In Kössen in Austria, vacationers can ride in a balloon.
Austria
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With hot air over the Wilder Kaiser
In the Austrian town of Kössen, balloonists meet every winter. Visitors can take part in alpine ballooning – and experience new perspectives.
The sun is shining in the blue sky, the Kaiserwinkl welcomes its guests with glorious weather. “The conditions for a winter balloon flight could hardly be better,” says Irmgard Moser enthusiastically. The passionate pilot bought her 30 years ago
Turned a hobby into a job, has been organizing one of the most prestigious balloon festivals in the Alps with her partner, “Alpin Ballooning” in Kössen and Walchsee for more than 20 years and has already taken hundreds of visitors on a dream ride over the varied winter landscape between the Zahmen and the Wilder Kaiser help.
“High up you see the world with completely different eyes,” explains the only professional balloon pilot in Austria, her enthusiasm, which she is happy to share with others. Even if Corona took away the opportunity last winter and this winter to celebrate the planned and expected 20th anniversary of “Alpin Ballooning” with over 40 international balloon teams, she does not lapse into passivity. Despite all the adversities, twelve teams came this year on their own and, to the delight of the winter sports guests, provided the blue sky with colorful dabs of color with their balloons. The rendezvous of the balloonists also offers the tourists who have arrived the chance to experience an unusual aerial adventure at special conditions for 260 euros. As always, Irmgard Moser will do everything in his power to provide every interested guest with a balloon team that will enable them to take a ride while complying with the current hygiene measures.
At around 10 a.m., teams and guests meet on the shore of the snow-covered Walchsee. Everyone lends a hand to pull the basket, the balloon envelope and the gas bottles including the burner off the pickup into position. The guests traveling with them keep the envelope of the balloon stretched wide while the pilots inject air using a fan and burner. Irmgard Moser and her team get the brand new 20-year anniversary balloon ready for the maiden voyage, while next to her Stefan Kummeth and Thomas Schaller position their 4250 cubic meter giant balloon. 2,500 square meters of firmly sewn fabric were used for this balloon, which is 38 meters high and has a cross-section of 23 meters. Today, Stefan Kummeth controls the balloon, while Thomas Schaller follows the route, which depends on the wind direction, with the pick-up.
After a few minutes, the air-filled balloon rises above the basket. The passengers carefully climb on board and the adventurous journey can begin. Stefan carefully fills the shell with more hot air with the burner until the vehicle comes off the ground meter by meter. As if the laws of gravity were suspended, the aircraft, which weighs around one ton, climbs 1.5 to two meters per second into the clear mountain air. Silent and supple, it gains altitude and picks up speed. Only the hissing of the burner breaks the silence from time to time. In the basket, you can hardly hear the gentle wind that moves the colorful balloon at almost the same speed. North wind lets it glide majestically in the direction of the Wilder Kaiser. Below you can see cross-country skiers who are out and about on the Walchsee bank trail. Wanderer follows the journey with binoculars or with his naked eyes and lets the cameras click. At 50 kilometers per hour and at an altitude of 3,500 meters, it goes over the rugged peaks of the Wilder Kaiser, while a fairytale mountain panorama with snow-covered Alpine ridges spreads out on the horizon, at the foot of which the Tyrolean log and half-timbered houses appear. “For us, winter is the best time of year,” enthuses Stefan Kummeth. “In cool weather, the 60 to 80 degree temperature difference between the contents of the balloon and the outside air, which is necessary for the vehicle to rise, can be achieved with much less effort than in summer. The gas bottles they carry last up to four or five hours, so that some pilots even dare to cross the Alps with oxygen masks, which is hardly imaginable in summer due to the thermals.”
After a one-and-a-half hour drive, Stefan Kummeth looks out for a landing place above the town of Oberndorf near St. Johann. Now follows one of the most exciting moments of the journey. The pilot skilfully uses the different wind currents in the individual air layers to place the vehicle precisely next to a road on the ground. The balloon lands unexpectedly gently in the snow. Together with the balloon team, everyone pushes the air out of the envelope, collapses the balloon and juggles the basket onto the transport trailer that Thomas has brought up. The subsequent baptism of the pilots takes place according to old tradition. Since ballooning was reserved for the nobility in its early stages, every novice still receives a symbolic title of nobility after successfully completing the first flight. At the next launch, the passengers who have been raised to the nobility of balloonists will rise into the air as dukes, counts, princesses or baronesses. In Kössen this is possible all year round.