bring, maybe we can get a flight in Monaco.
Keep you posted.

The first couple of days

2009-06-14T14:25:00.010-06:00

Everything is going well going well and no boring moment so far. I met with my brothers and sister to get things organized like picking up the van and the new wing, shopping (phones, food and other stuff), met old flying students and had a great chat with the old flying school colleges. Saturday I had a couple practice flights at the training hill, hike up Tegelberg and an amazing 2 hour flight over the castle Neuschwanstein to Säuling, back and then to Buching and back to the castle.
Training is already in progress. As mentioned before, Saturday I hiked up Tegelberg and today I had a 4.5 hour hike from Pfronton to Aggenstein and back (about 20 km and 1200 elevation gain). I could not fly today as it was way to windy.
Right now I am getting ready and pack the van to leave at 5 am to Geneva to pick up Frank and Tracye.
Will keep you updated

Arriving in Germany

2009-06-11T12:08:00.001-06:00

I have not updated my blog for a while and it is hard to believe how fast time is going by. Right now I am on the flight from Calgary to Munich. This is a 10-hour flight and I am very lucky as I have a whole row (3 seats) and can stretch, study maps, sleep and write this blog.

Anyhow, training has slowed down for me since the May long weekend as I got really busy to clean up around the house and to finalize a ground breaking contract with BookingCalendar.com and Appointment.com. I have been in contact with a group from the US for the last 6 month to work on a very exciting venture. This will bring the technology I developed with BookingCalendar.com to the next level. www.BookingCalendar.com will become www.Appointment.com and at the same time we increase our team with very talented people to beef up the design, add more features, develop a consumer portal for appointments and have a very experienced Internet marketing team in place to dominate the appointment scheduling market. The contracts got singed in Seattle June 2^nd and we are in full progress to work on the new venture.

In the mean time I spent as much time as possible with the kids before leaving as I missed them already before leaving. I also wanted to give Penny some time for her training, as she will be handling the kids, the canoe and kayak rental business and packing up the house/kids to follow me July 8^th.

For those who do not know, Penny is my best buddy, partner, mother of my kids and supporter for the x-alps. She was training as hard (as she always does) to get ready for the race. Penny is a powerhouse and lives up to her name (Penny Powers). Besides looking after me, the kids and her businesses (Personal trainer and running www.ColumbiaRiverOutfitters.com) she participated at 2 running events the last 6 weeks and at both races she won her age class and come in as 4^th overall. One race had 1000 runners, the kids and I are very proud of you, way to go Penny.

The kids (Erik and Katia, 3 and 5 years old) are as active as mom and it was great to follow the progress with both starting to ride their bikes without training wheels. They went from pushing to riding all by them self’s within days and now they are riding through obstacles in the skateboard park. At the same time they started to take tennis lessons and keep hitting balls around my ears.

As you can see, there was never a boring moment and I am sure all these events are the reason why time flew by so fast.

Now, once I arrive in Munich, I will get the rental car, my wing (with the right colors), gear, and start exploring the route. Monday I will pick up Frank (supporter in 2007) and his girlfriend Tracye in Geneva and start exploring with the French Alps.

During daytime I will be training, exploring flying and meeting local pilots and Team Nova Pilots and during the evening hours I will spend about 2-4 hours working and updating the blog to keep everyone informed of where we are and what we are doing.

Thanks again to everyone for all these good wishes and all the help we have received so far. I also like to thank the Bookingcalendar.com team (Shalene Wright, Cicely Younk, Ashith Shetty) and the Appointment.com team (Rob Monster , John Leonowich and John Lawler) to allow me to prepare for the race and to be flexible with their times to keep on working on the www.Appointment.com venture.

What a great long weekend we had....

2009-05-21T07:44:00.013-06:00

What a weekend we had.
Our x-alps expenses was growing bigger than expected. Frank (former supporter) and Trayce came up with the idea to have a x-country challenge combined with a fund-raiser party at their house during the May long weekend (May 16th and 17th).
The x-Alps will cost us in excess of $20.000.00. The main costs are for airline tickets, car rental, gas, maps, travel expenses and equipment (e.g. wing and hiking gear).

15 pilots showed up at 9:00 am Saturday morning at Frank's place. The task was easy, walking up Mt.Swansea (about 10 km) then flying to Radium Hot Springs and back (26 km).
It was pretty funny to watch some faces drop when they heard the word "walking". Anyhow, we did not ask for any entry fee, but if you wanted to get your gear shuttled up, it cost you $10 or $20 if you wanted a ride with your gear.
7 people hiked up without their wings, 2 with the wing (Steward Midwinter and myself), and the rest got a ride up. Most enjoyed the hike and might even get into "hike & fly" in the future. Flying conditions were strong and not easy, but 5 made goal and one flew even further (Steward Midwinter).

