December 2006, starting line ....

“Late December 2006 the mission was finally on! I'd been planning this trip for a while to combine mountaineering and paragliding or "PARAMOUNTAINEERING". The location chosen: Mt.Tutoko.

It’s a beautiful mountain located in the Darrans on the West coast of the south island, very good alpine rock as well as being granite.

The thought of flying from the Mid and Low Peaks of Mt. Cook are very attractive to me, I've been up there once but it would be very cool if we can fly off it in the future. My heart is beating fast just thinking about it bur for now, Tutoko it is.

As a climber I've always been passionate about climbing mountains but everything changed when I realised what you can actually do with a paraglider, which is you can leave the ground and get into the air preferably from the summit!

: "We aint nowhere close".

I'd decided to have a team climb a peak in Fiordland National Park and fly off with paragliders.

I knew that that it wouldn't be very easy as every person in the team needed to be able to climb confidently and fly in mountainous terrain.

Brian Moore who's is a good climber/pilot, along with two visiting French pilots Zeb & Clare joined me on the trip. Our original plan was to climb Mt.Tutoko as the summit gently rolls down and is ideal for take off in almost any wind direction.

As the weather map showed some hope for a good weather window to climb during, we rushed down to Fiordland NP. The forecast was great, any remaining showers clearing and southerlies dying out. As we drove into the national park we were welcomed by the snow capped mountains and due to the strong southerlies it'd brought some snow down to 600 metres.

Next day was a big day walking up theTutoko Valley to reach the base of the Age Glacier. With our paragliders on our backs we carried cold food to keep the weight down. My shoulders were already sore as my pack dug into my skin after two hours.

We thought it was going to be a nice easy walk up the valley but it turned out to be quite challenging as the day progressed. We came across almost every thing from river crossings, to bushbashing, to tricky route finding, to steep climbing pulling off branches and trees and even slab climbing.

We'd climbed 1500m that day starting from 30m at valley floor. When we arrived at the rock bivvy we were so exhausted that we all jumped into our sleeping bags and went to sleep hoping that the wind will die out as it was forecasted. The wind was still strong from the southeast and it was snowing.

We were up and going by 5:30 am the next morning. The sky had cleared and we left the bivvy with half frozen hands. We could see the spindrift as we stared at the summit of Tutoko. Knee deep snow felt like winter climbing at the end of December... And we were concerned about the snow stability on the south face of the mountain.

After assessing the route condition and the wind, we figured that taking off from the summit today was not going to happen and coming down the south face would be far too dangerous with the amount of snow we just received in the last 48 hours.

Brian suggested climbing the nearby peak Mt. Madeline. We all agreed and started making our way up. I'd never seen so much snow in the middle of a summer.

: Time to fly verrry soon ...

We skirted around crevasses and after 6 hours we stood on the summit wishing that we carried up skis instead of paragliders. Unfortunately the wind was gusting up to 60 klms, forcing us to go down.

We came down far enough that the wind wouldn’t affect us so much but it was still was obvious that we were on the lee side of the mountain where the turbulent wind was created. Not good for flying! We sat there for some hours watching the scenic flights going past the glaciers. I was so glad that we didn't climb Tutoko when I saw a series of avalanches come down the south face.

The wind finally dropped a little a few hours later and Zeb & Clare rushed to get their tandem glider ready. Brian walked further down the slope to look for a launch site. I was scared simply due to the wind as I knew that it would be turbulent air. Zeb & Clare took off on their tandem and I watched their wing move around, fighting against the wind and turbulence.

: That'll do it ...

I put my glider on a steep slope hoping to leave the ground as soon as possible and after checking all my lines on the glider, I waited for the wind to ease.

The wing came up fast as the wind increased when I pulled the glider up and I had to brake quickly as the glider flew over my head and I got shot into the air.

It was probably the scariest take off I've ever done. My glider fought against the strong wind, most likely the leeside thermals. In no time I was getting sucked upwards and only when I finally made it to the Tutoko valley I knew I was safe.

Thousands of metres dropped below my feet as I laughed at myself. Zeb & Clare found a good landing spot on the river bed. We all landed safely after enjoying the flight above the valley with stunning views all around us. Shame about the wind on the summit but hey, it's all part of the sport. And as long as you enjoy and love what you're doing, nothing else matters!!

Thanks to FTR for your support, it was a great trip and I can't wait to do it again. Although we didn't end up taking off from the summit, for me it was more about combining the two sports into "Paramountaineering" and I want to do more trips like this in the future.

Cheers Dice ……