Somewhere versus Nowhere

After enjoying the incredible hospitality of the Pakistan free flyers in Islamabad and 5 days of struggling with impossible launches and overdevelopment whose gust fronts sent dinghies careering across lakes; John and Alun and I took the initiative and bussed it to Karimabad in the Hunza valley to enjoy the stupendous flying of the area amongst its many peaks of over 7000m.

In Hunza we met up with US pilot adventurer Brad Sander, his sister Melissa and their friends; Canadian Josh and Brit Colin Hawke.

Despite the continuing poor conditions, some amazing flying has been had with John and Alun flying and filming on the Batura Wall crossing 6000m+cols; Brad and Melissa taking their tandem to 6700m and me doing an 70 ish km out and return eking out the final 30kms as the sun set on the mountain tops and it was already darkish in the valley bottoms. Thank the gods for the full moon! Colin and Josh have had great flights acclimatising and enjoying the views at about 5500m. With all this we have being returning to Karimabad for easy and comfortable evenings.

Alun has found the tandem flying in the Karakorum alot more demanding than Nepal.The strong thermals, tight turns,combined with the extreme cold and altitude has made his role as cameraman arduous. But he has somehow persevered.and only needs one more day of flying (on 7788m Rakaposhi !) to have it in the can.

The vol biv adventure will recommence when Alun leaves us and John and I will continue our adventures into China. I have extended my trip until the end of June and it is my and John's intention that more of the unexplored regions of these magnificent ranges will be flown soon.