After flying, we set up for the party with 100 Bratwursts, 50 Hot dogs, 100 Hamburgers and 3 keg's of beer. Frank was not just offering his house, he also donated the live Band (Electric Squires from Banff). These guys were great and played until the police asked them to stop at 1:30 am.
All in all, it was a great party and a ton of fun. Over 200 friends and neighbor's showed up. The food was gone in 2.5 hours, the face-painters for the kids worked overtime, the beer was gone just before midnight and we raised just over $10.000.00 with the cover charge, silent and live auction. This is just amazing, thanks a lot all the people helping at the party, donating products and services (see companies listed here), Frank and Tracye to host the party and to everyone for coming. The people who could not make .... missed a good one.

Sunday was kind of slow going. Thanks again to everyone helping to clean up Frank's house in the morning. After that, no one was interested to walk up the mountain again and I was on my own (as usual) The flying conditions were trashy and the flights did not last too long and I seemed to be the only one making goal to the Lakeside Pub.

Here are some pictures at my Photo Gallery
If anyone has some more pictures, send them to me and I will add them here

Again, thanks to everyone

Max, Penny, Katia and Erik

what harness should I use?

2009-05-13T22:47:00.003-06:00

Besides the wing, the next most important gear to choose from is the harness. This was quite a learning curve and I think I got now what is best for me.
First I used a Apco AirChair with a front container and somehow I felt there must be something better out there in combination as a back-pack and harness. I tried a couple and either they come with a smaller pack-pack, or they turn out to be to heavy and bulky or where not good to fly for my kind of flying style. I almost went with a light harness and a good backpack, but until today I could not find a comfortable enough backpack.
Here is what I ended up with now. I am using a Apco AirChair with the reserve under the seat. This version is about 0.250 kg more then with a front container but is very comfortable and easy to get in and out without any straps and container to work with. In total this harness is 2.9 kg including a big backpack. The backpack was not the most comfortable pack but with a couple straps it makes the pack very slim and easy to carry.
After I decided to use this harness, Vincene with www.MullerWindSports.com gave me the harness as a sponsorship. On top of that, she also donated a beginner lesson for 2 for our silent auction at the fundraiser party coming up.
Thanks a lot Vincene,

also a big thank you to all the local business donating products and services for this fund-raiser party. See details at www.flyingMax.com

Mini x-Alps Training in the Rockies

2009-04-27T09:48:00.002-06:00

Now with spring at our doors, we are switching from hikes in the snow, x-country skiing and gym training to 5 days/week mini x-alps training sessions. We have decided to train every day for about 2 - 4 hours instead of 6-8 hour workouts once or twice a week.

Most of the hikes are from my house to either www.PanormaResort.com (23 km on the road) and if the weather allows it to fly back, or to hike 12 km from my house up Mt. Swansea (860 m elevation gain). If the weather is good I will fly and if not, I will walk back home. On the days I can fly, I will land about 8-10 km away from my home and walk back. This way I get a good combination of flying and hiking and get used walking with my gear.

New for my flying gear is a light Gore-Tex jacket and pants sponsored by www.Arcteryx.ca. To keep me warm, I use underwear and fleece form www.Craft.se.

Besides training, I do spend about an hour plus a day with Google Earth and Google maps to get familiar with the route. It is really is amazing what technology can do today and I recommend everybody to give it a try. During the race you will be able to download our tracks into Google Earth and you can run the track as a tour. This way you can follow me without getting out of your chair.

In the mean time, visit and sign my Guestbook at www.Redbullxalps.com.
Thanks again to everyone supporting us with the good wishes and sponsorships.

Previous blogs can be viewed at
http://maxfanderl.blogspot.com/

Max & Penny
www.flyingMax.com

x-alps fundraiser for May long weekend

2009-04-21T11:56:00.003-06:00

Besides training and working, we are working on a fundraiser for our x-alps project.

The x-alps will cost us $20.000.00 plus for airline tickets, renting a support vehicle, equipment (such as wing, harness, reserve chute, mountaineering equipment, energy food and drinks) and travel expenses.

Frank Kernick (former supporter) is holding a fundraiser x-country competition and party with a live band at his house at Lakeview Meadows for pilots, friends and everyone who knows or is interested in the Max & Penny x-Alps adventure.

The x-country funding competition will be on the May long weekend (May 16th to 18th) starting with a pilot meet at 9:00 am at Frank's house.
Party with live band, silent and live auction is Saturday evening May 16th.

If you have any services or products to donate, let us know.

Here is what we will do for your donation:

List and link your donation at May Long Weekend x-country competition and silent auction fundraiser party page.
We will list and talk about it in the www.RedBullxAlps.com blog and our blog.
Exposure to Windermere Valley locals, Lakeview Meadows community and free flight pilots from BC and Alberta.

Also mark your calendar to come to the party or even confirm at our Facebook page and feel free to pass on this information to anyone who might like to join us.

Easter flying Meet at Panorama

2009-04-16T06:39:00.010-06:00

The Easter flying Meet at Panorama was a great turnout.
In total we had 40 pilots and great weather. This year Easter was late and snow was still good and the flying conditions as well.

Friday was the best flying day, we all got at least 2 flights for our "Easter egg drops" and target landings. Later in the afternoon launching at the Cappuccino hut got difficult due the cross wind and stronger thermal conditions. Frank Kernick could sky our after a rather interesting launch. Several us us decided to head up to the summit and fly from there. 7 of us where able to sky out to 3500 m and fly about 20 out to the Lakeside pub (where we host our annual www.LakesideEvent.com for beers.

