“That’s great! This is just what you wanted” said my Dad as I was preparing to leave the hotel and share the jeep ride to the Eagles Nest take-off in Hunza with 3 friends. Phone calls are cheap to the US and I’ve been talking to my Dad as he plans for his trip here this September. He reminded me that for the last 2 years I’ve been complaining about not having people to fly with and how this year I’ve had people company all year. Most recently Christian “Taliban” Rankl and Christian “The Machine” Wasserbauer from Austria.

That’s “The Machine” on the left and “Taliban” or Old Chris on the right, see why we call him “Taliban” and see the hint of madness in his eye? Photo is on the roof of the Darbar Hotel after we all bombed out and landed there the 9th. On the 10th we fly together to the Shimshal valley. Staying together is tricky without radios and with difference performance of gliders.

Me over Passu on the way to Shimshal

Once in the Shimshal valley there’s no more vegetation, the Glaciers get bigger and the mountains more inhospitable.

Weeee!!! flying with other people is fun! “Hey Chris lets land here!” I shout in a thermal. “10km further” the bearded one replys. “Ok! I follow you!” and then I follow, assuming he’s seen a good spot and looking for one myself. Young Christian Wasserbauer gets separated and we lose him. He’s to land in that valley on the right side of the picture and have an 11 hr walk to the town of Shimshal the following day (we communicate with text messages on our Sat phones in the evening).

Chris picks a spot and lands. I follow him in.

“What the F!!! is this?” We’ve just landed in a small snow field at over 5200meters!!! Who the H!!! lands up here with the intention to camp???!!

2 options for gear. Bring sleeping bag and pad and sleep under glider. Or bring tent instead of bag. Either way it wasn’t the cold or rocks that were a problem, more that I wasn’t acclimated to the altitude. Beautiful night sky I got to know very well though.

mmm breakfast

10am time to launch. And how is it to launch in the thin air? light upslope breeze, reverse, correct, turn, load and go. Addict 2 has been great to launch and land in the higher elevations, just gotta commit to the run over the blocky talus! Brilliant

Crossing From Shimshal to Ghujerab valley I thought was to be the crux, and though over a high glacier field feeling quite commiting a little bit of lift made it easy. That and seeing Chris below on his 1-2 glider I couldn’t help feeling more relaxed. Once in the Ghujerab I though it would be smooth sailing but the air was turbulent and not fun, we pushed into a head wind all the way out but had plenty of lift. Getting close to Sost we were totally shut down, climbs to over 6500 and full bar couldn’t make progress into a headwind and sustained 7m/s sink. So we landed a short hike from the KKH and hitched into town to spend the night before returning to Karimabad the next day.

Landing at the end of the flight I’m shattered.. could be a five hour flight mostly over 6000 after a sleepless night? hhmmm…. thanks Chris

Riding back along the KKH to Karimabad is our rest day. Another 3 day flying adventure begins the following day….