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Mini Tiger Meet 2005 (Swiss Snow Tiger Sion, 10.03.05 - 14.03.05)

Vor dem Hangar Although the work- and timeload for our squadron was very high at that time because of the exercise "Battle Griffin" and the personel situation was tight it was immediately clear that we would send an attachment to the "Swiss Snow tiger" meet. So we started Thursday morning at 4 a.m. with the car on the long way to Sion. Airplanes were not available because of the ongoing exercise.
After roundabout six hours we reached with strong expectations the little town Sion in the Vallis district. There a perfect programm was expecting us.
After the welcome beer and the mutual welcome of all the participants from Portugal, France, Belgium, Tchechia, Holland, Germany and the USA we visited in the evening the Brasserie Valaisanne, a tradition rich local brewery. Of course did we also get to know the best of local specialties.

On Friday morning we were picked-up by three Super Pumas which took us during perfect weather via Matterhorn and Jungfraujoch up to the Axalp. In front of a perfect setup (deeply snowed-in high alpine area) we could watch a 5-ship F-5 Tiger performing strafing exercises and flybys of a F-18 Hornet two-ship. It was ingenious!

After lunch break we went on with the helis to Buochs where we could visit the Pilatus factory including the new gem PC-21. After the fly-back to Sion we startet the evening program with a visit to a vinery and afterwards we went to a comfortable Restaurant for a nice raclette dinner.

Saturday morning we startet to the nucleus of this Mini Tigermeet and hiked up on the Gemmi. Perfectly equipped and with an excellent theoretical preparation we were devided into 4-man teams and startet to build iglus for our night quarters. After this stressful but very interesting task we got dinner served in a huge snwo cavern which was build by our swiss tiger friends with a couple of days work. Although the outside temperatures reached -20 degrees and a very strong wind it was really cosy in our iglus at temperatures of 0 degrees. The night was comfortable and at the next morning a huge breakfast was waiting for us at the alp.

After this filling meal we had a free afternoon. Most of the guys went to a wellnes bath but the 321 Tigers used the time for snowboarding and skiing under blue skies. In the evening everybody returned to the tiger's home for the farewell party. A super event in a super atmosphere with the great band of Staffel 11 made this a formidable end of this super Tigermeet. Monday afternoon, after the official farewell we hit the road back to our own tiger home in Lechfeld. Thanks to our friends from Staffel 11 in Swizzerland for this excellent event and we hope to meet all tigers again at the next meet.