A nice way to see La Clusaz

paragliding from La Balme

Pictured is a very good friend of mine who loves paragliding. A few years ago, he couldn’t ski, but he was motivated to learn so that he could see the winter scenery of La Clusaz in all its glory — and to one day try speed riding (they’re the really crazy ones who have smaller wings and touch the snow with their skis every so often).  With skis attached to his feet, he took off from La Balme at a spot where speed riders  normally take off, then hovered above me while I skied down to meet him at the bottom. As you can see from the photo, the sea of clouds in the distance made the mountains into little submarines, with only the village of La Clusaz clear from our spot on the hill. He must have had a great view of the resort.

taking off from La BalmeMy friend is still not a great skier, and his paragliding landings are always fun to watch. Will he fall? On this occasion, he ended up like a turtle, unable to get up because of the skis attached, and unable to detach his skis because he had no weight behind his arm to push down on to the bindings to release them. It’s the most interesting landing I’ve seen him do so far. He told me after he landed that he had almost fallen during the take-off. I think I snapped the moment he was talking about, as he mentioned something about zigzagging unexpectedly and how his downhill ski was going in a different direction to his uphill ski. I think, maybe, there’s some more practice needed before he attempts speed riding. Either way, he’s much braver than I am. I’ll stick to the snow and the almost-as-magnificent views of the valleys below.

About

I'm a technical author, journalist and writer from Australia who has been living in Europe since 2000 and exploring the world from there. My passions are writing, snow sports and travel.

2 Comments on “A nice way to see La Clusaz

  1. I really really want to do this! I can ski, I can paraglide, all I need is to find the guts to combine the two…