February - Hang Gliding Federation of Australia

H G F AH G F ATwo amigos at Mastuj after 100km and seven hours flyingfollow the sunny sides of the mountainsor straight across onto these massive wallsof ice and hope for some dynamic lift?Small thermal clouds are actually formingon the shady side of the mountain and Idecide for the direct route.From 6000m I glide over the mainvalley, onto a shoulder and soar my wayup close to an enormous wall of ice. Whata totally awesome spectacle. There is noway to describe this. I’m flying over milesand miles of ice and I’m thermaling up onsome lift generated by the few rocks thatare not covered by snow. I glide alongthe entire north face of this mountaintowards a saddle which I reach just a bittoo low to see what’s on the other side.I have not the faintest idea of the lay ofthe land on the other side and have tomake up my route while I’m there.I find some lift at the far end of thesaddle and get enough height to glideback and get a look over to the otherside. I have two seconds to make up mymind whether to go across this pass ornot. In those two seconds I see a massivewall of ice, a glacier at the bottom ofthe valley and a rock face at the sunnyside and way down a river that seemsto flow to the south. I pop over andimmediately regret it. The sunny rocks arenot that high above the glacier and thelift generated by them is very broken. Thebag of tricks is being called upon for thesecond time today and the prospect ofa three-day walk out keeps me fighting.It works and the reward for this is a flightto the summit of this 6500m high monsterof ice and rock called Twy Mountain. I getto the sunny side which has more exposedrock and easily thermal to the top.From this altitude the topographyof the area is clear and I can see my wayback home. It is only 2:30pm and I havea ‘What now?’ moment. What do you doafter such a spectacle? I decide to put theChandur Pass into the ‘Go To’ on my GPSand find that it is only 82km away. I makegood progress for the first 15km, but thenit gets more cloudy ahead. With manymore mountains to cross and a totallyunknown lay of the land, I decide that Ihave pushed my luck enough for the dayand head for home. I only have to fly outof this one valley for 15km and I will behome where the cherries and green teaare waiting for me.I can’t figure out what is going onwith the air. As soon as I decide to turnaround, I find massive sink and headwind,then get propelled up in erratic thermalsto fall out of the sky again with a tailwind.The prospect of a landing in thisnarrow valley looms and the walk outwould be a total bummer. I skim themountain side to catch as many bubblesas I can and slowly get to the mouth ofthe valley with a sigh of relief. I go onfinal glide, clear the last powerlines withone metre to spare and touch downat the far end of the landing field. Myapproach was so low that nobody sawme coming and for the first time thereare no hordes of kids to deal with. Whata totally awesome day!There was so much more flying to bedone in Yasin, but time was ticking awayand we wanted to see at least one otherflying site.Karimabad is situated in the Hunzavalley, running from the Chinese borderin the north to Gilgit, 250km to the south.The valley is part of the ancient silk routenow better known for the Karakoramhighway that connects China withIslamabad. This is part of the KarakoramRange, with the greatest concentrationof the world’s highest peaks, 14 summitsover 8000m.I was already blown away by the sizeand beauty of the mountains I had seenso far, words fail to describe them aroundKarimabad. The highest in the valley isRakaposhe, only just short of 8000m; itTwy Mountain, Yasinis an imposing sight with glaciers runningof its slopes to all sides. Behind the villagethe 4922m ‘Lady’s Finger’ stands out withits red coloured rock and right next to itis a whole cluster of 6000 and 7000m highglacier-capped giants.The first two days I was by myself asGrey and Mukrim were still at the polofestival. My first flight was a bit of ananti-climax. Surrounded by all thosegiants I only managed a glide down tothe valley. The second day was betterand I was able to climb up to the Lady’sFinger and fly around the summit of the6100m high Hunza peak. The sight of theglaciers in the valley over the back is hardto describe, freeways of ice filling thevalley floors and so many peaks with nearvertical faces plunging down thousands ofmetres. Flying along those walls, almostbrushing the snow with my wingtip,playing with my shadow on the snow forthe best pictures, I really felt privilegedto be there. Those flights were of greatintensity and it was only after lookingat the video footage afterwards that Icould fully appreciate the full scale of theexperience. When I look at the video nowI can’t suppress a huge smile while I stillget butterflies in my stomach.The flying conditions were challengingwith stable, hot weather making ithard to get away from the take-off. Weall had to deal with the frustration of atop to bottom at some stage which wasparticularly frustrating on one day, whenbase was high and Grey had a spectacularfive-hour flight to Rakaposhe while I wason the ground within 20 minutes.What has made our trip to Pakistanso memorable, apart from the outrageousflying, is the interaction with the people.The people are genuine in their desireto help and it was rare that I felt takenadvantage of. Never did I feel threatenedor unsafe, whether during the day or inthe dark walking back to the hotel duringa power cut, something I can’t say I feelcomfortable doing anywhere else I havebeen. In no other country, including NZ,have I ever felt so safe.Every time we landed after some XCflight we would be welcomed by a crowdand invited to stay the night. Never werewe hassled or targeted for our money andseldom did we end up paying a ‘tourist’rate. People would spontaneously comeup to us to offer their help and that notfor monetary gain. It may be a behaviourthat is imposed by their religion, but itcertainly felt genuine.Here’s a few statistics of the time spentin Pakistan. We spent roughly 63 daysin Pakistan. Of these, 25 were flyable andon 23 of them we actually flew – so weflew on roughly every third day. It rainedor was not flyable on 21 days whichmakes for 30% of our time in Pakistan.We lost four days to travel time backfrom our XC flights and used seven daysto get to the different flying sites, notincluding our return to Islamabad. Finally,I was sick on five days. Our total expensesonce in Pakistan were US$1000, aboutUS$15 per day.We had very few days with a cloudbaseexceeding 6000m, something you needin this area to be able to fly big crosscountrydistances. The prevailing upperlevel wind direction was west to southwest,rarely exceeding 50km/h.StatisticsLongest flightLongest time in the airFastest climbHighest altitudeTotal flying time140km7 hours11.7m/sec / 2300ft/min7544m / 24 750ft75 hoursHistory hasn’t been very kind to thispart of the world, it has been a playgroundfor the big powers to play theirgreat game. On top of that, as I writethis, 14 million people in Pakistan aredealing with one of the biggest naturaldisasters the world has seen. The monsoonrains are destroying everything;infrastructure, crops, houses, food storesand livestock. It takes a fair bit of resilienceto deal with so much drama. It is acountry with a hopeless political situationwhere corruption is everywhere, but alsoa country with the most beautifulmountains and an exceptional playgroundfor paragliding pilots. I hope it will stayaccessible for foreigners in the years toYasin; mountains after mountains after mountainscome both for the benefit of thePakistanis and the visitors.If you are interested in reading my blog[Parakiwi.blogspot.com]You can find most of our tracks onLeonardo and I have a slideshow witha selection of our photos on Facebook.26 Soaring Australia February 2011 February 2011 Soaring Australia 27