Paragliding from Mont Blanc 1

Squash

A friend of mine wanted to fly her paraglider from the top of Mont Blanc.

This mountain known to the French as La Dame Blanche tends to be rather taken for granted as it is right in the heart of comfortable, civilised europe.
This is very far from the truth. Most ( 2 thirds of all expert mountaineers ) fail in the attempt. The greatest dangers are technical difficulty, mountain sickness, avalanches and stone fall, crevasses and seracs, weather conditions and the shear bloody distance you have to climb.
If you want to fly a paraglider from the sumit you have to carry it there and this means a considerable and debilitating extra burden.

You also have to have the right wind direction and strength. It may take you 2 or 3 days to get to the top and advanced weather forecasting for the winds at 5000 meters just does not exist you must rely on your own expertise, experience and judgement.

If you accept this challenge knowingly and determine to meet it by training, grit and humility then you are a very special person and may have an outside chance of success.
Squash is such a person. Her purpose was not simple ego but to raise funds for a charity and give a very special motivational boost to a friend.

Two companies supported her
Ozone paragliders donated an ultra light weight paraglider the Ozone Ultralight to fly off the top
and
Pidcock motorcycles of Longeaton who provided a BMW GSF 650 to get her out to Annecy

Read on 

Well she did it and you can read her account of our escapades at http://www.squashfalconer.blogspot.com/ .

The following is some technical stuff aimed mainly at paraglider pilots – for mountaineers I’m sorry if it’s a bit Granny and Eggs.

Paragliding began life as away of flying down mountains.  Back in the late 70s I was too old and unfit to be a crag rat anymore so I made walking up mountains more exciting by flying off them with a square ‘chute.  Paragliding off mountains is more about the climbing up and enjoying the wild places than the flying down.  The flying down is about taking the easy option and saving your knees.

Manu Bonte in his book Parapente Sauvage says that he generaly walks down once in ten assents so your plans had better allow for the long walk home.

The route to the top (NB I am renouned for talking bollox)

1 Get some mountain experience especially winter if you are based in the UK. You need to be good at everything any weakness will find you out.

2 Get mountain fit 400 vertical meters/hour with your bag is a reasonable minimum.

3 Learn about modern energy foods and their use – cyclists are a great source of information – Get to know what and when to use them by experienc in the hills.

4 Understand hydration/dehydration and know how much water you will need. In ‘Touching the Void’ the cause of the accident is put down to not taking an extra can of gas which lead to a shortage of water etc.

5 Learn to read mountain weather 2 to 3 days ahead.

6 Get the sort of kit that will save your life – Know the difference between essentials, comforts and luxuries – know the weight of everything.

7 Get acclimatised by progressively climbing to higher and higher altitude – Stay up for 24 hours then descend and rest so that your body can build the stamina and the red blood cells.

8 Get to know the routes you are considering by doing them without your wing.  For the 3 Mont Blancs a trot up to the top of the rimaye on Maudit and back is a nice day. For the Gouter route up to the Dom de Gouter from the Tete Rousse then back is an excellent outing.  Both of these can be part of your acclimatisation programme.

9 You need a partner. Seriously consider a guide.  When we flew off two guides each with a client made the top no one else got anywhere near.

Now check out my KIT LIST

Ther’s a selection of photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/irwynjehu/ParaglidingFromMontBlanc#

and a video (saga) of Squash’s epic journey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laXEPKZRqg4 you just must watch this ! ! !