The Paragliding Podcast, Episode 2: The Adventure Issue

This episode of *The Paragliding Podcast* by *Cross Country Magazine* dives deep into the magazine's annual Adventure Issue (Issue 262), exploring how paragliding is evolving from a sport of elite competition into a vehicle for accessible, personal adventure. Hosts Ed Ewing and Tarquin Cooper weave together interviews with pilots who have flown from the summit of K2, guides who run global paragliding tours, and philosophers of flight who see the sport as a way to melt into nature—all while grappling with the tension between achievement-driven goals and a more holistic, experiential approach to flying.

0:00The K2 Flights: Two Films, Two Philosophies

The episode opens with a visceral audio clip from Liv Sansoz describing her tandem flight from the summit of K2 with pilot Zeb Roche: "You're almost like on the space, you're like, so high. You see all the Baltoro glaciers, so down low. And the feeling is incredible." This sets the stage for Tarquin's report from the Kendal Mountain Festival, where he watched the only two paragliding films shown—both about K2.

The first film, *Chasing Shadows* by Benjamin Védrines, documents a speed ascent and paraglider descent from K2's summit. Védrines comes from an alpinist background and uses the wing primarily as a rapid descent tool. The film features extraordinary drone footage of him launching from the summit—footage that surprised even Tarquin, who didn't know drones could operate at that altitude. But the film takes an unexpected turn: after landing, Védrines felt a profound sense of despair and self-loathing. He had "slain the dragon" and found the view from the top empty. His emotional recovery only came when he climbed back up the mountain to rescue two Italian climbers stranded above 7,000 meters. Tarquin noted that a seasoned mountaineer, Victor Saunders, dismissed this as normal—"you do the thing you set out to do and then you just feel a sense of loss." Ed drew a parallel to competition pilot Maxime Pinot, who felt depressed after winning the World Championships and Superfinal, finding the achievement hollow.

The second film, *K2 Mon Amour* by Liv Sansoz and Zeb Roche, had a completely different tone—quirky, light-hearted, and framed as a love story of their relationship. Tarquin interviewed them after the screening. Liv described the grueling final ascent above 8,450 meters, where they climbed only 50 meters of elevation per hour, lifting one foot at a time, resting and breathing between each step. They passed a dead body on the fixed ropes near the Bottleneck, which added psychological stress. At the summit, Zeb switched into "pilot mode" immediately, analyzing wind direction, obstacles, and launch possibilities while Liv felt relief at having made it. The launch required two attempts—on the first, the glider fell into their feet—and was helped by an Italian climber named Tommy who held the glider for them. Once airborne, Liv described the flight as "totally crazy," with K2 standing isolated above the landscape, making them feel "almost like on the space." They used supplemental oxygen during the descent, which made them feel progressively better as they descended.

Zeb Roche, now in his 50s, reflected on his first high-altitude flight in 1990, when he was 17 years old and launched from Everest's South Col with his father. They flew a now-defunct brand called El Ducia, with a glider weighing 7 kilograms and measuring about 28 square meters. Today's single-skin wings weigh just 2.4 kilograms, and their lightness allows pilots to climb without supplemental oxygen—a transformative difference.

12:34The Davide Sassudelli Launch: Red Mist in the X-Alps

Ed interviewed Davide Sassudelli, a mountain guide and Red Bull X-Alps athlete under 30, for the magazine's "On Launch" profile. Sassudelli is an Air Design team pilot whose Instagram shows him flying seemingly effortless routes in the mountains. But he became infamous for a viral launch video from early in the X-Alps race.

The conditions involved a very strong föhn wind—extremely strong and turbulent. In the footage, Sassudelli gets his wing up, shoots upward, suffers a massive collapse, recovers just above the ground, and then is skyrocketed into the air. Ed described watching the trees bending in the wind and said, "You're never launching that." When Ed asked Sassudelli about it, he freely admitted it was not a good decision in hindsight. He launched because his team had seen Simon Oberrauner in the air at 3,000 meters making good progress—a classic case of "red mist" during a race, where competitive pressure overrides normal judgment.

Tarquin noted that the video defined the race's conversation for 48 hours, and that Sassudelli stayed quiet on social media. Ed observed that the real lesson seemed to be "don't post it to social media" rather than "think twice before launching in sketchy conditions," though Sassudelli did say he wouldn't do it again. The interview was mostly about Sassudelli's progression story: his advice was to do 100 hours on an EN-A wing, then 100 hours on an EN-B, before moving to a C. As a mountain guide, safety is his profession, which made the launch decision all the more striking.

