Hot air balloon flights have always fascinated me – they allow a unique perspective and give a glimpse into a bird’s view. I was up for my next adventure when I saw a trip to the Alps crossing with a hot air balloon. I have flown commercially across the Alps many times and knew the snowy peaks would be stunning up close.
What does it take to cross the Alps with a hot air balloon?
- As the Alps are pretty high – the hot air balloon needs to fly higher than normal (up to 6000m) which is a height where you need extra oxygen.
- The trip is long about 300-500 km – so one needs strong North to South foehn wind to cross the Alps, and this only happens during the late autumn to the winter season
- The weather and wind conditions during the trip have to be safe enough for the flight – and these are so rare that a trip can only happen a couple of times in a season
- This means one has to be super flexible on start date and be able to travel with 1-2 days notice
- The flight happens in -10-20 degrees Celsius so warm gear is more than needed
- The duration of the flight is between 3-5 hours and can happen with up to 150 km speed
Preparations
After I applied for the trip – I waited for the perfect weather conditions. About a month later, the company called me to confirm an opening. The next evening I headed to Kempten in Germany to our meeting point with the crew.
We spent the night at a hotel and got instructions for the trip. When we start – the expected length of the journey, what can go wrong and what to be aware of. Our pilots answered questions like what happens if you have to go to the bathroom during the flight (hint: don’t)
The pilots split us into 2 groups as we were flying with 2 hot air balloons. In the morning after a quick breakfast we headed to an airfield to prepare our balloons. It was an all hands on deck adventure as the balloons were huge. To get an idea of the size, see the tiny person holding the balloon in black. I was flying with the bigger balloon, which is the biggest that Germany has.
The balloons are first unfolded and our pilots blew cold air in them with huge ventilators. The balloons were still on the ground, and we helped to hold the edges up until they get properly full. Once the balloons had enough air, the pilots started to heat the air which elevated the balloon from the ground. By this point, we had to take our positions in the baskets (climb in and lie on our back) and waited until the balloon lifted the basket from the ground.
The Balloon Journey
As we ascended we could see the city below our feet. We still had to go through the clouds to reach the mountain peaks. It was a very interesting experience – we lost all of our sights, and the pilot was flying instruments only. The clouds were not tangible to touch – it felt like being in a thick fog. There was a collective breath of relief as we arrived above the clouds. The mountain peaks of the Alps started to break through clouds, giving an incredible sight.
From Germany to Austria (Kempten – Landeck)
We traveled from Kempten to Landeck in Austria and the clouds slowly disappeared. This left us with crystal clear air and amazing mountain sights. While the temperature dropped as we ascended (down to -14C) the sun warmed our faces. We were flying with the wind, which meant that we did not feel the wind chill. I was a very weird feeling, as if the landscape moved around us, not we in the landscape.
It was stunning to see the mountains from the air with our bare eyes without any distractions.
From Austria to Italy (Rechensee to Vicenza)
We crossed Austria to Italy around Reschensee or Lago di Resia and observed the sunk village of Curon. The town was submerged under water after a dam construction in the 1950s. The church tower can be visited in the lake over ice during the winter. The story of the village inspired the Netflix-series ‘Curon.’
The wind took us to Madonna di Campiglio giving us a close-up of frozen lakes, mountain hills and fantastic ski areas, and geological formations
Continuing our way towards Trento, the landscape changed again. Among the mountain peaks, the valleys got wider, and Po valley’s agricultural area revealed Italy’s food chamber in a patchwork manner. Snow became less abundant in the mountains, and the air became bluish due to the warmer afternoon wind. We saw Lake Garda at our feet and in the far, even Venice
Landing in Vicenza
Getting ready to land was one of the most interesting parts of the journey. We were planning to land in Vicenza, in a city close to Verona. We dropped down to 80m height from the ground and were cruising at this height looking for a landing spot. The perfect landing spot is a fairly large field, accessible by car, and has no electricity line running around it. While we were cruising, we could see the landscape around us in close proximity even with the naked eyes. My personal favourite was a steel plant with its burning oven and the scrap metal that they were packing for the oven.
The landing itself was thankfully eventless. We sat down in the basket, holding on to the rails, and waited until our pilot landed the basket.
Following that we packed up our balloon and sunbathed while we waited for our transport. While we had -14 degrees up in the air – the Italian side on the ground was about 12 degrees. It took a while for our transport to arrive, and we had a few visitors at the meadow. I was a bit worried about being on someone sprouting grain but it was Italy… A lady came with her son and brought us fresh bread and slices of ham to eat til we wait.
Once our transport arrived, we headed to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner and made our way back to Germany.
Interesting facts about the trip:
- A few balloon companies offer this type of trip with different starting points. Salzburg Adventures looked also interesting but I chose Skytours, which enabled me to take only one day off from work (although I still spent 2 nights in a hotel before and after the trip). The company had very experienced balloon pilots – mine used to be airplane pilot, the other balloon was flown by the owner of the company with 20+ years of flying experience.
- These types of trips are never guaranteed to happen on a particular day. Even in the evening briefing, they told us we would not fly in the morning if there were significant weather changes. While it would be a bummer to go home without the trip, safety comes first, and I appreciated their careful consideration.
- Key stats from our trip:
- Length: 282 km
- Highest point: 18200 feet / ~ 6 km height
- Max speed: 43 knots / 80 km/h