Saturday was great for egg drops and target landings and in the afternoon the conditions got to strong and started to overdevelop. This gave us some good time to ski with family and friends. The competitions where not stopping as we had our annual "Food Tray" race and Boat races in the bar that night.

Sunday turned out to be to strong and only about 5 pilots where flying and the rest of us had a great ski and swim day.

All in all it was a great weekend for the pilots, family and friends.

Why are we doing this ...

2009-04-02T13:57:00.009-06:00

... hiking 20km and further with 20 kg backpacks, hiking Mt. Swansea with a 900m elevation gain, twice up and down in one training session, train 6 days a week in endurance sessions, weight sessions, stair climbing interval sessions, and "dragging" the kids across Europe, and......to do all this........ facing approximately a $20.000 bill!!

We are currently working with a film producer, Greg someone, who will pitch our story to international networks. He believes that the reason we are doing this might be a good sales point to the networks. So here we sit and ponder the question.........why are we doing this?

When we really think about it, we actually don't have a wild and cool story of why we are doing it. I can say though, the x-alps will push me to fulfill my dreams and passions of paragliding, and this time by flying and hiking across the alps. I can't say that I am really looking forward to the long and endless physical stress and bad weather we might face, but this comes with the challenge.
Penny's passion is travel, play and physical exercise. She has always wanted to do an adventure race, and loves any mental and physical challenge. The Red Bull X Alps is certainly going to do this. Our kids are go-getter's, and we believe that this will be a great experience for the whole family (our 3 and 5 year old kids and the grand parents).

We are lucky and blessed to be healthy and all feel that this will be a great experience for everyone.

Our training is going great, and most of the pre-race preparations are well under way. We are however, still looking for some help to finance this project. With a bill of approximately $20,000.00 that we are facing, for the race and prep work alone (not the "holiday" for the kids and grandparents), we are looking for options for outside sponsors. Now the only part we need some help with is to help to finance this project.

As a result, we have come up with the following idea. If we can collect enough Air Miles and Aeroplan points from family, friends or businesses, who have an abundance of points and don't think they need them all, the flights, car rental and gas can be paid for with those.

So if you have some spare points, please log on to your account and transfer some of your Air Miles or Aeroplan points into our account (Air Miles # 8000589 1472, Aeroplan # 723 134 193). The points don't have to be for a full flight, each point you donate will add up with others for the full amount required to book a flight.

Each point helps.

Thanks a lot,

Max, Penny, Katia & Erik

Slovenia part 2 and first flights with new Triton in Canada

2009-02-26T10:27:00.011-07:00

Today I received my last missing bag. First thing was to unpack the Milka chocolate and Hariboo Gummibears. Second was to weigh the new wing. Guess how heavy the light version of the Triton 24 (large) is? 7, 6, 5 or 4 kg... It is just a bit over 5kg, exactly 5.1 kg. Well done Peter (manager for Nova productions), this is very light for a large glider.

Back to Slovenia, we had ideal conditions every day with about 10 km wind at launch and great soarable conditions mixed with some light thermals. We could climb up to 1400 m asl and flew up to 35 km x-country. I am not sure what kind of connections Brigitta and Dusan are having, but they seam to be working very well and we had great flights every day. By the way, the Nova Pilot team has a Photo Gallery and we have a lot of pictures about the meet at http://picasaweb.google.com/NovaTeamPilots.

One mistake I did going to Slovenia, was not taking my harness. As you all know, only change one part of the equipment and not all. So, at my first flight, I used the new "Globe" harness from Charly on my new Triton and it was kind of hard to have a real first impression about the wing.
Here is what I experienced. The Triton handles very nice with a short break travel and average break pressure. Launching is very easy, it thermals very well in light conditions and where the Triton really stands out, is the speed. It seams to glide best with little speed bar on and the faster you fly it does not seam to sacrifice to much on glide. Also an important fact is that the large Triton is only a EN "C" (for those who are not pilots, it means it is rated for intermediate and not for expert pilots). It only has a couple C's in not important flight characteristics (at least for me). Overall, the rest is either A's or B's (even accelerated). Now my Triton is build with extra light material making the wing even more tame and this makes the Triton in my eyes the perfect wing for the x-alps.
While testing in Slovenia, the only part I did not like to much is that the wing likes to get out of the bank after about 2 turns. We figured that this is due the stable harness and the Triton needs input with the seat board to stay within the turns. I also had the opportunity to fly the "Factor". What a great wing that is. It handles like a toy. Light break pressure and the wing can entirely be flown with the break lines, in other words you can use a stable harness and still have excellent handling characteristics. It seams that the Factor and Triton are performing the same in trim speed and in thermals. The main difference between the Factor and Triton is when you start using the speed bar. All I can say, both wings are a absolute wow. Well done Hannes.

