The Stubai Cup 2025 was a washout, with bad weather and unflyable conditions leading to the event being cut short by a day.
The famous testival is now in its 33rd year and usually attracts more than 30 manufacturers and hundreds of pilots who are keen to test fly the latest gliders and harnesses and talk paragliding for three days.
However, this year, 14-16 March, a poor forecast saw several manufacturers cancel and very little public flying.
Instead, the first day of the testival was moved inside where it became something like a trade show, with gear manufactures given half hour slots to present their new gear to the pilots who had turned up. The result was a busy day and a success.
That evening K2 tandem pilots Liv Sansoz and Zeb Roche showed an early edit of their film about their adventure and received a standing ovation from the crowd. The pair climbed the second highest mountain in the world and flew from its summit on 28 July last year.
Saturday saw rain and low cloud all day, with the well-known Elfer launch at 1,800m closed the whole day. Only Aaron Durogati and a few ultra-keen test or display pilots flew – all arriving in the landing field with wet wings after flying down through cloud.
By Saturday evening it was clear the weather had won and the third day, Sunday, was cancelled. That evening Aaron Durogati gave a presentation which included several remarkable films from recent mountain adventures, including ski-and-fly, Alpine combos and a dramatic tandem climb-and-fly of the Torre Venezia.
Despite the bad weather organisers managed to make the best of things, and those who attended the lectures, talks and presentations were happy to see them. Manufacturers did make new gear announcements, but sadly there was no display flying or a chance to test fly any of the new raft of two-line EN Cs or high Bs.
Organisers put a positive spin on the weekend, adding: “Despite difficult weather conditions, it was a successful event! From 14-15 March the Stubai Cup once again attracted paragliding enthusiasts and curious spectators to the Stubai Valley.
“Even though the weather didn’t cooperate this year and only a few flights were possible, the excellent atmosphere wasn’t dampened. The Stubai Valley once again proved to be the ideal host for the traditional season opener for the paragliding scene.”
The call to cancel the final day was correct – the weather closing in again bringing to an end what was a memorable Stubai Cup, albeit for different reasons to usual.
The Stubai Cup has been running for 33 years and is one of the largest paragliding testivals in the scene. It uses the Elferbahn cable car to whisk pilots 800m up from the landing field to the take off in minutes, meaning pilots can test fly many wings in one day when the weather is good.
