I took some friends over the weekend to explore the area above Yavorov mountain hut.

Before the air start, keeping maximum altutude below the clouds, waiting for the time to strike.  30 sec before the end of the video the race starts, and off we are.

I love this game.

Maybe you’ve seen my photo story in XC Mag from two years ago, where I introduce the potential of SW Bulgaria, where I’m from: http://www.xcmag.com/2013/05/highs-and-lows-yassen-savov-introduces-bulgaria-and-flies-250km-in-the-mountains/

Since then I’ve continued exploring the area, learning more and more about how this technical and complex terrain of mountains, hills, and flatlands to the south of Sofia works.  And it works well!

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Photo model – Daniel Dimov.

Storks are quite “traditional” in Bulgaria.  As a child, growing up, I dug their nests on village electric posts; and then a bit later on I would marvel at their annual late-summer migration back south to Africa, staring at them in the hundreds of thousands passing by the Black Sea coast in a long, stretched-out bird cloud.

But, hey(!), you can fly with them, too!

I shot the video below during this flight today: http://forum.skynomad.net/leonardo/flight/14122

Difficult flying conditions, but still some nice distance (242km) over the northern part of Bulgaria, which I have not explored much at all, since I almost always fly in my local, and more technical, mountains of the SW.  But these flatlands in the north make flying across the whole country totally doable.  It’s just a matter of time.

Every year, when the great northern snows melt and the urge to be in the sun is too strong to resist by even the most powerful and fierce and fearless and hugely moustachioed of them, the Viking warriors of all of Scandinavia put on their traditional EN-certified horned helmets, board the wooden sail ships, and converge from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland to some carefully chosen sun-struck piece of heaven lower down in Europe, carrying, instead of their double-bladed axes, a paraglider each – and a nice racing one, whenever possible – so they can fight out the battle of the Flying Vikings and raise up some big wooden mugs and shout, red burned happy faces cheering all together: “SKOL!” Continue reading →

Soaring the ridge at the back of Ulriken.
Thanks for the photo, Roald Torkildsen.