Knee Status

A few people have asked about my knee since my posthole incident hiking in Zermatt. I haven't been back on my bike since then, but I think everything is okay. I don't have any new pain, so I think it was just a little scare with no real consequence.

Paragliding

Miles from Home - 5214.51
Firsts / Highlights - Paragliding, Hot chocolate at Shilthorn rotating restaurant, Swiss chocolate, riding in the engine driver’s compartment of a mountain train
Miles Hiked - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No route today
People - Simon – Paraglider pilot.

This post is from July 2, 2009.



Today was to be my last day in Interlaken, so if I wanted to experience one of the adventure sports that people do here, this was my last chance. Rather than leave the possibility of being shutout by lightning again, I decided to get going first thing. Okay, “my” first thing. 10:30.



Of all the sports I wrote about last time, I decided to go paragliding. I chose it because I thought it would be a safe thrill with great views of the lakes and would be a variation on flying glider planes like I did a few years ago. I think I made a good choice. Like flying a glider, paragliding is “pure flying”. There are no motors or instruments involved, and you ride the thermals just like a bird. There is no parachute opening to worry about because it is already open when you take off. There is a reserve chute for emergencies, but use is extremely rare.

George, the owner of Hotel Derby, made arrangements for the tour company to pick me up and take me to the landing area where I met my pilot Simon. Simon was a good-natured guy from Bern. His “real” job was as a PC tech, but he had a pretty flexible schedule that allowed him to drive to Interlaken a few days a week and take people flying on his tandem paraglider. He told me that his company has 90 commercial paraglider pilots, and 30 of them make their full-time living giving rides. That doesn’t even include people who fly non-commercially and all of the other outfitter companies. As you might guess, there are gliders in the skies over Interlaken most of the time.

I just realized that I never even signed a release form. Can you imagine? Simon just rounded up a driver and we loaded his 55-pound backpack into the car and we were ready to head up the mountain for our launch. A good indication that we were launching for a picturesque Swiss hillside is that Ricola (the candy company) was up there filming a commercial.

Simon’s tandem rig was big enough that you really would not want to hike very far, but there are lighter solo kits that weigh as little as 10 pounds. Small rigs create some interesting possibilities. You could hike wherever you want to go, and then fly home rather than do the painful downhill hike. Sounds like a fun day.

One of the things that made paragliding like nothing else I have done is the take-off. You don’t jump off of anything. You just run down a hill until the hill drops away from your feet. Simon’s strongest advice was, “don’t stop running, even when you think you have taken off, keep running”. That was good advice, because the first thing you think when your feet start feeling light is that you must be in the air. You really need to keep driving forward, however, to achieve flight.



Once truly off the ground, Simon told me to sit down in the harness. That was the only uncomfortable moment of the flight. I couldn’t get the harness to convert from the vertical running position to the horizontal sitting position. I could have safely taken the entire flight hanging vertically from the harness, but it would not have been very comfortable and it gave me the sensation that I was hanging on rather than being supported by the harness. It was a welcome feeling when I finally got situated.



Since I had previously flown gliders, Simon almost immediately turned over the controls to me. It was more fun for me and it allowed him to take more photographs. I took all of the scenery shots, but he was able to get shots of the two of us using a camera mounted on the end of a telescoping pole with a remote shutter release. This allowed him to get the camera far enough away from us that he could take really good pictures from all different angles. The photographs were a way for the pilots to have a little side-business apart from the tour operator. I was happy to help out Simon and ended up with some pictures that I could not have taken myself.

For the landing, I gave the controls back to Simon. We landed softly in a field right back where we started. A few feet above the ground, he stalled the chute and we set down gently with only a few running strides necessary. It was much softer than my previous parachute landings.



With my adventure sport objective satisfied, I still had enough of the day remaining for a trip into the mountains. Doug Allen had suggested that I check out the aerial tramway system leading up to Shilthorn. The destination was a revolving mountaintop restaurant that was made famous in one of the early James Bond movies. It is perched on top of a rocky peak with top-of-the-world views. It is impressive that it was possible to build a tram to reach such a rugged spot, much less construct a revolving restaurant. The tram gives access to a location that most people would never see in their lifetimes without.



The route to Shilthorn actually required 2 trains and 3 trams (Train from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, Tram to Grutschalp, train to Murren, 2 trams to Shilthorn). There was some minor hiking between some of the stations, but this was not a bad day on the feet. The second train was almost like a hobbyist train set all grown up. I was able to sit in the front compartment with the engine driver. It was interesting to see that perspective on train travel after so many hours of looking only sideways.

