doigal
Axalp Fliegerschiessen 2010 - A Guide
I'd first heard of this airshow back in 2007. What I saw of the pictures that got sent around the little engineering office I worked in back then amazed me. Can you really go somewhere to watch F-5s and F-18s firing real 20mm rounds and not need a telescope to see them and camo to avoid being picked up by the police?
Seriously?
For one week a year in Switzerland, it turns out you can.
The Axalp Fliegerschiessen is a 4 day demonstration of the Swiss Air Force's firepower, that serves as a valuable training experience for the pilots and a pretty kickass show for the rest of us. Held in a valley in the Berner Oberland region of Switzerland, the day starts at the Axalp village (ca 1500m), and then begins a small stroll up to the top of the valley (a relaxing 800m climb). To do this properly, you have to start well before dawn and hike in the dark. The reward is a sunrise over the swiss alps and enough time for coffee, a quick snack and a breaky beer before the airshow. Brilliant.
If you are going to do this, do yourself a favour and don’t wimp out. Get up early, pipe yourself full of whatever gets you going in the morning and get walking! Sunrise is about 7,30 at that time of year, meaning if you want to be setup for the golden hour, you want to be at the ATC tower by 7am. It takes ~3 hours to get up there if you don’t use the chairlift.. do the maths!! I promise though that if the weather plays ball, you will be rewarded with a stunning sunrise over the valleys. Its a treat that is worth hiking up for in the dark just for that view. Whilst its not why you are making the accent, pack a landscape wide angle lens with a lightweight tripod as well. As there is plenty of fenceline at the top, you could get away with a gorilla pod type setup if you wanted.
The only way up to the village is via the tiny little access road. The width for this road never seems to become two lanes wide but there are plenty of passing spots along the way. In the week we were there we shared the road with cars, push bikes, trucks, busses, a herd of cows and a couple of tractors. Just be sure to take it very carefully, especially around the frequent blind corners. If in doubt, just catch the bus.
As of 2010 they have changed the rules on access to the village - Private cars are no longer allowed access to the village between 0500 and 2100 on the Wednesday and the Thursday. I don’t know what happens if you turn up before 5am with respect to parking, but we saw a few campervans that had setup in one of the village carparks. We did the easy thing and rented a small chalet apartment for the week, which was surprisingly cheap when split amongst a few friends.
The path up is well signposted and even in the pitch darkness of 5am there are plenty of people about pointing you in the right direction. That being said a map will never hurt you. If you have an iPhone then the excellent official Swiss Map app is well worth buying and will give you moving maps at 1:25000 res. Generally I always hike with a paper map as well and think that it’s bad practice not to, and there are plenty, including some free ones, that will cover you here. Some places suggest going up through the valley on the way up - we didn’t try that this time, but we did descend through it. Its very steep but far less crowded, which is the biggest problem on the main route. It is stunning in the afternoon sun as well, looks like its taken out of Lord of the Rings, especially with the little hut half way along. Just be carful on the decent and zig zag to loose height rather than just heading straight down.
A common theme you will hear about the event is the weather. Its mid autumn, 2km up - think about it!! It is going to be cold, even with the sun shining, and there’s a reasonable chance that the show will be shortened or cancelled if the weather even looks like it will turn. I think that now they are starting to charge for it they are less likely to cancel it due to bad weather in the valley (so it is less dependent on the VIPs being able to get up and back by helis) but this isn’t confirmed. Take decent shoes with good support. Take cold weather gear - think about thermals, beanies, gloves, etc. Sunscreen isn’t a bad idea either. A spare t-shirt is a good idea as well as you'll be sweating a bit at the top. Just think about it and don't be stupid - anyone that’s in reasonable fitness (say climb 3 flights of stairs reasonably quickly and not be falling over out of breath) and that wants to can make it. Just use your head and think to make sure that its not an uncomfortable trip.
Photo gear wise you really want to make some calls up front on this. Chasing the planes at entry and exit needs 500mm+, but panning the fast passes, especially the flare releases, wants something wider, maybe 50-80mm. A lot of people there were with the Canon 100-400 (me included) which is a reasonable compromise that will let you cover a lot of the action - and a damm good lens as well. Ideally two bodies with say 100-400 and a 24-105 (or the nikon/sony/pentax/etc equivalents) would cover almost everything. Interestingly enough there were a few people there with 5D2s set up for video, mostly with very wide lenses.
If you haven’t booked a chalet, the queue for the busses to get down will be long, and don’t for a minute think it will be otherwise. My advice would be not to rush to get off the mountain but to stick around and have a beer and a bite to eat before joining the melee for the busses. Don’t forget to enjoy the scenery!
Resources/Links:
Official Swiss Air Force Site:
Maps:
Brienz 1:25000 (Swiss Topo Landeskarte 1209)
Interlaken Hiking map (free but no contours, unknown scale)
www.interlaken.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/bilder_cams_karte...
Axalp Webcam:
bildersammlung.ch/brienz-axalp-bahn-live-wetter-webcam-sc...
Shows the top of the chairlift that is open on show days. Note that this is ~300m below the viewing area and on the other side of the valley. Use it as a guide only - this can be covered in cloud and fog but the top will be clear. Flying is dependent on both the planes and the VIP helis being able to take off and land, as well as the weather at the top.
