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Join us for our annual Touching The Andes of Peru Tour!
Upcoming Tours: Fall 2006: Peru
homebottom of pagepage contentssite mapcontacts&links
Join us for our annual Touching The Andes of Peru Tour!
Upcoming Tours: Fall 2006: Peru
This page contains a description of adventure tours visiting North, South America, Asia and Europe, for climbing and skiing documentaries and paragliding guiding.
Click Here to go to Paragliding Tour Itineraries.
Click here to go to Touching the Andes of Peru Tours
• WHATEVER WE IMAGINE IS POSSIBLE.
LET YOUR DREAMS BECOME REALITY
INTRODUCTION:
Of the many facets that a tour can have, some universals run through all of the possibilities. An open mind in regard to flexible itineraries is important, be it not climbing an avalanche threatened ice route after a big snow and going powder skiing instead, or deciding which paragliding sites to head to in the coming week based on weather and winds aloft forecasts. Just as many options exist in the sports and locations we choose. The same is true for the various formats of experimental short documentary, from straight photography, to video, to a mix including voice over narratives and animation. One obvious way to categorize our options is by the length of the project.
DAY TRIPPING:
VIDEO AND PHOTGRAHY DOCUMENTARY:
ICE CLIMBING:
Within striking distance of Telluride lie countless gullies full of ice, a multitude of frozen cascades and some very accessible classic winter water ice climbs. Telluride, Ouray, and Silverton... What more can you say? From simple top roping, to longer multipitch routes and alpine routes the potential is endless. 
VIDEO AND PHOTGRAHY DOCUMENTARY:
ROCK CLIMBING:
An array of possibilities from mountaineering to the plastic of indoor climbing gym walls. Generally locations determine the climbing type, traditional or bolted sport routes, The Ophir Wall and Cracked Canyon, The Black Canyon of The Gunnison, and the desert walls of Canyonlands and Indian Creek. Closer to home, several bouldering areas surround Telluride, from the Mine Boulders at the end of the box canyon, Illium Boulders just down valley, nd the conglomerate walls above town.
VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAHY DOCUMENTARY:
SKIING:
The potential backcountry ski trips within reach of Telluride is astounding. Don't forget that skiing, like climbing, shares so many varied avenues, from sledding on The Kids Hill in Town Park, to track skiing, (I am an old fashioned diagonal kick and glide cross country skier, but I don't miss the opportunity to borrow some skating gear for a change), to graceful telemarks turns in rolling meadows, to steep trees, couloirs and big mountain descents. Why not a short piece put to music portraying the loving attention a long time skier flaunts while tuning up their boards. Skiing like so many of life's ambitions can easily become a lifestyle, a way of living, a religion. To instill in documentary projects the sacred nature of our various communions with the natural world is a primary desire and goal.
VIDEO AND PHOTGRAHY DOCUMENTARY:
These are both sports I know and do, but I have not put the time, focus love, and attention into them to excel. I own two old mountain bikes and one kayak. It seems I get out so rarely anymore that I forget the sports are an option in my game. Still, they both share the potential for serious in depth portrayal in short documentary format video. Neither sport requires real involvement and participation to capture and photograph, and both share an adrenaline filled blur of motion momentum and action, a well as the outdoor adventure environment. Though I've never biked the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park, or even the Slickrock Trail in Moab, but I know all the locations, and can get there. The same goes for rodeo boating or even serious sidesurfing in big play holes. For all the days I've spent boating, I've come away with respect for the river above all else. It is a clear and strong conviction to not hit my head on the bottom of rivers, helmet or not. Still, this doesn't lesson the power and beautiful trance of dancing with a power that holds much worse than a step on the toe, or a flipped kayak. And what can hold a flame to the essential and deep sense of place that a rivers riparian zone and flowing waters leave, continually marking the endless flow of time.
VIDEO AND PHOTGRAHY DOCUMENTARY:
Another exploratory adventure sport that calls out to the photographer is canyoneering. The red rock desert of canyonlands in southeastern Utah is a photographers dream and an adventurous hiker or climbers destination. Most desert canyoneering trips are by nature multi-day outings but several are very accessible, if somewhat distant from Telluride, making them more of a longer adventure.
Bigger ice climbing video projects are also worthy considerations, like longer waterfalls in the San Juans, visiting ice Meccas like Cody Wyoming, Canada, Alaska, and The Andes. Again climbing projects can quickly become involved and difficult. Our objective would be to always maximize projects potential while minimizing logistics.
