Flying off the Aiguille du Midi...Incroyable!!!

Wednesday, September 22nd

Conditions looked promising in the morning so after a hearty breakfast I hiked with paraglider about a kilometre to the gondola station. I first went to the mountaineering store and inquired about renting some crampons and an ice axe. I’d never actually used either but there’s always a first time for everything right?!? The guy asked me if I also needed a harness. “Ah, non, je suis toute seul.” I responded. What’s the point of having a harness if there’s no one to tie yourself to? He checked out my hiking boots and thought that they weren’t stiff enough for the task so I also rented some proper mountaineering boots.

Okay, all set. I paid my 37 Euros for a one way ride up to the top. I was a bit surprised to see that it only cost 41 for a return trip! At the midway station I transferred to the next cable car and was gobsmacked at the views of the rocky spires that rose up, reaching to the heavens. In the first few minutes at the top I could notice that my breathing and heartbeat had sped up. I was at over 11,000 feet above sea level and had gotten here in a very short time so I wasn’t surprised. Mix that in with a bit of anticipation about the narrow ridge that I knew I was going to have to traipse out on to reach the launch and it’s not too surprising my body was letting me know about its anxiety.

Going up the cable car:


There were a number of viewing platforms to check out with incredible views out over the valley, towards Mt. Blanc and north to some other impressive mountains. After a few minutes I noticed the tiny black specks...humans, climbing their way up or down from the peak of Mt. Blanc. Wow. A few were also scaling the rocky cliffs right by the gondola station. Mountaineers are a different breed that’s for sure (I’m sure a lot of you are thinking the same of us paraglider pilots!).

What views!

Mt. Blanc in the background:

Looking down at Chamonix:

The valley looked very far below:

I spent close to an hour checking out the panoramas and also looking, hoping to see another paraglider pilot so that I knew where exactly to go. I thought it was a bit funny when, on one viewing platforms, I watched 3-4 climbers come up the rocks to a ladder which climbed up to the platform and the first guy actually used one of those telescopic “put your coin in to view”, binocular stand to secure a rope around to belay a female climber coming up the ladder next. Come on, she just came up a rock face, I think she can handle a ladder!

The bridge:

On the bridge between the cable car station (on the right) and a higher lookout station:

Looking down at the cable car station from the very top:

I finally saw a couple of guys down on the snowy bowl below take off and head off over a glacier and then disappear around a corner. Okay, great, at least I know where to go. Next, I wanted to see someone walk down the razor edged snowy ridge to get to where they were. Everyone on that ridge was coming up, not going down. I thought that going down was going to be tougher than coming up.

The ridge I will walk down (the top of the shaded bit):

The plan:


It was approaching 2 o’clock and I began to be concerned that the sun was not going to be shining on the area where I was going to be launching and flying from so I decided it was time to move. I walked down the tunnelled hallway to the access point to the ridge. An awesome ice tunnel, only about 15 feet long was the entrance to the great outdoors. In this tunnel were some regular tourists, snapping their pics along with some mountaineers taking off their crampons, having just finished their adventure. Okay, time to suit up. I pulled out my crampons, and having never used them before, hoped that they would be too difficult to figure out how to put them on...perhaps I should have asked the dude in the store...

The ice cave led out to the high mountain terrain:

There was a nice 50 something German couple there and they offered to take a few photos of me before I headed out. Another younger couple was about to set out buy I could tell that the woman was quite trepidatious (see...definitely a word) about the whole affair. I decided to head out before them as it looked like she would take a long time. There was this funny little grocery store like gate with a sign saying that you were now heading out into high alpine terrain, all risk is yours (or something to that affect). I opened it up and began to step along the narrow snowy path. The first 20-30 feet were no problem, flat and easy just to put one foot in front of the other. Then the path began to descend slightly, again, not a big deal, until surprisingly when I looked to one side, I almost got a bit of vertigo from the realization that it was a steep drop off, not on one side, but both. However, if I had to choose, I was going to fall to the right as you’d only go a hundred feet or so before stopping whereas the other side, the valley side, who knows when you’d stop! Until this point, I’ve never been one to let heights throw me off and I never had a problem looking down, but here, no, keep your focus on the path Dave...look at the path...

