Location: Luční Bouda, Giant Mountains, Czech Republic
Time frame: 9 Feb. 2009

Experiencing a snowkite session under full moon is a rare occasion. With snowkiting alone, there are a lot of variables that have to work in your favor… snow cover (not icy, ideally powder but not too deep powder), wind (laminar, not too strong but not too weak) and weather in general. When we start thinking about snowkiting under full moon we have to also wait for the a lunar phase that comes only once a few weeks and lasts a short time – that is max. about three days of the whole phase, the three days that our moon gives us the strongest “shine”. Secondly, we need as little cloud cover as possible. Even a small layer of cirrus clouds in the upper layer can decrease the visibility considerably. It is also important at what position the moon is during the night. It is hard to explain this one as I am not an expert in in this, so just thanks to my observations I consider the full moon phase around January to be the best, with February and possibly December/March phase to be usable, kite-able, as well. This gives us about 12-15 days within the winter season that can be considered as ride-able in terms of the moon phase.. but just a few of them, if any at all, will have good wind, no clouds etc. :) So we have many things to hope for, consider and plan to make it all happen.

It is interesting to write about what lead to me to think about this idea. Interestingly it was not my dream or a “see”-”do” kind of think, I didn’t read about it in a magazine or on the internet. The main reason was the snowkiting spot, Luční Bouda, located in the Giant Mountains. It is a large plateau that can be found on ridge just on the border of Czech Republic and Poland, within a national park. This is the catch as thanks to the status of national park (zone I.), it has very strict rules for visitors. It is forbidden to do any kind of sport or explorations outside the marked trails. These rules apply even though there might be more than two meters of snow cover all around the place. It is a joke, nonsense.. you name it. During the winter I was caught snowkiting a few times in this Czech/Polish snowkiting paradise. Because I received a ban and another problem with national park patrol would lead in a hefty fine, I started to think about times of the day that would be more “safe”. Well, during the night the rangers don’t check the place and therefore snowkiting during the night is pretty safe. On the other hand without a full moon or night vision goggles it is almost impossible to snowkite during the night.

After endless planning and preparations the D day did come. The hike to the top started around 10:30pm and I reached the top two hours later. That is approximately 750meters vertical and 5Km. On the photos below you can see some shots from the hole “expedition”. As I was alone there are no shots from the riding itself… Photos had to be done using long expositions and did want to spend more time snowkiting than making photos. :)

On some of the shots you can see how bright it can be. The lights form the valley come from the polish side, the Jelenia Góra and surrounding towns. The blue arrow on the last photo shows the plateau up on the ridge as it can be seen from the Polish side.