It is much easier to keep skiing documentaries simple and less involved. Still, skiing trips involving many shooting days, or hut trips, or even routes with big glacier crossings in Canada, Alaska or Patagonia, all involve more complex logistics and a much bigger project.
VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPHY DOCUMENTARY:
ROCKCLIMBING:
Rock climbing projects can easily become big projects just because of the difficulty in approaches, descents and the need to fix ropes and sometimes ascend and re-ascend to get cutaways and interesting angles. Some possible objectives include desert towers which are scattered throughout the southwest, big walls, both aid and free routes, in Zion, The Black Canyon and Yosemite.
VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPHY DOCUMENTARY:
ICE CLIMBING:
Bigger ice climbing video projects are also worthy considerations, like longer waterfalls in the San Juans, visiting ice Meccas like Cody Wyoming, Canada, Alaska, and The Andes. Again climbing projects can quickly become involved and difficult. Our objective is to always maximize projects potential while minimizing logistics.
VIDEO AND PHOTGRAHY DOCUMENTARY:
SKIING:
INTRODUCTION:
It is much easier to keep skiing documentaries simple and less involved. Still, skiing trips involving many shooting days, or hut trips, or even routes with big glacier crossings in Canada, Alaska or Patagonia, all involve more complex logistics and a much bigger project.
These types of projects involve everyone crossing a vague line of commitment. Projects that would require an exceptional amount of effort, planning and dedication might include big wall routes in The Wind Rivers, alpine routes in Canada, Alaska or Europe, or in the high altitude ranges of the world. This would also fall into the category of expedition documentation.
EXCEPTIONAL EXPLORATORY ADVENTURES:
• Walk The Line
• Capture The Dream
These types of projects involve everyone crossing a vague line of commitment. Projects that would require an exceptional amount of effort, planning and dedication might include big wall routes in The Wind Rivers, alpine routes in Canada, Alaska or Europe, or in the high altitude ranges of the world. This would also fall into the category of expedition documentation.
Click Here to go to Paragliding Tour Itineraries.
PARAGLIDING TOURS: INTRODUCTION:
Paragliding is the one area where I desire to act as a guide for clients, which is strange since flying is essentially a solo sport. At the same time it is also an endeavor that requires more analysis and specific knowledge to practice safely and pursue with success. For this reason it makes sense to hire a guide to work as a liason with all the different concerns when going in search of soaring, anywhere in the world. Because so many decisions are based on site specific information, I generally steer prospective clients to established local guides, especially in serious or remote areas. Franz Shilter (SP), an Austrian pilot living in the Urubamba Valley near Cuzco Peru, and Adam Hill of Sunrise Paragliding in Pokhara Nepal are two examples. As anyone stepping outside their immediate locality should, I actively pursue other pilots for consulting and site information. Still the number of sites I have flown and have intimate familiarity with is vast. Flying is a topographic and weather specific endeavor, so knowing when to be somewhere is critical. Not just knowing where to go, but when is a key to success.
• Tis The Season
YEAR ROUND:
Paragliding in and around Telluride happens all year. We do have distinct off seasons for the Gold Hill Launch. In Spring after the chairlifts close in the first half of April until the road opens, we are relegated to hiking. In Fall after the first significant snows with the onset of winter usually sometime in November but possibly earlier of later some years, until the Telluride Ski Area opens access to the top of the #9 chair of Gold Hill. Spring, Summer and Fall all offer conditions which in comparison with other flying sites around the world, are very big. We fly in strong thermal conditions, and largely because of the height of the surrounding mountains, cloudbase is often 5,000 meters (16,500') or higher. In the winter we experience very smooth laminar air, made thicker by the cold temperatures. The jet stream drops down and we often have enough wind to ridge soar Gold Hill's west face, mixed with very light and smooth thermals. Mixing skiing and flying in a day is more normal than not during the winter, since pilots ski while waiting for better flying conditions. The ski area traditionally offers a foot passenger lift pass at a lower price than a ski lift pass but now requires all pilots to have skiis or snowboards when riding the lifts. This adds a logistical problem when flying down in boots, leaving equipment on top of the mountain, but at least the top of Gold Hill is very accessible with the new chairlift.
Some options for making a visit especially memorable are doing a short video piece of a pilots flights and time in Telluride, flying while friends, partners or spouse flies tandem, and flying several launches in addition to Gold Hill. A quick drive to the west are desert foot launch and payout winch towing sites, making The Four Corners region a great area to visit for a paragliding vacation.