While writing the blog, the weather seam to improve and checking the wind at Panorama ski resort, it did not look as bad as forecasted at NavCanada. So I packed my skies, the new Triton, my Apco AirChair and a medium "Sky" reversable harness from Jeff. First I flew with the Apco AirChair and wow, the handling is great and just as expected. Second flight I did with the "Sky" harness and the handling is excellent as well. The only difference is that you sit a bit more upright then with the apco AirChair, but it also could be that the medium harness is a bit on the small side for me.
I was very happy after these flights confirming that the harness is a big part of the equipment and should never be underestimated. Can't wait to get out for some big air now.

Slovenia report Part 1

2009-02-24T07:19:00.006-07:00

What a trip. I am still not home. I am at Penny's parents place in Calgary and have some time to write this blog. Once the City wakes up, I will have a couple meetings, some shopping to do and then back home to Invermere.
Most people would think I am crazy to travel to Slovenia for a weekend. It was not crazy at all. it was the best I could do. The only thing missing was Penny and the kids. Next time we will try to get them to come as well.

Hats up to all the Nova Team members. All you guys made this an amazing weekend. Starting from getting picked up by Mik, staying at his great place with his young family (Emila, what a cute 3 week old baby and Kristine his accommodation wife) and a comfortable drive to Slovenia and back.
Once we got there, things just got better and better. Thanks to Brigitta and Dusan who organized this great meet, job well done. There was not a boring moment at all. We where flying every day and had lots of great opportunities to socialize at launch, landing site, dinners and meetings at the hotel. Every day we could fly little x-country flight (about 25 km and more). Igor who runs the shuttle service and a kiosk place at the landing site is a very nice and funny guy serving the best Slovenian Igor Burgers. The only thing missing (and he will work on it) will be some cheer leaders at the landing site.
If you can fly, every meet is a good meet, but the best was sharing the fun with all the Nova Team members (plus 30 team members where there). I have to say, this is such a great group of people what makes flying a much better experience. The whole group is so diverse, from competition pilots, test pilots, x-country pilots, and to just for fun pilots. I have never seen such a diverse group of pilots having so much fun together. Most teams are either a local club or only competition pilots flying for one manufacture.
Nova, thanks for putting this all on, I had a blast and it was great to meet and experience in how you guys work. Watching Alex's top landings while testing new gliders, Tony Bender trying to fly with a sleeping bag (based on his face, I guess he picked up the wrong back pack and thought there was a glider in it, but you never know). The great and detailed conversations with Hannes about wings, flying and family live. Getting to know Peter (Manger of production plant) was a great experience and it makes you even more comfortable to fly a wing build by Nova as Peter strikes me as an extremely detailed and thought through person (by the way, his dad makes excellent wine). Finally I also got to meet Wolfi with his great sense of humor and Till (Public Relations) who started and maintains the "Nova Team" spirit. Well done Till and Wolfi.
I also like to say thank again to Wolfi and Hannes as it seamed they picked up all the bills for accommodations, breakfast and dinners. Thanks Nova, to give us this royal treatment and the sharp looking Goretex jackets, I will come again and the whole experience with everyone in the team makes me a very proud Nova Team member.
I will have to stop for now and will talk in the next blog about the flying site, my new wing and everything else I learned about equipment and the discussions about the x-alps.

update and getting ready to pick up the new wing

2009-02-17T20:53:00.006-07:00

As mentioned in the January blog, we changed my training to more gym sessions. Penny wants me to build up strength. My program is primarily leg work and some upper body work. She got me mostly on the Bosu Balance Trainer. Thanks Penny, your program already shows quite an improvement when hiking up Mt.Swansea through the snow with my toboggan (Rodel). Other then that, I ice skate 15km loops, ski (with the kids) and fly every weekend at www.PanoramaResort.com. The picture below is from the Panorama Summit take off site looking North west.

Speaking of skiing, I received a package from www.Superfeet.co m with new SuperFeet insoles. These insoles are a must. I am using them now for years in all my shoes and they certainly do their work. Nick also sent me their newest "Cold Weather Insoles". I am using them in my ski boots right now and they are fantastic. Thanks www.Superfeet.com for sponsoring me with your great product.

Last week I got slowed down with bronchitis and my doctor put me on rest and antibiotics. To be sick is not fun, but the break from the intense training was serving me quite well.

To keep it all interesting, Penny had the romantic idea to have a toboggan race for Valentines Day. What a blast it was, we had 24 competitors, ages from 8 to 66, plus over 20 little kids doing races on the bottom of Mt.Swansea. So we raced 700 meters in elevation up the snow covered gravel road and then down on our toboggans. Thanks Brad for turning the snowed in road into a toboggan race track. We are hiking and tobogganing Mt. Swansea quite often during the winter, but it is way more fun sharing it with others. Specially when you combined it with a big potluck party.

I also like to mention that everyone should check out Tom Payne's blog. He has a great blog and he is sharing a lot of interesting information about the x-alps statistics and the route. His blog is at twpayne.blogspot.com. Thanks Tom I do appreciate your comments a lot, keep up the good work. I am really looking forward meeting you in Salzburg. By the way, Tom's supporter is our Canadian fellow Alex Raymond.