Sunrise Calculator:
www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=1426
Axalp Fliegerschiessen 2010 - A Guide
I'd first heard of this airshow back in 2007. What I saw of the pictures that got sent around the little engineering office I worked in back then amazed me. Can you really go somewhere to watch F-5s and F-18s firing real 20mm rounds and not need a telescope to see them and camo to avoid being picked up by the police?
Seriously?
For one week a year in Switzerland, it turns out you can.
The Axalp Fliegerschiessen is a 4 day demonstration of the Swiss Air Force's firepower, that serves as a valuable training experience for the pilots and a pretty kickass show for the rest of us. Held in a valley in the Berner Oberland region of Switzerland, the day starts at the Axalp village (ca 1500m), and then begins a small stroll up to the top of the valley (a relaxing 800m climb). To do this properly, you have to start well before dawn and hike in the dark. The reward is a sunrise over the swiss alps and enough time for coffee, a quick snack and a breaky beer before the airshow. Brilliant.
If you are going to do this, do yourself a favour and don’t wimp out. Get up early, pipe yourself full of whatever gets you going in the morning and get walking! Sunrise is about 7,30 at that time of year, meaning if you want to be setup for the golden hour, you want to be at the ATC tower by 7am. It takes ~3 hours to get up there if you don’t use the chairlift.. do the maths!! I promise though that if the weather plays ball, you will be rewarded with a stunning sunrise over the valleys. Its a treat that is worth hiking up for in the dark just for that view. Whilst its not why you are making the accent, pack a landscape wide angle lens with a lightweight tripod as well. As there is plenty of fenceline at the top, you could get away with a gorilla pod type setup if you wanted.
The only way up to the village is via the tiny little access road. The width for this road never seems to become two lanes wide but there are plenty of passing spots along the way. In the week we were there we shared the road with cars, push bikes, trucks, busses, a herd of cows and a couple of tractors. Just be sure to take it very carefully, especially around the frequent blind corners. If in doubt, just catch the bus.
As of 2010 they have changed the rules on access to the village - Private cars are no longer allowed access to the village between 0500 and 2100 on the Wednesday and the Thursday. I don’t know what happens if you turn up before 5am with respect to parking, but we saw a few campervans that had setup in one of the village carparks. We did the easy thing and rented a small chalet apartment for the week, which was surprisingly cheap when split amongst a few friends.
The path up is well signposted and even in the pitch darkness of 5am there are plenty of people about pointing you in the right direction. That being said a map will never hurt you. If you have an iPhone then the excellent official Swiss Map app is well worth buying and will give you moving maps at 1:25000 res. Generally I always hike with a paper map as well and think that it’s bad practice not to, and there are plenty, including some free ones, that will cover you here. Some places suggest going up through the valley on the way up - we didn’t try that this time, but we did descend through it. Its very steep but far less crowded, which is the biggest problem on the main route. It is stunning in the afternoon sun as well, looks like its taken out of Lord of the Rings, especially with the little hut half way along. Just be carful on the decent and zig zag to loose height rather than just heading straight down.
A common theme you will hear about the event is the weather. Its mid autumn, 2km up - think about it!! It is going to be cold, even with the sun shining, and there’s a reasonable chance that the show will be shortened or cancelled if the weather even looks like it will turn. I think that now they are starting to charge for it they are less likely to cancel it due to bad weather in the valley (so it is less dependent on the VIPs being able to get up and back by helis) but this isn’t confirmed. Take decent shoes with good support. Take cold weather gear - think about thermals, beanies, gloves, etc. Sunscreen isn’t a bad idea either. A spare t-shirt is a good idea as well as you'll be sweating a bit at the top. Just think about it and don't be stupid - anyone that’s in reasonable fitness (say climb 3 flights of stairs reasonably quickly and not be falling over out of breath) and that wants to can make it. Just use your head and think to make sure that its not an uncomfortable trip.
Photo gear wise you really want to make some calls up front on this. Chasing the planes at entry and exit needs 500mm+, but panning the fast passes, especially the flare releases, wants something wider, maybe 50-80mm. A lot of people there were with the Canon 100-400 (me included) which is a reasonable compromise that will let you cover a lot of the action - and a damm good lens as well. Ideally two bodies with say 100-400 and a 24-105 (or the nikon/sony/pentax/etc equivalents) would cover almost everything. Interestingly enough there were a few people there with 5D2s set up for video, mostly with very wide lenses.
If you haven’t booked a chalet, the queue for the busses to get down will be long, and don’t for a minute think it will be otherwise. My advice would be not to rush to get off the mountain but to stick around and have a beer and a bite to eat before joining the melee for the busses. Don’t forget to enjoy the scenery!
Resources/Links:
Official Swiss Air Force Site:
Maps:
Brienz 1:25000 (Swiss Topo Landeskarte 1209)
Interlaken Hiking map (free but no contours, unknown scale)
www.interlaken.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/bilder_cams_karte...
Axalp Webcam:
bildersammlung.ch/brienz-axalp-bahn-live-wetter-webcam-sc...
Shows the top of the chairlift that is open on show days. Note that this is ~300m below the viewing area and on the other side of the valley. Use it as a guide only - this can be covered in cloud and fog but the top will be clear. Flying is dependent on both the planes and the VIP helis being able to take off and land, as well as the weather at the top.
Sunrise Calculator:
www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=1426