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Flying an FAI triangle from Bir-Billing

Alastair BegleyIndia, Paragliding Short Link

The forecast for today was not that great, so after arriving at launch I decided to have a Chai with some friends, rather than heading straight to launch. Although as I was finishing my tea, someone else in the Cafe exclaimed that the first people were climbing away. After quickly heading up to launch and getting ready to fly, I took off and was soon at 3300m and ready to cross into the back. I had no firm plan for the day, but as the conditions seemed to be good, I decided to head up towards the glacier with an FAI triangle in mind. However as the conditions had not been forecast to be that good I had not done any specific planning on how to optimise the route to achieve a 100km triangle. The conditions over the back were good, however the base was lower and the climbs were less reliable than they had been on the previous few days, the main ridge at the back was also pretty windy. Once I had reestablished myself at base I decided that I had gone far enough and then headed east. Read the full article…

Flying at 5500m and camping at Fungni Mata Lake

Alastair BegleyIndia, Paragliding Short Link

Having had a very successful bivi at Shaggy Dog above Manali, I was keen to do another bivi over the back, but this time on the ridge descending to the south from Shirar ra Tibba, which is a really long ridge full of excellent sites to camp. Three popular areas are Fungni Mata Lake, Bear Dog and Horse Lake. My plan was either Fungni Mata Lake or Horse Lake, depending on how I felt when I arrived. My plan had actually been to do this the day before, but I paid the price for launching early as while we were fighting the persistent inversion, high cloud came in which really made it difficult to stay up. Some people managed, but many pilots, unfortunately including myself didn’t. When I landed back in Bir I had to decide if I was going to rush and head back up to try again, or chill out for the rest of the day. Given the conditions, I decided to chill out for the rest of the day as I was still feeling a bit tired from the previous few days. Day 1: Sightseeing tour to. Read the full article…

VolBiv from Bir to Manali and back

Alastair BegleyIndia, Paragliding Short Link

With an excellent forecast for the next few days I hatched a plan to head over the big mountains behind the main ridge at Bir-Billing to sleep at the head of the Kullu Valley near Manali and the Rohtang Pass. Due to the good forecast, we headed up to launch a bit earlier than normal, and the atmosphere was really buzzing with lots of people looking forward to the great conditions and loaded with all of the VolBiv equipment for the next few days. Day 1 – XC Distance: 63km, Highest Altitude: 5500m Unfortunately after launching the conditions were very slow, and it took an hour to get up to 3300m above the peak above launch. This felt very low to be heading over into the back – but with the hope that the conditions would be less stable I made the jump anyway, with the knowledge that others had managed to climb away. After a long glide to a spur without any other pilots on I was feeling very low and had some concern when I didn’t immediately find lift, I really didn’t want to bomb out here. Thankfully. Read the full article…

First Day over the back at Bir (140km)

Alastair BegleyIndia, Paragliding Short Link

With the weather finally having improved, it was time to head over the back and towards the bigger mountains for the first time of the trip. I quickly climbed up to 3500m above launch and decided this was still too low to make the jump for the first time this trip, so headed along the ridge bit where I climbed to 4000m. From this altitude it was easy to make the glide across and I arrived very high, unfortunately the cloud was already building. Once established on the first mountain I took in the scenery and enjoyed a nice climb up to cloudbase at 4400m, before taking an atmospheric route back towards Dharamshala via the back ridge. This route kept me nice and high until above big face, but then the cloud base started dropping rapidly on the front ridge. At times I had to intentionally lose height in order to get under a cloud in front of me! The flying was fairly intimidating, flying close to cloud a lot of the time, sometimes over cloud in front which was lower than I was. Other than one col just before. Read the full article…

Standkopf Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

As we now have our ski passes for the winter, which are already valid, we were keen to use them to get high and do a nice autumnal walk, combined with a flight down. We decided to fly down from Hamberg which is above the Zillertal, but with an approach from the Alpbachtal via the Wedersberger Horn. We left the van in Jenbach train station and then got a train and bus to get to the bottom of the Wedersbergbahn. The walk was really beautiful with autumnal colours covering the mountains, excellent views and was never too strenuous. The walk along the ridge was a bit more undulating than my plan had suggested, but it was still a relatively small amount of ascent overall. The views from the Standkopf into the Höhe Tauern and Zillertaler Alpen were really excellent and after soaking in these views with some food, we headed down the ridge towards Hamberg to launch. The wind throughout the entire day had not quite been as I had expected, so I was really hoping we could launch! On the descent I found one area which would have been. Read the full article…

Daniel and Upsspitze Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

With a beautiful autumnal weather forecast I was keen to do a hike&fly, however the wind was forecasted to be in a pretty sub-ideal direction for most objectives that I had in mind, so when Becky suggested we do Daniel, something which has been on our list for a while, it seemed like a good idea. Despite the sub-ideal wind direction, I decided to take my hike&fly wing with me anyway, in case the conditions were suitable enough to fly down. We took the train from Munich to get there, all fully included in our regular Deutschlandticket despite having the travel into Austria. Unusually, for this walk the train station was also the ideal place to start the walk from. The ascent was pretty unrelenting the entire way up, gaining a lot of altitude in not much distance, but at least a reasonable amount of it was above the tree line which gave some stunning views. We eventually made it up to the col between the Upsspitze and Daniel, and I was pleased that there was a nice updraft so it seemed very likely I would be able to fly. Read the full article…

Col des Frêtes Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyFrance, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

One of my aims for Friday had been the Col des Frêtes hike and fly, but in the end we just didn’t have enough time for it. On Sunday there was a pretty marginal wind forecast for if it would be achievable, however we decided to have a lie in and head up late in the day for a sunset hike and fly as this was the best chance we had of the wind working. The start of the ascent was up to the Planfait launch and then it continued up in the forest above the launch. The rest of the walk was really just a slog up in the forest with very limited views out towards the lake. It was pretty steep at times and we were both definitely hoping that we could fly down as we didn’t really want to walk back down the ascent, the wind was however a bit worrying as it definitely felt like it was in the wrong direction at times while we were walking up. Eventually we got to the top of the forest, which is just below the start, and were pleased. Read the full article…

Tourist Flight around Annecy

Alastair BegleyFrance, Paragliding Short Link

The conditions were unfortunately not good enough to do a proper xc flight, however they were definitely good enough to enjoy some airtime with spectacular views around Lake Annecy. Our plan had been to head back to the Planfait launch, as it is easier to get to, however we managed to hitch to Col de la Forclaz, which I was very pleased with as this was really where I wanted to start from. The flight was really enjoyable due to the wonderful scenery around Lake Annecy, I was particularly surprised by the view of Mont Blanc. I don’t really know why it was such as shock, but last time I flew at Annecy Mont Blanc was shrouded in cloud so I wasn’t able to see it. After soaring around for a while, I crossed over the lake to join Alex, however the high cloud had come in and the thermals were too weak to really gain any altitude. After soaring for a while we decided to call it a day and went to land. We had a picnic dinner by the lake, just a 30 second walk from Alex’s apartment,. Read the full article…