Antoine Girard, a pioneer in using paragliders to approach and descend from alpine climbs, climbed Diran (7,266m) in early July after flying to the mountain from the hills above Karimabad, about 23km to the north.

Girard launched his paraglider a little after noon on July 3, climbed to about 5,500m, then flew cross-country to Diran’s west ridge (the upper part of the peak’s normal route) at about 5,500m. Finding lift on the southwest side of the ridge, he continued upward to about 6,750m before landing, 2 hours 20 minutes after starting. He then used skis to climb the crevassed west ridge, sometimes in deep snow, to about 150m below the summit. From there he continued in crampons, reaching the top just before darkness fell, between 7:30 and 8 p.m.

Girard skied down the ridge to his gear cache, then continued down on foot to around 6,500m, where he put up his tent at 11:30 p.m. In the morning,
he descended to 6,240m and launched his paraglider at 11:20 a.m., just before a storm engulfed the mountain. The return to Karimabad was direct: He landed at 2,273m after about 40 minutes in the air, utterly exhausted.

In June 2021, Girard flew 40km from Karimabad to land at 6,400m on the southwest ridge of Spantik, climbed to the 7,027m summit, and flew back the same day, in a round trip of only eight hours. [See “Fly and Climb” in AAJ 2023 for more description and discussion of this technique.]

—Dougald MacDonald, AAJ, with information from Antoine Girard, France

Editor's Note: The video of Girard's flight mentioned in AAJ 2024 was set to private after publication and therefore cannot be viewed here.