Nikki has tried it

Snowkiting: Paraglider instead of lift, snow instead of lake

The wind conditions at Lake Achensee are ideal for kiting, especially from the end of January.(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Kitesurfing, i.e. surfing on lakes or by the sea with the help of a paraglider, is well known, but snowkiting is less so. Neither sport is as easy as it looks, as we found out at Lake Achensee in Tyrol.

Somehow I expected to look cool as I glided across the meadow in Achenkirch on my kite. But right now I'm wearing a harness that looks a bit like a diaper and I'm hanging awkwardly from a leash in a snowplow as if I'm on skis for the first time. Snowkiting is not as easy as it looks. At least I've got to the point where Michael Vogel, the head of the Achensee snowkiting school, has let me get on my skis.