Paragliding over Interlaken at Swiss Alps

Paragliding has been a dream of mine since young age. 

When I researched for our July Swiss Alps trip, I saw the advertisement of paragliding there, and decided to give it a try to realize the dream. 

Previously paragliding was a dream conjured from my imagination based on watching commercials, promotion posters, paragliders overhead in the sky  ... I did not really know anything specific about it.

A paraglider in the sky over Pilatus

Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or in a cocoon-like 'pod' suspended below a fabric wing. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside. Despite not using an engine, paraglider flights can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometers, though flights of one to five hours and covering some tens of kilometres are more the norm. By skillful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand meters.

We booked our tandem paragliding for the last day of our trip at Swiss Alps town Interlaken. 

Before our flight day, we saw a paraglider soaring over Pilatus, we saw many more around Matterhorn on a glorious Sunny day. Every time we watch a glider gracefully float above, we admired the beautiful vista the colorful glider, the grey mountain, white glaciers and blue sky formed, we imagined how it would be like when we were paragliding.

gliding near Matterhorn

a tandem paragliding at the base of Matterhorn

there are 3 paragliders in this photo, it is easier to see their shadows on the slope than to see them

A red paraglider at the base of Matterhorn

Interlaken was the last leg of Swiss Alps trip, we stayed there for 3 days. Our flight was on the 3rd day.

Interlaken is a great place for commercial paragliding because it is close to launching slope (15 minute drive), and has great views from the sky - the two lakes - Thunersee and Brienzersee on the west and east, and glaciers in the southeast. We saw a lot more paragliders in the sky there.

at Grindelwald 

We had great anticipation as the day to fly getting closer each day until the day before. 

The day before, we had jitters, was it safe? did we take too much risk? what if the weather turned bad? should we cancel the reservation? Considering the amount of paragliders in the sky, and there was no report of accidents involved  paragliding around those days, we thought we could safely assume that there was minimum risk; the weather was forecasted to be gorgeous. This would be a once in a life time experience - everything was aligned, weather, our health, our adventure spirit, if it were not now, when? We decided to go for it.

But the jitter stayed with me, less so for Lily - she had even more adventurous experience - skydiving. 

On the flying day, we got to the meeting place early - 1 hour ahead of time. I was nervous, I went to restroom a couple times despite using it earlier, my heart beat was 20% fast than usual!

The meeting place, Höhematte Park is also the landing place for paragliding. After my second trip to the restroom, we stood by the park in the shade of trees. A large group of paragliders started to land ... the flyers include man, woman, young and old, actually some were very young (looked like 7 - 8 year old) - boys and girls. All of them landed smoothly, and looked really pleased with the flight. My jitter gradually faded away, and my heartbeat was back to normal :).

We booked tandem paragliding - each of us flew with a commercial paragliding pilot. Our time slot had 7 passengers (flyers) - 5 woman, 2 man (me and a boy). Each flyer had to pair with a pilot. The pairing was made on the shuttle to the launching place  - Beatenberg, a mountain (1350m elevation) 15 minute drive north to Interlaken. The selection of the pilot was random... each flyer pick a card which had the name of a pilot on it. I paired with Robi, Lily paired with Chris.

Robi is a seasoned pilot, in his 60s per our conversation during the flight. 

The launch of the paraglider is simple. Robi put the glider wing on the ground, straightened suspension lines (many of them), put his gear on, and then put harness on me,  buckled a few belts, we then ran dowhill on a gentle slope, and within a few seconds we were in the sky...no vibration, no noise, it was a quiet, smooth, and elegant take off. It felt safer than commercial airplane take-off.

before takeoff, with glaciers in the background at horizon

right after take off, we were only a couple meters above the slope

above Interlaken

During the flight Robi explained the fluid dynamics a little bit, we chat about his experience in paragliding, and he asked me about our trip in Switzerland. After a few minutes, he let me fly the paragliders for a couple minutes, I made two 360 degree turns, one turning to the right 360 degree, one turning to the left 360 degrees. After each 360 degree turn, he instructed me to fly straight for 5 seconds or so. It was so effortless, I had the illusion that paragliding is easy (it is not). 

                                      I flew a paraglider over Interlaken

 

Before landing, Robi asked if I wanted to try rolling, I said yes. I felt dizzy when he made the first quick down turn to the left, I had to call time out. We stopped rolling before it really started.

We flew toward Höhematte Park to land. Lily landed a few minutes ahead of me, and recorded my landing. It was a smooth, gentle landing just like everyone else's. 

Spectacular views, gentle smooth ride, easy piloting, awesome, those were my feelings during and after the paragliding despite my usual acrophobia, in fact I felt none of it. Lily had a great time paragliding as well. 

I am tempted to learn paragliding so I can fly solo!

         landing after paragliding

Lily paragliding over Interlaken