Paragliding in Salt Lake City and Jackson Hole

Pictures taken by Marcel Dettling and Corinne Dahinden in August, 2005.

Point of the Mountain

This is the south side of the Point of the Mountain Flight Park. It is a very consistent paragliding site. It can be flown from sunrise until it gets too bumpy, usually about 4 hours later. The ridge is soarable from the left end of the picture to the foot of the taller mountain on the right, a length of about 1km.

This is how it looks on top. You can park your car right there, launch and easily topland - very convenient. It gets soarable if the wind is over 20km/h (measured at the edge). Due to the compression, wind speeds up to 35km/h (again measured at the edge) are fine to fly, but it gets more and more difficult to launch.

As this unknown pilot shows, it's an ideal playground. Scratching the ridge, wing-overs close to the ground, that all works very well - be sure you know your limits, though. And it's very rare that you are flying alone at the Point of the Mountain. Often, there are up to 20 gliders in the air.

This is an aerial view of the Point of the Mountain Flight Park. We are facing the north side, which is often flown from about 3 hours before sunset until it gets dark. The launch is on the lower terrace, to the right of the houses. If the conditions are favorable, you can bench up to the ridge behind, which is about 3kms long and 300m (1000ft) high. The south side is on the right side of the picture, on the opposite side of the gravel slope.

Well, it's so windy at the Point of the Mountain that it's impossible to fold your glider there, plus the poor Tiger risks to get blown away. So you'd better go to McDonalds, get some breakfast for him and you, and then fold your glider in the nice lawn of the motel...

Inspiration Point

This is the view from the landing zone (behind the school in Orem, UT) to the site commonly known as Inspo. There are 3 hills in this picture: the little one in front, one in the middle and the big mountain behind. Launch is on the middle hill, right in the center of the picture. This is a very consistent big air site - the US Nationals where held there in 2004.

This is Mount Timpanagos (3580m/11750ft), a famous day hike, known to offer great views of the Salt Lake basin. But why hike? I flew my paraglider to cloudbase at 4000m (13120ft) and even topped it out - lucky me. The conditions were quite strong, so that's why there are no in-flight pictures.

Beaver Mountain, Jackson Hole

This is the view from the Beaver Mountain landing zone (1900m/6230ft ASL) to launch, which is the dusty piece in the slot that is found in the center of the picture. It is about a 30 minute hike to get there, launch is at 2100m/6890ft ASL. Once in the air, you can soar the slope to the right...

And make all the way up to the summit of Beaver Mountain (3048m/10000ft ASL). This is Corinne (once again) below me, the launch is all the way down the ridge in the furthest clearing you can recognize.

Well, she got closer. We had fantastic conditions with smooth lift that brought us up to 3350m (11000ft) ASL. This is not uncommon after sunny days, when the prevailing winds are light and westerly.

The views are awesome on such a clear day in the warm evening light. Here, Corinne is right over the Grand Teton (4200m/13770ft), the majestic summit of the Teton range, and the jewel of the national park that was named after it.

We could follow the ridge for about 6kms towards the south. In the far distance, you can recognize the Wind River Range. Summit after summit, what a day, what a flight!

The lift wouldn't stop after sunset, which we had still seen from 3200m (10500ft) ASL. A few minutes later we had to take our goggles off, and after some more minutes, it got so dark that everybody was forced to land. A bummer that we don't have tiger's eyes and are able to see in the dark...

Continue to the next gallery: Hiking to the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range