The Unholy Alliance of Climate Change and Paragliding in the Alps

You can't land a paraglider on the summit of Mont Blanc (15,781 feet) in July unless the cloudbase reaches about 16,000 feet, and that requires above-average temperatures. Paragliders rely on thermal convection currents to gain and maintain altitude, and July in the Alps is rarely warm enough to get the job done. But this year was different.

During the first week of July, temperatures in Chamonix, France, probably the most popular place in the world to paraglide, lingered in the mid 80s, about five degrees warmer than average. Hundreds of paragliders flew near, over, and around Mont Blanc during the weekend of July 4, and several were able to top-land on the summit. So many paragliders were circling the mountain at one point that a search-and-rescue helicopter couldn't reach a crash victim for fear of colliding with a glider.

"The big difference this year compared to other years is the high temperature period came much earlier," says Eric Roussel of Fly Neo, a Chamonix-based paraglider manufacturer. "In the other years it was from the middle of August. This year it started in June."

The first time someone top-landed Mont Blanc was on August 13, 2003. At that time, the sport was relatively young and the general skill level of pilots was lower than what it is today. Favorable conditions again allowed pilots to land on the summit in 2009, 2011, and 2012, when a mass landing on the summit saw more than 60 pilots crowding the knife-edge ridge like skiers jammed into a gondola line.

Through better products, professionals, and services like guide companies, the development of the sport has made it easier for people to paraglide to Mont Blanc. The weather (trending warmer) has also helped. Most pilots who landed on the summit prior to the stunt becoming popular point to exceptional conditions for making the flight possible. Those conditions, though, are becoming less exceptional.

Climatologists predict that intense European heat waves are and will be ten times more frequent than a decade ago. That's bad news for late-season skiers and mountaineers, what with the shrinking snow bridges, falling seracs, and generally less-predictable snowpack. But it's good news for paragliders and the paragliding industry.

"The hotter the summer, the more [paragliding] equipment everyone sells," says Matt Gerdes, director of marketing for wing manufacturer Ozone. "The hotter the summer, the more people take lessons, the more often they fly and the farther they fly. All that translates into more paraglide sales."

Paragliders who want to fly to Mont Blanc most often launch from Chamonix. If the weather is right, droves of gliders will take to the air. But even with favorable conditions and even though hundreds of pilots were making the flight daily in early July, people like Roussel of Fly Neo, who landed on the summit in 2009 and 2011, worry about the growing popularity of such a high-risk stunt.

"When several days with very high temperatures are announced, too many pilots with a lack of experience are coming to Chamonix," Roussel says. "Ego is a big problem in our sport, especially since Facebook, YouTube and GoPro are growing and becoming more popular. It will be better if we do not have anymore people killing themselves there."

Calm winds and high temperatures made the 2012 mass summit-landing possible, but at 16,000 feet turbulence is often a hazard. To Roussel, more pilots in the air increases the chances for accidents. He thinks that the significant statistic regarding the early July heat wave in the Alps was not the high number of pilots who landed on Mont Blanc's summit, but the number of people who died trying. He knows of three fatalities this month, and others have been reported.

Dave Turner, a Californian paraglider and guide, recently completed his fifth Red Bull X-Alps race, a 645-mile, ten-day paraglider race across the Alps. He agrees with Roussel and warns against high numbers of pilots lessening the perception of risk.

"You can go very high," he says, "but people who fly with really large groups get lulled into a false sense of security. If you see 50 people flying, maybe 30 are pros and the rest are [more novice]. Paragliding is just like skiing: you might be on the chair lift with an extreme skier, but also with someone who is in over the head."