Now it is getting time to get ready for Slovenia. I will be leaving Wed (Feb 18th) to Calgary and then to Munich. In Munich I will be picked up by Mik (Team Nova Pilot) and then we are on our way to the annual Nova team meeting in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Besides the meeting, we will have a chance to try all the new wings from Nova. I also will have the opportunity to meet a lot of great x-country pilots in person who are already helping me with the route planning. And to top it all off, I will receive my light Triton I will use for the x-alps. Thanks a lot guys I am very excited and can't wait to meet you all.
By the way, it was Penny's idea that I should join the Nova Pilots meet. Thanks Penny, I am very lucky to have you as my supporter, trainer, future wife and mother of my kids. You rock.

January training update with Panorama flight video

2009-01-23T23:43:00.008-07:00

10 days ago we had 2 days of rain, which resulted in icing over of the x-country ski tracks on the lake. A positive side of this is that it forced me to mix up my training a little, and do some skating. The skating loop is 15 km and is also a good workout.
At the same time, I am spending more time in the gym and in the swimming pool. Penny has created 2 new programs (legs and upper body) for me, which I thought I am doing fine with it. A couple days ago she came to the gym with me just to make sure all was on track and that I was doing the exercises correctly. Well I was doing the exercises, but not the "Penny Powers" way. With her corrections.....Boy could I ever feel it the next day. I did not even know I had these muscles. Anyhow it is quite amazing to see how muscle memory works. Just before December I hiked 20,000 meter in elevation in 6 weeks, with no problems, and no pain, and then Penny gives me a leg and lower body workout which hurt the next day. You can see it is important to switch your routine on an ongoing basis.

Some people have been asking me if I am sacrificing my young family (Erik is 2.5 years and Katia 4.5 years old) with all the training and preparations. Interesting question, which I had never thought about it before, as my life is all about Penny and the kids. I am a very lucky guy and work from home, so I spend a lot of time with these little rascals, plus we include them in all our activities. I do have a write up about Penny and the kids at our presentation script.
The only time the kids are not with us is Thursday afternoon. This is my date day with Penny. There we go skiing or flying without the kids.

Here is a helmet cam video of a flight from www.PanoramaResort.com summit (cut in half otherwise it is to long)

This is sponsored by the best online appointment scheduler Http://www.BookingCalendar.com

Happy New Year - MBT

2009-01-06T18:43:00.010-07:00

Happy New year, we wish everyone a great and healthy 2009.

We had some great holiday and spend the whole time at home. It was just great. The temperatures climbed into the minus 10-15 Cecilius range from the mid -20th. The lake was frozen solid and this allowed us to create a 20 km skating and x-country classic ski trail. Best of it, it is only 5 minute walking distance from my house. Classic and skate skiing is one of the best exercises for endurance and overall strength. So this will be one of my main workout in the next 2 month. So far I logged plus 200km at Panorama, Nipika and on the lake.
Christmas day we spend up at Panorama Mountain Resort (25 minute drive) to go skiing and flying. We (Frank and I) dressed up and flew as Santa Claus, Penny was flying as an elf and we all landed in front of the day lodge to entertain the kids. Katia (my 4.5 year old girl) figured out who Santa was, but Erik (my 2.5 year old boy) was full into it. Katia and Erik set a milestone for themselves in skiing, Katia can take now the chair lift on her own and Erik is now skiing all by him self (he likes the moguls the best).

Just before the holidays I got a package from MBT. MBT is a very unique shoe and is also called "the anti-shoe". I first heard about MBT talking to Urs Loetscher. Yes, good old Urs from the x-alps. Back then he told me he likes these sandals because he has such a wide foot. "Right ..., the old fox new better." There is more to it, check out what makes MBT so different from any other shoe at http://www.swissmasai.ca/Principle.aspx . MBT is sponsoring us with their shoes and currently I use them for my daily walks and in the gym. I have to say that I can feel a difference on my overall posture while walking and standing. I am not sure if I will be using them during the race, if so, I might only use them while we walk on the road, but first I need to use them more with longer walks and a caring my backpack to see how I do with it.

To cold to train on the mountain

2008-12-17T16:50:00.009-07:00

The last 10 days it got really cold. The temperature dropped down to -37 Celsius on the mountain (about -27 in the valley). The kids where still gung ho to go skiing last Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

This cold keeps me down in the valley training in the gym and on the stairs (with backpack and sometimes with ski boots). Penny put me a new program in the gym. The exercis she gives me looks way better on her then me, but hey, what ever works will be done.

The cold temperatures and early evenings has also given me some time to work on the flying/hiking route. I am inserting notes into maps that I received from the Nova Pilots the last couple weeks. The Nova Pilots support is a huge value and I am looking forward meeting most of them next summer.

We are also looking for ways to raise money and possibly get some more sponsorships. Based on our estimates, we will face a cost of about $25.000 for the race and the preparations. So far we have established some great sponsorship in products and services.