8:33Michael Gebert and the Rise of Guided Paragliding

Ed interviewed Michael Gebert, the German X-Alps athlete who competed in five editions and once finished fifth. More interesting than his racing career is his current role as a partner in Fly With Andy, the largest paragliding travel and adventure booking agency. Fly With Andy pioneered towing operations in Northeast Brazil and runs trips to Albania, Argentina, Uruguay, and many other destinations—about 60 trips per year.

Gebert's background: he grew up in southern Bavaria near the mountains, his father was a weekend hang glider pilot, and he taught himself hang gliding before getting proper lessons. He teamed up with photographer Felix Volk in their early twenties, and they would "look at a map and go wherever there are mountains and no war." They spent 15 years traveling the world, pioneering new flying locations, before Gebert transitioned into running group tours. He eventually met Andy, the Swiss founder of Fly With Andy, and they partnered to grow the company, which had been primarily German-language but now serves English-speaking pilots as well.

Ed asked Gebert how one becomes a Fly With Andy guide. The core team is only about six guides, each doing roughly 10 trips per year. Gebert said the skill set is highly specialized: you need to be a very good pilot, ideally an instructor, but equally important is being sociable—happy to organize dinners, chat after flying, and handle logistics. Many people love guiding in the air but lose interest once they land. The logistical demands are intense: on towing tours in Argentina and Uruguay, the guide must plan 48 hours ahead, figuring out where to get 20 people into B&Bs and guest houses as the group flies across the country.

Gebert also made a striking comment about X-Alps safety: the real danger isn't to the athletes themselves, but to people outside the sport who see the race and try to emulate the launches and maneuvers without the necessary skills. This resonated with Ed, who recalled that his only exposure to paragliding before starting was watching X-Alps, and he arrived at his first hillside expecting to do "backwind launches and ground spirals." Fly With Andy addresses this by running training weeks in places like Bassano, teaching pilots to manage their gliders in strong wind and land in tight spots before sending them to exotic destinations.

15:06Solène Rombourg and the Philosophical Approach to Adventure

Tarquin interviewed Solène Rombourg for the magazine's "My Flying Life" back page, a slot that allows pilots to reflect philosophically. Rombourg's answer to "What's been your best flying adventure?" stood out: she described being deep in the Andes, landing, and then returning by packraft with a paddle carved from a tree. "Water, earth and air for traveling, fire for cooking. An adventure where I melted completely into the elements."

Tarquin contrasted this with what he called a more typical "tick list" approach to adventure—doing something just to say you've achieved it. He characterized Rombourg's approach as "a very feminine kind of approach... just about being at one with nature," though Ed challenged the gendered framing. Regardless, Tarquin argued that the magazine benefits from including diverse voices, and Rombourg's philosophical, holistic perspective is a valuable counterpoint to the achievement-oriented narratives that dominate the sport.

35:44Guides and Gurus: Global Adventure Destinations

Ed pulled together a major feature called "Guides and Gurus," asking local experts about their home flying spots. The feature covers a remarkable range of destinations:

• Bir, India: Debu Choudary provides authoritative advice on flying this popular Indian site.
• Feltre, Italy: Kinga Masztalerz describes a vol biv (vol bivouac—hike-and-fly with overnight camping) route all the way into Slovenia. Her repeated emphasis: "top landings, top landings, top landings." If you can top-land anywhere, that's your passport to vol biv.
• Finland: Ilari, who helped Ed with X-Alps coverage, revealed that Finland has some of the most complicated airspace outside of China—restrictions covering the entire country. But they're not always active, and flatland flying with boat towing is possible. The European record of 500 kilometers is still held by Uni Mäkinen in Finland.
• Pemberton, Canada: James Elliot recommends his favorite weekend vol biv.
• Norway: Erland Vinter talks about hike-and-fly regions from remote Jotunheimen to scenic Fjordland.
• Kyrgyzstan: Leonard Cyclone describes this developing adventure destination as easy to reach and not too extreme, with massive potential given better weather.
• Annecy, France: Joanna de Grigoli, originally from Venezuela, recommends early and late season flying (November and March-April) when the ski lifts are closed, using ski touring to access launches like La Sambuy.
• Colombia: Seb Ospina guides in the Cocora Valley, noting that Colombia's off-season (for Europe) is its on-season, and flying is possible year-round near the equator.
• Kenya: Chris Garcia from Convergence Paragliding and Vit Kessen from Paraglide Kenya both guide in Kenya. Garcia runs high-end tours using helicopters for heli-paragliding safaris in northern Kenya near the Ethiopian border—flying into remote hills, camping, and flying back. It's a novel way to explore a country.

