Skynomad TRANS BALKAN - Hike and Fly 2015

The final ranking is:

1 - Krischa Berlinger

2 - Stanislaw Radzikovski

3 -  Juraj Koren

4 - Maxim Zubarev

5 - Radoslaw Orlowski

6 - Rafal Obora

7 - Tsvetan Bakardzhiev

8 - Nikolai Yotov

9 - Gavin Jilings

Thank you to all the participants and team - see you next year!

With Krischa and Stan finishing the task with a morning hike, Juraj was the first and only one so far to fly in to goal in the late afternoon.

Nikolay Yotov, Rafal Obora and  Tsvetan Bakardzhiev decided to end the competition.

Maxim Zubarev has made TP2 with Radoslaw Orlowski to follow.

Currently flying to Sopot after a hike to the end of Ravnets area in the mountain.

Juraj Koren is expected to finish today.

The rest of the competitors are heading to TP2.

Stay tuned for interviews with the guys on the finish.

Stanislaw Radzikowski is following close by with just 5 km.

Both competitors are about to finish with a morning hike!

Nikolay Yotov has switched to tourist mode by his own will and with the good looking weather forecast for tomorrow it looks like that Juraj Koren will be 3-rd to finish the task.

Gavin Jillings have dropped out by his own will after putting up a good effort considering the fact that he was having the heaviest equipment of all - 22 kg

Tzvetan Bakardzhiev is keeping high in the mountains for an early takeoff and hopefully a long flight while the rest of the competitors have made it to Sopot for a good night reast and a shot for the 4-th place tomorrow. 

We'll keep updates from the finish line.

The conditions surprised everyone with 5 m/s thermals in complete shadow.

The flatlands near Skobelevo grounded Juraj Koren who is currently walking towards TP2.

Nikolai Yotov, Krischa Berlinger and Stanislaw Radzikowski got the better conditions and made TP 2 by air landing near Kalofer on the way back.

Nikolay switches to tourist mode and drops out of the rankings by his own request.

Gavin Jilings also decided to have rest and drop out.

This put's back Juraj Koren in the top 3.

Currently Krischa is 1-st with 20 km to go to GOAL with Stan following close by.

Looks like we're going to have a finished task on the 2-nd day after all!

Stay tuned for a Finish update.

Yesterdays cold front reset the atmosphere and today the pilots are already half way to TP 2 - Maglizh.

With nice cloud streets in the mountain there's no doubt that the first group of Juraj Koren, Krischa Berlinger and Stanislaw Radzikowski will make TP2 today - the question is - are they going to be able to come back and finish the race today?

Stay tuned!

Here's their point of view for the day.

After the stormy and rainy first kilometers of the race the weather surprised everyone with beautiful conditions in the afternoon.

Juraj Koren made the biggest flight for today landing just 10 km away from Sopot and hiking back to the goal point for a well deserved rest.

Stanislaw Radzikovski and Krischa Berlinger  are following close by and spending the night in the village of Iganovo.

Despite the bad forecast it turns out that a quarter of the task has been completed in the day with the worst forecast.

Are we about to see a pilot crossing the finish line before Thursday?!?

Stay tuned to find out!

And here we see the official anti-doping dogs  T(a)ESTEing the competitors before the start :)

The weather is slowly improving after the morning cold front with the first pilots taking to the air. 

Tzvetan Bakardzhiev being the local pilot is leading the pack!

Stand by for live tracking!

With a total of 9 pilots the final task is set:

Kashana - "Baba" Peak - Maglizh - Sopot = 198 km task.

Unfortunately the weather forecast does not look good and the pilots are off to a wet start!

Let's see how the pilots will decide to tackle the unfavorable weather.