Starting my Paragliding Journey

It's February 3rd and the past week has been filled with incredible paragliding mountain descents from Saint Helens, Mt. Baker, and Snoqualmie Peak. I feel like I should write up reports of these trips to remember them clearly and reflect on them, but first I think an introduction is necessary to establish how I got to this point.

Paragliding has been in the back of my mind ever since my early teens when I first discovered that it was a thing. It appealed to me as the simplest and most affordable way to fly, without needing official licences or several years of training. After gaining competence in rock climbing, mountaineering, and backcountry skiing throughout my college years, I thought paragliding would be an amazing way to descend from mountain peaks and continue to explore the wilderness of Washington.

When I was in middle school I unknowingly started my paragliding training by flying power kites. It was fun to get tossed around by my 4 square meter Beamer III kite, and in strong conditions I could catch quite a bit of air. Power kites are essentially mini paragliders, but with much longer lines and a different control setup. After buying my power kite I also discovered the original GoPro Hero 1 and was probably one of the first people to buy one. Below is a funny throwback video to my kiting days.

Power Kiting on vacation at Huntington Beach (2010)

My GoPro power kite edit from 2010

After moving to Seattle for college I did some research on paragliding and discovered there was a school at Tiger mountain less than a half hour from Seattle. Unfortunately during college I was too busy and way too poor to start paragliding. Finally, after graduating with my ME degree, working for almost a year, and conveniently moving to Eastgate (only 15 minutes away from the paragliding school), I figured it was time to jump into it. 

My first day of paragliding training was on September 3rd, 2018 and consisted of signing lots of waivers before going on 3 tandem flights from the Tiger mountain launch, followed by my first two solo flights. I was surprised that it was legal to get thrown off a 2000 ft. mountain with less than a full day's worth of training, but felt confident enough in my abilities to get down safely. Basic paragliding controls are quite simple: pull on either brake toggle to turn left or right, both brakes to slow down/stall, and use weight shift (leaning into turns) to accentuate your movements in flight. If you've got a few extra minutes check out this video from my first flights:

Video from my first solo flights

For my first flights my helmet was equipped with a radio so that I could be directed on my landing approach by instructors. Takeoff and landing are the two most dangerous and skill-dependent parts of paragliding. During the next few weeks I got out to Tiger mountain as much as I could, and after 10 or so flights I was quite confident with my skills and no longer needed help with my takeoff or landings. It was around this time in late October that I bought my own paragliding gear and decided to update my Gopro 1 to the new GoPro 7. My new Nova Ion 5 glider performed much better than the old student wings I had been training on, and my Advance Progress 3 harness becomes a backpack when turned inside out which makes the 1600 ft. of elevation gain on the hike quite a bit nicer. 

Setting up for a launch from Tiger Mountain with my new gear

Gaining confidence at Tiger Mountain

The 2018 fall had much nicer weather than average, and I was lucky to get in lots of flights on the weekends and a few in the evenings on work days. For my 22nd and 23rd flights I took a solo trip out to Leavenworth and flew off of Tumwater mountain. I had done a lot of research online beforehand, and only felt confident enough to fly at a different site because of very stagnant air conditions. It was amazing to fly over Tumwater canyon overlooking the mountain town of Leavenworth where I had done some of my first hikes and rock climbs in the Cascades. See video:

Flying from Tumwater Mountain

I was definitely hooked on paragliding by now, and got up to 25 solo flights before the end of 2018. With 25 flights I received my P2 rating, which allows me to fly at many other designated paragliding sites without supervision.