42:08Jeff Hamann's Paramotor Odyssey Across Patagonia

Jeff Hamann is a paramotor pilot from San Diego, an entrepreneur and businessman who also loves sailing and fishing. His defining characteristic is extraordinary logistical planning. Over years, he has stitched together the entire Pacific coastline from San Diego to the southern tip of South America: first the Mexican coast (thousands of kilometers), then Central America's Pacific coast, then a crossing of the Darien Gap by paramotor—70 miles of dense forest where a forced landing would mean no way out. He continued through Colombia and into South America.

His most impressive feat involved Papua New Guinea: two years ahead of his trip, he put a spare paramotor into a shipping container with a friend moving there for work. The paramotor arrived 18 months before he did. When he finally arrived, he flew super remote rivers with indigenous tribes.

The story featured in the magazine is his flight over the San Rafael Glacier in Patagonia. The glacier calves into the sea from the Northern Patagonian Ice Cap, creating "acres and miles and miles and miles of blue ice." Hamann found a weather window and flew it. Ed emphasized that Hamann's success comes from being "the dad at the barbecue flipping burgers"—unassuming—but possessing an underrated skill: extreme organization. He ticks boxes methodically, gets everyone on side, partners with the right people, and then executes. For his Amazon trip, he rented an entire boat, brought a team, and flew the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon.

46:48Paul Gushlbauer's Evolution and the Joy of Hike-and-Fly

Paul Gushlbauer appears in the magazine with his new book, *Wanderbird Strategy*, a guide to hike-and-fly. Tarquin noted that Gushlbauer's interview traces his evolution from a goal-oriented Red Bull pilot obsessed with competition and achievement to a more philosophical figure focused on creating an inclusive environment for others. His Wanderbird event is designed to lower the hype and allow people entry into adventure flying. This mirrors the broader tension running through the episode: between the achievement-driven, competitive approach and the experiential, community-oriented philosophy that Gushlbauer, Solène Rombourg, and others represent.

The episode also touches on other features in the issue: Ben Kellett's Instagram-famous flying style (millions of views, with his "bish, bash, bosh" delivery that belies careful planning), a review of the Vector Vario instrument, a guide to cameras for adventure flying (with Ed arguing that old-fashioned point-and-shoot cameras are best—they sit in a pocket, you pull them out, press the button, and put them back), and Henry George's bike-and-fly adventure in the Dolomites.

Conclusion

This episode matters because it captures a pivotal moment in paragliding's cultural evolution. The sport is moving beyond its roots in competition and extreme achievement toward something more accessible and personally meaningful. The juxtaposition of Benjamin Védrines' post-summit despair with Liv Sansoz and Zeb Roche's joyful tandem flight from the same mountain illustrates that the *why* of adventure matters as much as the *what*. The rise of guided paragliding through companies like Fly With Andy, the emphasis on vol biv skills like top-landing, and the philosophical reflections of pilots like Solène Rombourg all point toward a future where paragliding is less about conquering and more about connecting—with nature, with other people, and with oneself.

Key takeaways

• The K2 flights by Benjamin Védrines (solo speed ascent) and Liv Sansoz/Zeb Roche (tandem) represent two different philosophies of adventure: achievement-driven versus relationship-centered, with Védrines experiencing post-summit despair while Sansoz and Roche framed their flight as a love story.
• Davide Sassudelli's viral X-Alps launch video illustrates how competitive pressure ("red mist") can override safety judgment, and the real danger may be inspiring less-skilled pilots to attempt similar feats.
• Michael Gebert's Fly With Andy company exemplifies the booming guided paragliding industry, where success requires not just piloting skill but sociability, logistical planning, and the ability to manage groups across multiple countries.
• Kinga Masztalerz's advice—master top-landing as the key to vol biv—is a practical takeaway for any pilot wanting to explore hike-and-fly adventures.
• Jeff Hamann's paramotor expeditions demonstrate that extreme organization and long-term planning are more important than raw daring for pulling off complex adventure flights.
• Paul Gushlbauer's evolution from goal-oriented competitor to community-focused Wanderbird organizer mirrors a broader shift in the sport toward accessibility and shared experience.
• The Adventure Issue deliberately features accessible destinations (Dolomites, Kenya, Colombia, Finland, Norway) rather than elite-only feats, aiming to inspire regular pilots to plan their own adventures for 2026.