Once we receive the products and services, we will write why we have choosen the sponsor and what benefits we see with it.
The first sponosr I would to thank and talk about is www.Nova-Wings.com. I will get a light Triton 24 for a reduced cost (unless we end up int he top 10, then it will be for free). It is not just the wing that makes this sponsorship so valuable. It is the people, their attitude, passion and willingnes to share their knowldege. The Nova pilot team is a huge value, as I have previously mentioned, in helping me plan a detailed route of the race. Local knowledge and connections are the most critical part of the race and with the help of the best x-country pilots in the alps, I could not have any better sponsor.
This help from Nova does not end here. Team leader, Till Gottbrath, who has arranged my communication with the Nova pilots, is also connecting us with other sponsors. For now, we will receive high end sports clothing from CRAFT, and reduced pricing with Hanwag shoes and the weather support from www.GleitSegelWetter.de.

The harness and reserve we will get sponsored by Finsterwalder & Charly.
Superfeet will sponsor us with insoles.
MBT shoes will supply us with some special shoes, which assist in core-strength building as well as many more benefits. Urs Loetscher used these shoes in the alst 2 races. I will write about this in the next blog.
Frank Kernick, with Spring Creek Mountain Village (Supporter from 2007 and who got me into this) will sponsor the pre-race. The pre-race will happen mid June for 3 weeks where we drive up the main route and fly into some areas with a motor paraglider (we get the motor from Nava).
There is also my wife Penny Powers with her business as a personal Trainer and Columbia River Outfitters and my company www.BookingCalendar.com.

Right now it is -30 Celsius outside. To keep us warm we are practising our disco moves.
Check it out at http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/GTPm6etai1Kbsfyo5HQF

Seasons Greetings and all the best and health for 2009

Max, Penny, Katia and Erik

Training just before the snow arrived.

2008-12-09T11:27:00.003-07:00

The fall was just amazing. It got cold but we had no snow and this was just perfect for training. Now with the snow on the ground, the training changed to be more active with the kids. The last couple days I ended up to be the Ski lift for Katia and Erik.
See the short video in how a ski lift works and how Penny kept me timing and chasing around.

x-Alps training video

2008-11-28T07:48:00.007-07:00

Fall is still amazing around here. It is cold without snow.
I am happy without snow as for now most of the ski lifts are not open anyways.
In the mean time I am very busy with work and with the x-alps preparations. Joining the Nova-wings.com team was the best thing ever. I do have so much support from European pilots that I have a hard time to follow up. Thanks again to everyone. I will get back to everyone and I am looking forward to work with your ideas and suggestions.

A lot of people are asking about my workout plan.
For the last 3 month I am concentrating on walking with bag-packs on pavement and on the mountain. On an average i hike about 15 km a day with up to 850 meter elevation gain. I am also strengthening my Achilles tendence by running up stairs. Just 5 minutes from my place we have about a 40 meter vertical stairway going down to the beach. I call them stairways to heaven and run them about 10 times up and down before I go to the gym. Penny also put me on a program to work out one day a week in the gym to improve core strength and hip-flexes. Right now I work out at least 5 - 6 days a week. On some weeks I have a bigger break due business travels.
Below is a video of the stair workout and a hike up Mt.Swansea. This also gives you a good idea about the area I am living in.

Back from meetings and more support is shaping up

2008-11-19T22:36:00.006-07:00

I am so glad that I can work from my home and do not have to travel and work like many others have to in the cooperate world. The last week I had to attend meetings, presentations and conferences in Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver. This was kind of a wake up call to see how many others are going through their carrier. Now back home I am catching up but can get back to the long hikes and my training program right from the house. I do feel very luck where I live, as this kind of training would almost be impossible living in big cities.
In the mean time we are getting more support. Till (head of Nova team) arranged a sponsorship with CRAFT. Craft is a high end sporting cloth manufacture. CRAFT will sponsor clothing for training and the race. You should check out their products at www.craft.se and see your self the cool and hot stuff they offer.
I am amazed in how much support I do get from Nova team pilots offering their local knowledge to us. Thank you again to all Nova pilots for all the support and keep up the great spirit.

Nova Paraglider support and Nova Team

2008-11-11T10:50:00.005-07:00

Nova-wings.com confirmed to support us with a glider, help in route planning and to get some sponsors for equipment. Thanks to Till Gottbrath (Nova Team leader) for his very fast responses and to get this all organized. This is very exciting as we will be able to discuss strategies and have access to local knowledge with some of the best pilots from alps. Already I have some of the team members contacting and sharing information with me. I am very happy and proud to be with the Nova team. I have to say that I have never seen such a warm welcome and fast support from any paragliding company. If anyone from Europe likes to get some information to fly in the Canadian Rockies, please do so as I like to keep up the Team Nova philosophy.

In the mean time, the last 3 weeks I was training hard. I train about 6 out of 7 days. At my last blog you can see that I trained a lot on the mountain. Now I split it up with one day of walking (with full gear and more) 15 km on the flat and a 450 meter hill. Then the day after I run about 400m elevation on stairs to warm up for the Gym.
Now I am off to a conference in Toronto and Vancouver and I will only work out in the hotel gyms.

I will keep you updated on more news.

Max Fanderl

x-alps 2009 now official

2008-10-30T22:17:00.004-06:00

today I received an e-mail from Nick Warren that my application for the 2009 x-alps is now approved.
"Your application for participation in the 2009 Red Bull X-Alps has been successful.
We look forward to seeing you in Salzburg, Austria in July 2009 for the world’s toughest hiking and paragliding adventure race."

