Won't take the easy road

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Langdon
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webguy
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Joined: 12/31/2000 - 22:01
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Won't take the easy road

Ignore the clickbait thumbnail. Worth watching if you like paragliding.

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Barrett
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Joined: 12/23/2003 - 23:07
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Re: Won't take the easy road

I really enjoyed the paragliding video. It's amazing how the sport has progressed. Flying down crowded ski slopes and around buildings looks insanely risky to me, but it makes for an exciting video. The video brought back vivid memories of my own paragliding experience.

Five years ago, Peggy and I were on vacation in the Swiss Alps when I saw a paraglider soaring in the mountains. I soon found out there was a paragliding school in nearby Zermatt. Weather conditions were perfect, and amazingly my wife encouraged me to take a lesson. My real goal was to soar around the Matterhorn, and my instructor told me that he was up for the challenge. I had experience hang gliding on the sand dunes in the Outer Banks and piloting small planes, so trying to soar the Alps on my first flight wasn't as crazy as it sounds. My instructor was experienced and we flew tandem, so if I made a mistake, the instructor could take over control.

We took a one-way train ride into the mountains to an alpine ski resort. After a heart-stopping launch over a cliff face, we glided across a valley. Thermals forming along sheer walls of exposed rock on the opposite side provided lift, and the instructor expertly corkscrewed up in the rising columns of air. We glided from one thermal to another heading in the general direction of the Matterhorn. Within half an hour we were actually soaring beside the Majestic Mountain. The flight was an amazing experience.

The instructor turned the controls over to me as we flew down a long, winding valley. I set up the landing, and the instructor again took control for a perfect touch-down near the train station at Zermatt.

I took the first photo as we approached the Matterhorn, flying with a solo paraglider.

The second photo shows one of the cliff faces as we soared up on a rising column of air. The wind was calm the day of our flight, making for a long run on the launch, but particularly good thermals for gaining altitude.

Barrett

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webguy