I hope this shows that not all Karakorum flying is mega extreme. This was actually quite a mellow day with powerful but hugely enjoyable thermals. So I was able to get the video camera out quite a bit if only on the glides.
Actually it needed to be a bit on the mellow side as I had just recovered from a 36 hour bout of stomach problems and thought i had enough strength to fly for an hour or so. Once in the air you forget about all that and fortunately my stomach held up!
Actually it needed to be a bit on the mellow side as I had just recovered from a 36 hour bout of stomach problems and thought i had enough strength to fly for an hour or so. Once in the air you forget about all that and fortunately my stomach held up!
I hope that this movie also hints that the view of Pakistan as a country that is disintegrating into chaos that we hear or absorb from western media is far from the whole truth. It is the case that there are some places in Pakistan that were NOT safe to visit for westerners in 2009 but there are plenty of places to go flying without going to the tribal areas west and southwest of Peshawar. The mountains of northern areas are very peaceful and all those who made the trip encountered only kindness and respect everywhere on our travels in Pakistan in 2009.
If you want to see full on Pakistan flying close to terrain and flying to over 7000m then don't forget to check out the trip along rakaposhi's north face filmed by Brad Sander and Matt Senior plus Christian Rankl's amazing compilation of bivvy flying clips and Brad and Christian's high bivvy - for sure the highest ever on a pg. There is a FAQ and movie list on the Paraglide-Pakistan googlegroup. PAFF are on facebook. For interesting articles about Pakistan that go deeper than sound-bite newscasts have a look at Watandost
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| Tupodam near Gulmit on the KKH. We flew over the mountain to the left on a later flight. |
