Cross Country October 2022

Nothing happens in flying in big leaps. We might think some big leap in performance has taken place, but when we dig into it we find a different story. And so it is with Tom de Dorlodot and Horacio Llorens’s incredible flying in the K2/Baltoro region of Pakistan this season. As you can read, as you probably saw in clips and soundbites on social media, and as we will hopefully be able to watch on film later this year, they again moved the bar of what is possible in flying in the big mountains. They flew around and through these mountains – literally the biggest in the world – and came back with a story that saw them soaring one 8,000m giant before gliding to another and then another. Imagine spending…

Nothing happens in flying in big leaps. We might think some big leap in performance has taken place, but when we dig into it we find a different story. And so it is with Tom de Dorlodot and Horacio Llorens’s incredible flying in the K2/Baltoro region of Pakistan this season. As you can read, as you probably saw in clips and soundbites on social media, and as we will hopefully be able to watch on film later this year, they again moved the bar of what is possible in flying in the big mountains. They flew around and through these mountains – literally the biggest in the world – and came back with a story that saw them soaring one 8,000m giant before gliding to another and then another. Imagine…

Niko Assael grew up in St Hilaire du Touvet, the site of the famous Coupe Icare, and spent many school hours staring out of its large bay window watching the paragliders. As soon as he could, he was flying. A photographer, he pays a personal tribute to the Dune du Pilat, which was badly hit by wildfire this year, p64 Liz Dengler is back with another insightful Head Game interview, this time with Kevin Philipp who survived a low double reserve throw in Organya. Liz, an editor and former Antarctic geologist, went beyond the gasps of social media to find out exactly what was going on inside his head. See p90 ‘WE PASSED 25 DUST DEVILS AS WE PASSED BY LAGUNA SALADA, MANY SMALL BUT A FEW WERE HUGE’ Rio Hardy, p58 Ramón Morillas…

Niko Assael grew up in St Hilaire du Touvet, the site of the famous Coupe Icare, and spent many school hours staring out of its large bay window watching the paragliders. As soon as he could, he was flying. A photographer, he pays a personal tribute to the Dune du Pilat, which was badly hit by wildfire this year, p64 Liz Dengler is back with another insightful Head Game interview, this time with Kevin Philipp who survived a low double reserve throw in Organya. Liz, an editor and former Antarctic geologist, went beyond the gasps of social media to find out exactly what was going on inside his head. See p90 ‘WE PASSED 25 DUST DEVILS AS WE PASSED BY LAGUNA SALADA, MANY SMALL BUT A FEW WERE HUGE’ Rio Hardy, p58…

The Coupe Icare is back this year, complete with fancy-dress, a giant free-flight expo and the biggest film festival in the sport. Here’s a rundown of this famous festival in numbers. 49 This will be the 49th Coupe Icare festival since it was founded in 1974. Started by a group of friends, it has grown to be the most important free-flight festival in the sport. 6 This year the festival will last for six days, from 20-25 September (Tuesday to Sunday). It has expanded from its original four-day programme to give more time and space to the film festival, and to let pilots have more time to fly on Tuesday and Wednesday. 150 Exhibitors attending in the vast expo, which covers 5,000m2 indoors and 10,000m2 outdoors. 90,000 The number of spectators expected to attend…

Luc Armant won the FAI European Paragliding Championships in August, taking gold just three points ahead of French teammate Maxime Pinot who took silver. Honorin Hamard (FR, Ozone Zeno 2) was third. It was the second major title in a year for Luc, who won the Paragliding World Cup Superfinal back in August 2021. Méryl Delferrière won the women’s class and finished seventh overall. Luc, who is a designer for Ozone, was flying his Ozone Enzo 3 and Submarine harness and clinched the competition on the final day. He crossed the line just 96 seconds ahead of Maxime, which meant he beat Maxime by 15 points and 11 places on Task 6, giving him the overall win by the slimmest margin. Afterwards he said: “This European Championship has been the best FAI…