For years, Hohemens Challenge has been known as one of the most exciting high-level Bigway Skydiving events in Europe. This year was no different.

Europe and Austria more specifically was tormented with the wettest spring in years. This meant the organisers were faced with many more challenges than normal...
Just a week before, farmers had no possibility to cut the grass, the camping area was flooded, and the forecast was terrible.
But still, on the first day of the event, 90 skydivers showed up. The sponsors Aerodyne, Cypres and Alti-2 were there, along with 2 Cessna Caravans. Skydive Silvretta was ready to launch the 6th Hohemens Challenge!



Patrick Passe and Milko worked out some challenging 28-way jumps and participants alternated between 4 sub-groups of 14 people. This way everybody got the chance to jump with friends and to make new friends when the groups were mixed up. 

Angelo Declerck and Sian made a great effort to bring new, less experienced skydivers to the event. This is the best way to motivate new skydivers to get into bigway skydiving! And let’s be honest, those new (and not so new)bies did a great job! They started with 14-way jumps out of 2 planes and soon went to 28-way formations with multiple points. 



Although the traditional Inn-hops in the mountains and at the lake were not possible, again due to the wet spring/summer, we could feel the atmosphere and  the lovely spirit of the event. We could enjoy the free beer, a massage on-site, having a funny fake tattoo, tasting typical Austria food and most importantly, catching up with our bigway friends.



We managed to do 12 or 13 multiplane formations, thanks to the good judgement of the pilots, the organisers and Markus Kordesch. We faced some challenging conditions, small landing areas, landing in high grass, and fast changing wind directions. There were unfortunately a few incidents duet o these challenging conditions, but luckily those people will be back in the air soon.



The rumours going around are that this edition could have been the last one. Like everywhere in the world, organising a skydiving event with multiplane formations isn’t as easy as it used to be. But let’s stay positive! if you ever want to join a bigway event, don’t hesitate. Set yourself a goal, train, invest, make contact with other bigway skydivers, and get to know bigway organisers. Don’t be disappointed if at first you don’t succeed, be persistent. One day you will be in that awesome 40-60-100 or 200-way skydive and in the meantime, you can travel the world, meet new friends and get to know some skydiving legends. 

Thank you Markus, your staff, the great video crew (Antje, Charlie and Jurgen Klaus), the sponsors, the organisers and everybody involved in this event. 
 
Stroy by: Ils Van den Weygaert