Domestic
Though midsummer conditions are rightfully awed and respected by most pilots, the summer is really the best time of year for mountain flying in the Rocky Mountains. The Fall generally has better weather, but the days are short and cold. With a flexible itinerary that allows pilots to "chase" conditions, the Rocky Mountains can pull up their skirts and give big high long, and far flights. Besides the obvious ski area sites, Telluride, Aspen, Vail, Copper Mountain, Jackson Hole, and Sun Valley, there are jewels like King Mountain Idaho which are less visited but no less grand.
International
Also during the northern hemisphere's summer is the dry season for the High Andes of Peru just south of the equator. While many known sites have been explored, the potential for discovery amongst the huge mountains is amazing. From bus accessible high passes in the Cordillera Blanca, soaring above ancient Incan and pre Incan ruins, to incredibly aesthetic symmetrical volcanos dotting the Andes mountain chain south into Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina, big adventures await anyone ready and willing.
Domestic
Winter is a season when many pilots head south to warmer climates and stronger conditions. We are blessed to have good ridge soaring conditions in Telluride when the jet stream drops down in winds increase. The desert of the southwestern United States also has good flying in winter, when conditions are more moderate than in Spring and Fall. This is also a good time of year to visit the Pacific Coast, especially for inland range flying.
International
Internationally speaking, winter never really has to happen, as sun followers know well. Most serious pilots leave the cold north for at least part of winter and travel to warmer regions. The choices of where to go for a winter paragliding vacation are endless, still many pilots flock to the same few spots. Europeans of course have a different perspective of what far away is, with Turkey, Greece and the islands of the Mediterranean are close by and South America is distant.
The Atacama desert running down the southern Pacific coast of South America hosts it's best conditions during the southern hemisphere's summer. That is our winter. While this treeless paragliding oasis has great flying year round like most places on earth, the added heating the sun provides during the summer means stronger more consistent conditions. The high Andes while still worth visiting suffer weaker conditions and more regular overdevelopment. The coast sees the hazy overcast burn off sooner and more consistently during the summer months.
On the Asian Subcontinent Winter is a time of stable clear weather, almost the opposite of the monsoon. In Nepal and Southern India lies the potential for real adventure mixed with a fascinating trip into cultures so removed from ours. Western Nepal offers the opportunity to fly in the foothills of The Great Himalaya, while southern India is more barren and desert like, but culturally no less intense than anywhere else.
Domestic
These seasons are the best times to visit sites that are too hot and too strong during the Summer, but not gib enough in winter. Spring is generally more windy than Fall, but either can provide midsummer like conditions above a dry hot barren desert. This is the perfect time to do a southern desert tour. Sites in southern Utah, Nevada, eastern California, Arizona and New Mexico all have potential to be included on an itinerary. This is an especially good time and place to include self sufficient camping travel and dedicated retrieve.
International
Fall and Spring are also prime seasons in the Indian Himalaya. Winter is far too cold here, and Summer is totally shut down due to monsoon rains. Absolutely one of the premier paragliding destinations in the world, the flying seasons are frustratingly short. These seasons also combine good chances for good conditions in both the inland mountain sites and coastal flying in Peru.
Arguably most places have better, more stable sunny weather during Fall. It's the season that fades slowly into the cold of winter
REQUIRMENTS AND EXPECTATIONS:
• Why We Do What We Do
As with every serious endeavor, success rests on dedication and commitment. To succeed at paragliding requires that pilots have there equipment in order, and handle logistics like meetings, travel and lodging with foresight and attention. At the same time, decisions like whether to fly or not are extremely personal and dependant on countless variables not the least of which is basic desire. If someone doesn't feel good, or has flown a lot lately and feels like a break, or just has a bad feeling about the day, that needs to be respected above all else. Group dynamics can easily push people into situations they otherwise would avoid, and into making decisions based on others skill levels and ambition. All this needs to be kept in mind when deciding to fly, or not to. Remember no one else is going to have to land your aircraft after you launch, but you. This said, it is very important to be honest with each other as well as ourselves about our personal objectives and experience. Avoiding accidents comes down to making good decisions all the time. If the wind on launch feels a little too gusty for one pilot, that decision needs to be respected and supported by everyone else.
This important aspect of shared decision making is a key requirement. Guided clients can expect professionalism and common respect from guides and support staff. When traveling or meeting for a day trip, being on time and ready is an obvious need. If the ride up the hill waits ten minutes for someone, and six pilots are waiting, the late pilot may well be responsible for an hour of airtime lost to their friends. Our opportunities in life are limited and precious, keep this in mind and don't waste them.
Click Here to go to Paragliding Tour Itineraries.
While I hesitate to just make a list of sites I know of, it will show some of the potential tour itineraries.
North America:
South America:
Asia:
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