Parapente à ski

Take-off is on skis, from the mountain: a few metres of glide and the ground leaves. It is gentler than a launch on foot, and it is what makes winter paragliding accessible to people who would never have run down a slope in summer. What strikes you next is the silence, you hear the skiers below, and nothing else. At Val d'Isère the relief works in your favour: the resort is hemmed in by high faces, and all at once you look down the whole valley to Le Fornet. No experience is needed, the pilot does everything including the launch. You only have to keep your skis straight and let yourself be carried for the first three metres. The only real variable is the air. We place flights mid-morning when it is calmest, and we postpone without argument when the day is not right: paragliding is not forced, and a pilot who agrees to fly in poor conditions is not a good pilot.