Blog Posts in Category: Paragliding

Paragliding at 5000m in the Himalayas over the back from Bir, India

Alastair BegleyIndia, Paragliding Short Link

Flying “over the back” in the proper mountains rather than just along the front ridge was definitely high on my agenda while I was in Bir, however this was certainly not something to be underestimated with limited landing possibilities and a multi day walk out following an out landing. With an excellent forecast for the next day I tentatively made some plans, bought some gas and packed my Bivi gear in case I landed out. As this was my first time over the back, I decided against planning to Bivi but rather left it as an emergency option. Next time I will definitely plan a Bivi but it seemed more sensible to just have a chilled out flight the first time rather than worrying about finding a Bivi site and top landing and I was also unsure about the conditions to get back the day after. Compared to the previous two days it was so easy to climb out from launch and I soon found myself high above Hanuman Gargi ready to commit to the valley crossing and go over the back. While I could see other people had already. Read the full article…

First two days paragliding in Bir, India

Alastair BegleyIndia, Paragliding Short Link

Having arrived in Bir I was very tired having had three hours sleep in Delhi due to a late flight and watch time malfunction the next morning, which was made worse by another day of travel while exhausted. The first few days were certainly impacted by the travel, however they were still good flight days and were critical to learning the ridge for flights later in the week. I elected to take the internal flight from Delhi to Dharamshala, I am not sure if I would do this again in hindsight as it was much more expensive than a taxi once excess luggage had been paid for, but it did mean I didn’t have a 12 hour taxi ride from Delhi. After arriving in Bir just after lunch I went and had some wonderful food and explored the village in a slightly delusional state, even managing to find the money exchange where for a small fee I could withdraw cash from my credit card. Day 1 I was unsure how I was going to sort a taxi on the first morning, so I just assumed that I would walk to. Read the full article…

Unternberg Hike and Fly

Alastair BegleyBavaria, Paragliding Short Link

Following our Hike and Fly up Vorderunnütz, we were keen todo another hike and fly, however fitting this in with Oktoberfest was proving difficult. However after a restrained Sunday afternoon at the Weisn we were feeling good the next day so decided to go for a Hike and Fly at the Unternberg to make the most of the conditions before meeting up with some friends who were visiting Germany. The walk up the Unternberg is relatively short and very easy as it is just up forrest tracks to the summit. This does mean that most of the ascent is fairly dull, but the views as you emerge from the forest are pretty enjoyable. In the summer the Unternberg will work pretty much every day with good weather due to the Bavarian wind, so given its proximity to Munich is certainly somewhere we will come back to. The flight down was a short glide which was enjoyable as ever, these small wings are so much fun! After landing, in the unfortunately slightly damp meadow, we went for a swim in a lake on the way to see our friends for dinner.

Vorderunnütz Hike and Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

Having bought a new hike and fly setup I was very keen to make the most of the autumnal hike and fly conditions and use the equipment. With a beautiful weather forecast I had planned to climb Vorderunnütz for the fourth time (third hike&fly) with Becky&James and we had a last minute addition of Manuel. I particular enjoyed my new equipment which fitted in a 22l rucksack, while Becky had her usual paragliding setup and Manuel had a full XC setup. It made the walk up so much easier and the glide down so much more fun than on a full size wing. The walk up was enjoyable with ever improving views until we got to the snow line, which was surprisingly low for the time of the year. While it has mostly gone from a lot of the exposed slopes, between the small trees which are so common on the mountains it definitely remained and was pretty deep in places. Eventually we emerged from the small trees and the going eased significantly. As we emerged from the trees and could see the full slope up to the summit, it. Read the full article…

Schmittenhöhe Paragliding

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

With a decent forecast for the end of August I took the day off to head to Schmittenhöhe for a day of flying, with no particular objective other than to stay in the air for a while and enjoy the scenery. My thoughts were an out and back to Pass Thurn, heading onwards into the Zillertal or heading north back in the direction of Munich. Everything started working pretty late, but I was one of the earlier pilots to take off and the initial climb went well and I climbed away from take off with the fantastic views, however my transition to the next climb did not go well, and while scratching I made the mistake of turning too low and was flushed over a ridge. This meant I flew into the Lee and it didn’t feel great so I made a long glide out of the turbulent air. This lost me so much altitude that I dropped back down below the inversion layer, and despite my best fighting I could not get back above it. After landing early again, I was pretty frustrated, checked the wind and it looked. Read the full article…

Annecy Paragliding

Alastair BegleyFrance, Paragliding Short Link

With a week planned in Annecy, but the weather looking fairly unstable, we decided to head down a day early so that I could fly on the best day of the week. It was certainly a good decision, but it was still not a flying day due to late afternoon storms and a slow start to the day. I met a group of English speaking friends at the landing site, who I ended up spending most of the morning with on launch while we waited for it to turn on, which made it a pretty social day. When I took if it quickly became apparent that it was not going to be a big XC day, but rather a good day to get to know the site and admire the, frankly magnificent, views. The flying was pretty rough when above the lower inversion layer, with strong thermals, wind shear and another layer above that. Nonetheless it was a really enjoyable flight and it was great to have a flight without any big xc pressure. As the day went on the thunderstorms were clearly building, but I managed to squeeze in. Read the full article…

Greifenburg Paragliding

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

With another good forecast I headed back down to the south side of the main ridge for another attempt at a big FAI triangle, yet again it did not go to plan, however on this occasion I only have myself to blame. Everything was a bit of a rush as my original plan was to head to Sillian, however when we got there we found that Saturday was the rest day for the lift, I did not think to check that a Gondola which I knew was operational was running on a Saturday! We hastily made our way to Greifenburg, where Becky drove me up to the Emberger Alm which saved some time. After a quick walk up to the start place I setup and quickly launched, it was clear that the conditions were good, but not as good as forecast with a much lower cloud base. The first leg went well until I got to the valley crossing which had to be taken in order to make the route a 100km FAI triangle, for some reason, despite knowing that I was way too low to make this crossing easily,. Read the full article…

Sillian Paragliding

Alastair BegleyAustria, Italy, Paragliding Short Link

With a great forecast for the day in Osttirol, I decided to head down to Sillian for a day, hoping to manage a 100km FAI triangle. The day started later than I was hoping, however there was still plenty of time to make the triangle as I started. The first section of the flight went pretty smoothly, although I would have liked some stronger thermals, however on my first major valley crossing I realised that there was a much stronger west wind than was forecast due to Föhn over the main alpine ridge between Bruneck and Innsbruck. This resulted in two problems, firstly I had a poor glide and secondly I dropped down into the Lee at the end of the valley crossing. When this was combined with also dropping through an inversion layer resulted in thermals which were impossible for me to climb in, really strong pockets of rising air which were far to small to complete a turn in. After fighting for ages, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t going to work and made my way to land in Italy. Thankfully getting back to Launch was. Read the full article…