Scafell Pike winter paragliding

[gordie]

Phoning Steve G early on the morning 3rd December, dispite him having a hangover, the wall to wall sunshine and fantastic winter landscape had us both motivated to get out there and enjoy it. We both had thought of walking up Scafell Pike with the rare chance of taking off the rock covered summit which would hopefully be covered in snow.

After 3 hours of steady we arrived on top to be met by a very light s.e. wind and fantastic views from Snowdon to Scotland. The wind direction made it impractical to launch, so we walked back towards the southern face of Esk Hause. After quickly rigging on the snow patches we took off into a steady s.w. breese just as the approaching front was making its presence felt, covering near by hills in beauitfull vails of cloud. Expecting a fly down after 5 minutes we found ourselves on the slopes of Gladamarra and the weather gods smilled at us, providing rising air up this side of the valley for us to play in untill we reached base again and after an amazing half an hours flying as the light faded we spiralled down to land by our vehicles.

This was a very special and rare flight in the Lake District, I hope you enjoy the video, it is nearly ten minutes long but thats because its full of memories

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TKpNxpU6BQM

[gary stenhouse]

which hill is scarfell pike in relation to heswick?

just hope saturday gells for the weekend

[John Wallis]

Cracking flight lads.

[milleboy]

mega day out

in work for a rest!

thanks for the video (again) gordy!

[Davehorne]

Wow! Majestic

Amazing how snow makes everything look so well, err, kinda ALPINE

Fantastic video.

[Davehorne]

Not quite as exciting as Gordie and Steve's exploits, but I enjoyed a mega fly-down from Skiddaw Little Man to Poartinscale, landing very conveniently next to the car

I had the whole of Skiddaw to myself - one car in the Latrigg car park - one pair of walkers passed as I was getting the wing up on the top of Little Man - lovely

Beautiful smooth flight and I also did a video with my (hand-held) camera - though I still have a lot to learn about holding it steady, even though it was super-smooth air apart from a short initial attempt to soar Skiddaw

Must try a camcorder next time - it should be less inclined to stop recording and easier to hold and zoom than the Fuji still camera I was using yesterday in video mode. Annoyingly I ran out of time and didn't capture the flight of geese taking off from Derwent Water as I came in to land - must get a bigger memory card for it

Hell of a slog up - walked from Portinscale, the track up Latrigg was covered in black ice so used the grass, and the last bit up Little Man was in deep snow (sun burning down all the way up of course)

But definitely worth it - a very memorable flight, especially the orographic on Skiddaw, the fantastically clear air, the sun effects through the veil of high cloud as the front approached, the geese, and finally the old couple who kept me talking because they wanted to know all about paragliding - as my wing froze solid after landing

Video is at http://www.vimeo.com/2429035

[Chris L]

Amazing! fantastic flights and videos. Wow Keep them coming.
So where do we fly from this weekend?