About to hike down:

On the razor edged ridge:

Once it got to a steeper section, I wasn’t sure whether the best technique was to continue straight down or to turn around and walk down backwards. I opted for backwards and at first it seemed to be the right call but after a few minutes I wasn’t so sure. All of a sudden a couple of paraglider pilots, wearing crampons but not using an axe, came speedily towards me. I bid them hello in French and the one guy asked if I was alright. Yes, but I’m a paraglider pilot, not a mountaineer I responded in French. He told me that it was safer to go forwards down, not backwards so I decided to turn around and give it a go. I didn’t realize how much trust you could put in the crampons.

On the ridge:

This paraglider pilot pretty much raced past me...he'd obviously used crampons before. Note Chamonix down below in the valley:

Stopping for a breather part way down the ridge...heart's a racing!


The next dodgy bit came when there were climbers coming up. The first few I had let pass me by as I rested on the steep part after turning around but now I was on a slightly downhill sloping section and there was no where just to sit down. The climbers were great. Seeing as they were in groups of two or three, roped together (which equals more safety), they stepped aside and let me pass by on the trail. One mountaineer said “Lentement” (slowly) to me which I had no problem with but as I passed the next guy he moved a bit and his pack hit mine which bumped me a bit, but not enough to throw me off...and thankfully it was to my right, the not so precipitous side.

I kept my eye on the prize, the end of the narrow ridge where it turned to the right towards a big bowl. When you only step one foot slightly in front of the other, a few hundred feet can take a while! I finally made it and let out a sigh of relieve...now, let’s hope I can launch otherwise I have to go back up that ridge!

Finished the harrowing stuff...whew!

Finished the nailbiting part of the hike:


Looking back up the ridge:

The other paraglider pilots were just setting up when I arrived. I asked the one that had spoken to me earlier what he knew of this site and from what I understood it was his first flight here too. Turns out the guy, Nico, had spent some time in BC paragliding and we knew some of the same people back in Pemberton...ah, the paragliding community can be so small at times.

Someone about to take off:

One guy took off and ridge soared around the bowl for a bit before landing below and hiking back up. Nico and I were ready next and Nico had a few botched attempts in the strong wind. There was a lull so I inflated my wing and was off. Wow! I had never launched in snow before and I wished I could yell better than I can as I was ecstatic that I was in the air. I headed for a small dip in the slope to the left, the entrance to the valley with the glacier. As I cleared the gap I couldn’t believe what I was seeing...rock, glacier, mountains...incroyable!

The takeoff:


Out over the glacier:

The start of the flight:


Lovin' it:

Nico was quickly behind me but he stayed up closer to the ridge while I took a slightly more conservative route...but what exactly is conservative when you consider you are 11,000 feet above sea level, flying over a glacier surround by towering rocky mountains with technically nothing more than a bed sheet and some strings!!!

What a glacier!

Two glaciers joining together:

I cruised north, over the glacier with its greyish white fractured ice and mountains on either side. I decided to hug closer to the mountain to the west as the glacier turned in that direction and got a bit bold with flying closer to the rocks and actually passing between two spires that split near their top...spectacular! I then noticed a couple of paragliders way below me, on the other side of a glacier which was actually fed from two glaciers, the one I was over and another that runs (well, crawls) from the east). I kept my eyes on the lower guy as I questioned whether he had the height to make it out. Sometimes perception, especially in places of this kind of scale, is tough to discern but about 5 minutes later I received my answer as I watched him land on the ice...thankfully safely as I could make out his movements. Whoa...he’s got a hell of a walk out of there...could be 10 kilometres! Well, soon after I realized he might only have about 3 kms as there’s a small gondola that descends to the glacier at the end of a tourist mountain train track...still, I was happy to be me flying through the air than him on the ice!

Flying by some rocks:


Absolute thumbs up!


Enjoying the ride:


At the end of the glacier with Chamonix on the left:


About 35 minutes after launching I was over the landing zone in town with some height to practice some more wingovers. The first few I did were okay but I was still suffering from the problem of the inside edge collapsing. Then, just after completing a few, I experienced something that I don’t think I have before. One side of my paraglider slightly collapsed but quickly reinflated and it was like a wave that moved from one side of the wing all the way to the other. It was like my wing was doing the break dancing move of the worm but from the right to the left...strange.

Gliding towards Chamonix:


After landing I couldn’t help but look around at the grassy field, the trees, the Frenchmen playing Boules... I felt like I’d just arrived from another world...wow, what a flight!!!