Antoine Girard breaks paragliding altitude record: 8157m!
In a unique unsupported vol-bivouac expedition, the X-Alps athlete managed to fly by some of the wildest and highest mountains of the world, becoming the first pilot to paraglide over an 8000m peak!
French adventurer Antoine Girard is just back from a 1260km fly bivouac solo in Pakistan in 19 days, from which he brought a world record, the first paraglider flight to the top of an 8,000m peak, and the country’s longest XC flight of 248 km, along with some milestones for solo flying in the remotest and highest mountains of our planet, the Himalaya. In his own words, it was a “great experience in a wilderness land”.
Girard accounts some of his achievements:
– Crossing the Deosai plateau flying. A wild plateau at 5000m with little relief.
– Circumvention of Nangat Parbat (8126m) and crossing several pass.
– A flight of 150km along the glacier Biafo and Hisper between Karimabad and Payu. Passing by the Spantik (Golden Peak, 7027m) and 60km of glacier crossed
– A flight of 120km with 60km above the Baltoro glacier
– Flying over Broad Peak (8051m) and flight up 8157m!
– A flight of 248km, which is the record of cross country fly in Pakistan
About the amazing flight over Broad Peak and his altitude record, Antoine Girard commented:
Antoine Girard flying in front of some of the highest peaks of the Himalaya: K2, Broad Peak and G4. Photo: Facebook
“After a flight of 50km and a long transition I reach 5740m on Broad Peak, small cumulus are at 6800m. I wait one hour without going up. The ceiling rises to 7000m and allows me to attack the cliffs and find other thermal above the clouds. The wind is weak at 7500m, maybe nonexistent. Above 8000m the wind becomes moderate (50km/h???) and oriented north. It is not possible to do soaring on this north-south ridge. I leave the thermal at 8 100m because I have all fingers frozen, it was certainly possible to climb to more than 8300m. I make two go and back over the ridge to take images and I leave (fleeing) to a more abundant oxygen and 70km of flight”.
Girard is training for yet another edition of the Red Bull X-Alps, the hardest hike-and-fly race in the world, in 2017. He participated in 2013 ending 3rd, and in 2015 when he was 4th.
