Cross Country magazine, issue 130, July / August 2010
I've been researching the history of paragliding and hang gliding in the Himalaya. It started out as a timeline to go with this article on an epic paragliding vol bivouac by a group of pilots in the Himalaya in spring 2010. They covered 1,200 km across India and Nepal – record breaking.
I turned it into a talk for the Chabre Open, a fun paragliding comp in France in June, and also for the Azores Paragliding Festival at the end of August. It's a work in progress – history has a way of being rewritten more than once!
What's interesting is what people didn't know – so Adam Hill, who is Mr Paragliding in Nepal, didn't know hang glider pilots had been there just a few years before. And it attracted a few emails from French pilots who knew more too.
Nothing from Japan though, which surprised me as they're pretty big on going extreme in the Himalaya and Karakoram. Anyway, here are highlights from the first few years…
HIMALAYAN TIMELINE
1979
As part of a French expedition to climb K2’s south-west ridge, known as The Magic Line, Jean-Marc Boivin, 28, launches his hang glider from 7,600 m on K2. Flight lasts 13 minutes for 2,600 m descent.
1983-1985
Australian instructor Ian Jarman leads three month-long hang gliding trips to Nepal, including flying Sarangkot and the Kali Gandaki. Reach 5,000 m in wave in front of Annapurna South in April 1984.
1984
A road is built to launch at Billing, India, to hosts a hang gliding invitational featuring some of the best pilots in the world. Held in May, conditions are murky and difficult, and German pilot Roman Mennig dies on landing after the first task. Described in detail in Judy Leden’s Flying with Condors.
1985
Jean-Marc Boivin sets altitude launch record by hang gliding from Gasherbrum II at 8,035 m following successful Alpine-style ascent. Expedition film, L'Oiseau Rare, is made.
1986
US hang glider pilots Steve McKinney and Larry Tudor attempt to fly from Everest in autumn. Logistics and poor weather mean failure but Steve flies from low on the West Ridge.
1986/7
Leading French alpinist Patrick Cordier flies a paraglider from the ‘rubble dome’ in the Hunza Valley, Pakistan. Thought to be the first paragliding in the region.
1988
On a climbing expedition John Silvester and others fly paragliders from the rubble dome in Hunza. John launches from 4,600 m Hon Pass. “I even put in a whole 360, which felt a bit risky with 2.5 glide and little experience.”
1988
Jean-Marc Boivin flies a paraglider from the summit of Everest on 26 September. After 90-minutes preparation his 3,000 m descent takes 11 minutes...
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