I always say that good times are made by the people that you’re with…the place and the weather is just a bonus. Well if that’s true, last week was definitely an amazing week…with lots of bonuses! It was a week of great company, huge achievements for first time flyers, impressive thermalling for the low air time guys and some wonderful xc tasks achieved by the experienced pilots including flying from here across the border into Italy and to Zermatt…and to top it all off, the best ridge soaring conditions I’ve ever known! Not surprising really that I feel like I’ve been laughing all week.

Even the boss gets to play hard this week. Mike enjoys some wind on the ridge.

The Italian Job!

It wasn’t the best XC conditions I’ve ever known in Verbier but Bruce, one of our very regular guests and good friend, made an impressive flight all the way into Italy despite the fairly low cloudbase. The Northerly winds made this a great XC option and Bruce was able to feast his eyes during this impressive flight South over the Mt Blanc Massif and the spectacular Trient glacier.

Bruce approaches the Italian Border.

What a week to learn!

As well as being a fantastic week of XC flights with Bruce flying into Italy and to Zermatt, it was also a perfect week for our beginners. The EP students were experiencing long stunning flights all week long and the CP students were flying long thermal flights and some exciting ridge soaring. I’ve rarely seen so much progress from a group of low airtime pilots.

Thank you to everyone who was here last week….it really was one the best weeks we’ve ever known at Verbier Summits. You guys were so much fun!

Special thanks to Bart for the great photos this week: http://bartosik.org

Mike has gone out to join  the sailing vessel ‘Discovery’ for an incredible 5 week voyage through the most remote part of the Maldives. He was able to send me these pictures via the satelite phone but that’s all I have for now. Check back again soon for the full story of what Mike has been doing out there!

Mike uses the speed wing in the maldives. Photo: Jody McDonald.

Mike feelin’ good over the Indian Ocean.

And Mike feelin’ good ON the Indian Ocean:

Check out the video on 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-vpMkQ0sPM

I have just returned from the Andaman Islands where I was asked to skipper ‘Discovery’, the yacht that we sailed around Tonga on last year. The Andaman Islands belong to India and are located on the Eastern part of the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. These islands are without a doubt the least touristy place that I have ever visited. Many of the islands are totally off limits to foreigners as our everyday germs could wipe out an entire tribe. In fact while we were there yet another tribe became extinct and with it one of the oldest languages in the world. In 2004 India sent helicopters over these islands to examine the extent of the damage caused by the Tsunami but they were chased away by tribes armed with spears and bows and arrows!

This fantastic adventure started in the capital town of Port Blair, where we spent 4 long days trying to provision the boat. There are no supermarkets in Port Blair. We were driven around the busy dusty port town in an old Ambassador car by our cheerful taxi driver, Ravi. He took us to buy chickens that were slaughtered right in front of us. He rounded up his friends to help us buy beer as by law we could not buy more than 6 bottles at a time. And he took us to the wonderful markets where we were able to buy endless fruits and vegetables.

We were desperate for a swim during these first few days in Port Blair but apart from not wanting to swim in the dirty harbour where we were anchored we had also heard of recent attacks on local fishermen by salt water crocodiles, so we were an excited crew as we sailed out into the turquoise blue waters of the Andaman sea with our newly arrived guests. I pointed Discovery towards a small island where we hoped to swim with one of the local inhabitants by the name of Rajan. Rajan is an elephant. There are a few elephants that still remain on Havelock Island where they were brought to by the English for logging. Unfortunately Rajan was not up for swimming while we were there but it was very cool to see elephants roaming around a tropical island.

The main aim of this journey through the Andamans was to kite surf and to paraglide, but the highlight for me was definitely the wildlife both above and below the water. On some of the islands elephants would freely roam, on others wild deer and brightly coloured parrots. Below the surface we swam with manta rays, were escorted into a bay by a school of dolphins and Clinton, one of our guests hand fed a giant morey eel. While spear fishing we would swim alongside humphead  wrasse the size of me and white tip reef sharks.