I am very excited and as everyone can see, I am in full training for it anyways. Now (besides the training) we are looking for all the logistics and sponsors.
We are also researching the right nutrition plan, so if anyone has some good ideas or can give us pointers, please do so.
Penny is very excited as well as she will be the supporter for the 2009 X-alps.
Now this letter will help Peter Shatalow (film producer) to get a TV network in place to create a documentary about our training, pre-race and the race.
Please feel free to send us any tips about training, nutrition, information about route and anything else you can think of.

www.flyingMax.com

October update

2008-10-20T18:48:00.004-06:00

We had a great fall. The weather was great and we had a lot of fun. The kids spend a lot of time outside and so did we. The last month and a half (Sept & Oct) I concentrated a bit more on my hiking and walking. So I started to do hikes right from the house to the summit of Mt.Swansea (about 10km) I got my time down to 1 hour 38 minutes with the pack. I also worked lot on the downhill walks to strengthen the muscles around the knees. In total I did plus 20.000 m (65.000 feet) in elevation and plus 250 km in distance. Penny joins me a lot with these hikes and we both hike and fly from the summit. The good part is that all these can be done without any pain in the knees or achilles tendence. The rest of the time besides playing on the mountain and the kids we worked hard on fine tuning the www.BookingCalendar.com and move now more aggressive into sales and marketing. No word if we will compete in the 2009 x-alps yet, but this should come now sooner then later.

August already ...

2008-08-23T08:32:00.004-06:00

This is hard to believe. It is already getting to the end of August. This summer went by so fast despite the rather cold summer we had. Overall the season started late and we only had a couple of days with good flying conditions. Most of the time I was extremely busy with work. One was to compete in "New Venture BC" and by moving from "Product & Development" into sales and marketing with www.BookingCalendar.com . Penny and the kids are healthy and in real good spirits. We had a lot of fun in June with my parents visiting us from Germany which allowed us to sneak out for some good flights. Since beginning July we have Bea (Nanny from Germany) to help us with the kids as Penny is very busy with www.ColumbiaRiverOutfitters.com and personal training courses.
My training is coming along well. I do a lot of hiking and most of the times I do hike up Mt.Swansea with my gear. Some days I even take my Bike and the Paraglider to bike to Mt.Swansea and then hiking to te summit. Most of the flights I have done where short from 1-2 hours and all of them where out-returns.
Our www.LakesideEvent.com was amazing again and we had 55 pilots competing. Penny placed 2nd. Well done Penny.
One flight I like to mention was just a week ago with my old flying buddy Ron Ford. The launch was going direct into the start of thermals and climbing out was not as easy as it seamed. Once we got above the mountains we could get up to plus 4000m right to cloud-base. It was just fantastic to look across the valley into the Bugaboo Glacier. At the same time we could look down to Diana Lake. It just felt like the good old times. Well I flew my 10 year old Bagheera from Apco as I sold my Sigma6 a month ago. But it was good to see the x-alps Nova Mentor (this is what Ron is flying now) flying with me. I had a hard time following him but I could eventually catch up. The flight ended at my house (50 km later) and all we really needed where 4 thermals to do so.
Anyhow, this is just a update of this blog and I will try to get our for another great hike and x-country flight later today.

X-Country season started

2008-04-12T22:19:00.003-06:00

What a great day we had today. Sunny, sunny and sunny again. Not a cloud in the sky, Lots of white Mountains and tons of blue thermals.
Nick, Jeff, Brett and I hiked up Mt. Swansea (2 cheated by getting a ride half way up). It was just beautiful and the snow was not as bad as it was a couple weeks ago where I had constant hip deep snow. Today it took only 1 hour 10 minutes and it felt great.
On top we all had a struggle with the takeoff. The thermals rather came straight up and the snow was knee deep and made running harder then it should. I had to abort my launch 2 times, but the 3rd one was perfect.
Today the thermals came straight up. So it was a little different then normal as you had to stay more away from the mountain then normal.
After a couple scratches and sink outs I learned quick, flew out and got what I needed. After I let Mt. Swansea heading south, i watch how it looked very stable at Canal Flats (40 km away), but we said we would go to Fairmont and go from there. So getting to 4 point Ridge, I hooked a 7 m/sec thermal and got up to 2300m then it seamed the inversion started. The more south I flew the lower the workable thermal got. Eventually at Teggart Mountain summit, I decided to turn around and on the way back i see Brett getting high at 4 point ridge. Right after this he headed south not following the ridge, heading to a ridge running into the valley. I watched him and he got high there and kept on going south. Well, I thought I better follow as Fairmont was the goal. So I got up high enough to follow Brett to the ridge, got high as he did but I kept watching where he went from there. I saw him once lower and trying to get up, so I thought I hang here for a bit enjoying the great view and see what he does. I was not interested to glide to Fairmont and then to try to find a ride back home. I wanted to fly to Fairmont and back home. Anyhow I watched how stable it got at Canal Flats, I did not see Brett going anywhere, so I decided to fly back to Mt Swansea. Wow, that was the best thing I could do. The wind turned slightly south and the more north I got the higher the thermals where working. So I passed Mt. Swansea, #1. got even higher, then to #2 got even higher and this all at 6:00pm. so I decided to keep on going to the North and when I had Dry Gulch below me (just south of the Radium Golf Course) I decided to head back home as it would get to late. I had to work my self back against the wind but nothing to hard and I landed at 7:00 pm right in front of the house.
This is great, first x-country from Mt. Swansea, landing at the house and i do not have to worry about any retrieval, Happy kids and Penny was getting me a bier. How much better can it be.