I am starting to miss my bike, but all in all, this was a pretty great day.



Tomorrow is a long travel day to get down to Monaco for the start of the Tour de France.

Interlaken

Miles from Home - 5214.51
Firsts / Highlights - Near miss with riding a zip line, near miss with being hit by lightning, Grindelwald, Top of First, seeing Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau peaks, hike to Bachalpsee
Miles Hiked - 10.45 miles
Vertical Feet - 871 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.


Afficher Interlaken sur une carte plus grande

This post is from July 1, 2009.



My second stop in Switzerland is Interlaken. I didn’t have any strong reason to choose this city other than lots of people saying that it is a fun place to visit. It is a little lower elevation than Zermatt, so it is a bit warmer, but it is surrounded by huge Alps like Eiger and Jungfrau.

I had heard that Interlaken is the adventure sport capital of the world, but I wasn’t really sure what that meant. Right away upon arrival, I started to get the picture. There are many outfitter companies here that offer excursions for sports you are unlikely to have ever tried, and some you probably didn’t know existed. Here are some of them:

White water rafting
Parasailing
Paragliding
Hang gliding
Canyoning
Bungee jumping
Canyon jumping
Skydiving
Zip line
Zorbing

All of these activities are on top of the independent sports you can do, such as hiking, in the high mountains. The comprehensive transportation system includes trains, busses, aerial trams and funiculars which makes access to the mountains inviting.



Combine specialized sports with the generally high cost of doing anything in Switzerland, and it looks like Interlaken may be a great place to have fun and spend a lot of money. I am going to attempt to do the former while keeping the latter under control.

You may not have heard of some of the sports that are done here.

Parasailing – is like water skiing, but you use the wind pulling a parachute rather than a boat for propulsion.

Paragliding – is like hang gliding, but you hang from a steerable parachute rather than a fixed wing. You take off like a hang glider by running off a steep hill or cliff. No airplane is necessary like skydiving.

Canyoning – there is no firm definition for canyoning, but it is a combination of several crazy things you can do in a canyon. They include rappelling down waterfalls, jumping off rocks into a river and sliding down rock formations like a water slide.

Canyon Jumping – is like bungee jumping with the added element of being inside a canyon.

Zip line – is another name for a Tyrolean Traverse. You connect to a steel cable with a harness and slide down the line. There is a particularly steep zip line here that covers ½ mile in 45 seconds reaching a top speed of 84 km/hr. It drops 200 meters over the course of an 800 meter run (25% grade).

Zorbing – is rolling down a hill inside a double-walled inflatable ball. The ball protects you like a Mars lander.

Some of these look intriguing, a few don’t.



I started the day by taking the train to the high Alps just outside Interlocken to a town called Grindelwald. From there, I bought a ticket for a gondola that went to the top of First (First is the name of a mountain, not “#1”). The unusual thing about this gondola was that it had 3 angle stations that redirected the line as it climbed up the mountain. Two were sophisticated decelerate/reaccelerate stations where you could unload, and one was a simple redirection with only a cable change (no decel/accel). Once at the top, it was my plan to do a hike to Bachalp Lake, then take the zip line from the top down to the next station before riding the gondola back to Grindelwald.

I was excited to try the zip line because we have talked about installing one at Steamboat for a number of years. This one was by far the longest, steepest and fastest that I had ever seen, so it was a chance to see what is possible with such an attraction. Other than being particularly steep, the other thing that made this one unique was that it had 4 parallel lines so that multiple people could ride at the same time.



As I was approaching Bachalpsee, I saw that some dark clouds were coming over the ridge and that afternoon rains were inevitable. Since I wanted to be sure to get the zip line ride in, I turned around early and headed back down to the top of the First gondola (top of the zip line). I beat the rain back and thought I was home free. I went to the platform just in time to see a couple of guys take off. It was a rush as they kicked open the retaining gates and quickly accelerated to over 50 mph.

I was to be next, but just before the harnesses could be returned up the line, the rain started. The operator told me that this happens every afternoon. She said that since they could not operate in the rain, I should go to the restaurant and wait it out. I did.

Returning to the platform after the rain, I found the operator looking confused. They had been unable to restore electrical power or communication after the rain passed through. If the top and bottom stations of the zip line cannot communicate, the system has a fail-safe that prevents it from operating. They eventually concluded that the line had been hit by lightning during the rain and that they would not be able to get it functioning for the rest of the day.

So close. One adventure sport attempt foiled. I was disappointed, but at least the lightning didn’t take out the gondola, which would have meant a 3-4 hour hike down in the mud.