Paragliding over the Andaman Sea was awesome. Unfortunately we didn’t fly as much as we would have liked to. The wind was rarely right….either the wrong direction or too strong and often there was just too much reef to get the boat through. But we did get to do some wonderful flights over North Cinque island. The flying was not as good as it had been on my previous trip onboard Discovery in Tonga but it always feels such a privilege to fly above these wonderful islands and their startling blue sea that envelops them.

Mike is currently onboard Discovery in the Maldives and sounds like they are doing some insane flying…so stay tuned for some great stories and pictures from Mike coming soon. Next trip on Discovery will be in Madagascar in October where we expect the flying to be incredible!

Thanks to my crew….Jody, Mikey and Bobby and thank you Gav for trusting me to skipper your wonderful boat.

You can follow Discovery as she travels around the world on www.offshoreodysseys.com

Verbier Summits is now an official BHPA school and Stu Belbas is now a BHPA Senior Instructor. Up until now we have been able to complete the BHPA syllabus, but now students can not only learn the BHPA way with us, but actually go home fully qualified. Furthermore, due to our fantastic training site, we are able to offer a guarantee that students can complete a full Ep or CP course in just a week. The guarantee means that if in the unlikely event a student cannot complete the course in a week, they can come back and finish it whenever they like at no extra charge.

As well as EP and CP courses, we also run BHPA Pilot and advanced pilot courses, paramotor conversion courses and tandem courses. We also run advanced courses such as post CP thermal classes, XC clinics and SIV.

We are offering you the chance to win a Free week with Verbier Summits in 2011!

Upload a photo on this blog that sums up your perfect Alpine flying experience before September 30th 2010. The winning picture will win a free holiday with us here in Verbier in 2011.

Terms and conditions:

• Only two photos per applicant.
• Photos must be uploaded to this blog and to the Verbier-summits facebook page:
• All photos must be uploaded before September 30th 2010.
• We reserve the rights to use any pictures that you enter into this comp.
• The winner will be announced by the end of October 2010.
• The prize is a free week with Verbier-Summits in 2011.

Some beautiful pictures from the summit of the Petit Combin. On a good day we can fly up to the summit of the Petit Combin and cruise down the glacier, looking down over the sea of ice into the glaciers below. But there’s nothing quite like getting a helicopter ride up there at sunset and flying over the glacier as it turn pink with the setting sun.

To welcome the arrival of the 15th stage of the Tour De France in Verbier last month, our famous local flying guru from the 1987 movie ‘Super Max’ spelled out ‘VERBIER’ using over 200 old gliders. The gliders were donated by ourselves and many other schools across the country.

It took three days to spell out the 200ft tall letters….but the result from the air was fantastic.

A big thanks to Phillipe for all his creative efforts.

A new addition to our team this year is Reeve Waud. We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Reeve to our team. Reeve has been flying tandem with us ever since he was a tiny kid and we have been teaching him to fly through his advanced courses overthe past few years. he recently completed his instructor training course with us and is now joining our team to pass on some of his passion and natural skill to new students.

welcome aboard Reeve!

FLYING QUALIFICATIONS:

FSVL Pilot Licence

FSVL Grade 1 instructor

BHPA TI

Another great High Five event from our sponsors, Carlsberg. The race was probably the biggest yet and as usual we were there to animate it from above. Such a great day, with skiers jumping so high and gliders flying so low….just remind me who has the right of way in a head on situation between a glider and a skier?

Enjoy some lovely pictures of us flying the Carlsberg colours and a big thanks to Carlsberg for all their support.

Why does everyone watch fireworks from the ground? They look so much better when they’re racing towards you as you stare into their bright eyes just before they explode beneath your feet! Yes once again we saw in the New Year the only way we like to do it….with a midnight flight over the fireworks. Happy New Year everyone!!