Thanks again to Penny and the kids to let me have this great day.

Review of March and the Easter Meet

2008-04-03T07:49:00.000-06:00

I decided to continue my blog with the blogger instead my website.
Anyhow, March was a great month. We got lots done with work and it looks we are getting to the end of the development of http://www.bookingcalendar.com/. The sales are picking up and a lot of bigger companies looking at us.
Training was a bit slow due all the work, but I still got in at least one hike up Mt.Swansea with a flight. Penny and I started to free off every Thursday afternoon to do what we like to do. Most of the the time we ventured off to Panorama for a flight and a couple runs (ski).

The highlight of March was our 10th annual Easter Meet. We had 26 Pilots and great weather.
On Friday some pilots had up to 6 flights. Saturday was like in the picture book. Most people had about 3 flights and a lot of people made it up to plus 9000 feet. Only 6 flew out into the valley and others decided to land due cold hands. Saturday evening we had Pizza and then went to the Pup. The party started slow, got into Boat races (with beer), then to our annual "Tray" race and than a great 80th music and dance night. For the Tray race we had great conditions on the hill but after 2 races on food trays security shut us down for out own safety. Sunday morning the weather was ok but you could see that snow was coming in. We got about 4 flights in total and then stopped due snowfall. At noon we handed out the prices and then we finally could go for a couple ski runs. Overall it was just picture perfect and everyone had a great time.

By the way, we forgot to clean up the landing site with all the attempts to hit the Easter Nest. So Penny and I send the kids to friends for a couple hours and headed up the mountain to clean up. We where looking everywhere and could not find any. We even looked at Taintan Bowl without any luck. Eventually we went home as we had a hard time to find any under 25 cm of new snow .

Take it to the Max

xAlps 2011 Presentation with Andy Froetscher (Italy) and Max & Penny (Canada) in Munich

xAlps 2011 Presentation with Andy Froetscher (Italy) and Max & Penny (Canada) in Munich

October 25th 2011 at 20:00 UhrxAlps 2011 Presentation with Andy Froetscher (Italy) and Max & Penny (Canada) in Munich

Flying over the castles and the Dolomite's Tour - part 2

Flying over the castles and the Dolomite's Tour - part 1

Flying in Slovenia at the "Serial Cup"

xAlps 2011

Photos of the preparations just before the race

Current updates of the race at

The clock is ticking ...

Checking out the the route from Monaco to the Matterhorn

Left Canada and now I am all over the place

flying in the Rockies

Copper Point Resort is sponsoring Team Canada

What a great party and fundraiser we had

Team Canada xAlps fundraiser party

Easter meet at Panorama

Training in March

Penny at the cross country worlds masters in Silverstar

Training in February

How is training going?

xAlps presentations in the valley

Paradise Ridge the easy way up.

How is training going?

Flying at our local ski hill - Panorama Mountain Resort

Seasons greetings and a happy, healthy 2011

xAlps training in Canada

Paragliding at Panorama Mt. Resort

Nova Wings now available at www.flyingMax.com

xAlps preparations are on the way and still having fun with the family.

RedBull xAlps 2011

Fun with the kids - heading to the Dolomite's

34th annual LakesideEvent.com

Flying meets in the summer

Lumby meet

May had a lot of unstable weather - Equipment review

Picking up a VW Westy by air.

Early start to fly XC in the Valley

Easter Fly-in Meet at Panorama

We are back home ...

Update of summer and fall 2009

x-alps statement and more details

The race is over

Final preparations

Gross Glockner and Watzmann

The Dolomite's

The "South" or the "North" route?

What did I do from Monday to Thursday?

Update about Frank and quick update from Chamonix

Frank is out of the hospital and I am heading north

We made it to Monaco and have to do some changes.

The first couple days on the route

The first couple of days

Arriving in Germany

What a great long weekend we had....

what harness should I use?

Mini x-Alps Training in the Rockies

x-alps fundraiser for May long weekend

Easter flying Meet at Panorama

Why are we doing this ...

Slovenia part 2 and first flights with new Triton in Canada

Slovenia report Part 1

update and getting ready to pick up the new wing

January training update with Panorama flight video

Happy New Year - MBT

To cold to train on the mountain

Training just before the snow arrived.

x-Alps training video

Back from meetings and more support is shaping up

Nova Paraglider support and Nova Team

x-alps 2009 now official

October update

August already ...

X-Country season started

Review of March and the Easter Meet

October 25th 2011 at 20:00 Uhr
xAlps 2011 Presentation with Andy Froetscher (Italy) and Max & Penny (Canada) in Munich