Grente, in Italy’s South Tyrol, is a good place to head to fly 250km+ triangles in the Alps. 93 such triangles from Grente have been logged on XContest since 2011, and hundreds of 200k+.
Nova pilot Bernhard Peßl flew a 300km FAI triangle on his Mentor 3 in June 2014, and Robert Schaller’s famous 209km triangle on an EN-A Prion 3 also started there.
There are various launch options between around 2,200-2,300m on a grassy ridge above the Antholz valley. Get to bed early if you plan a big route from here, as your day will start with a two-hour walk with 1,000m height-gain, and you should aim to be at launch for 9am. Stop for coffee at the 2,000m Almhütte if you have time! The local farmer transports gear to the hut with his tractor in the summer months.
Nearby Speikboden (2,450m) is cable-car accessible and more user-friendly, but has slightly shorter (but still impressive) XC potential.
Photo: Till Gottbrath / Nova.eu
Originally appeared in the 2017 Travel Guide, in a section entitled ‘Going Big in the Alps’. Read other entries from the same section here
