Top-landings are pure magic. Picking a point on the mountain and saying, “I’m going to land there and have a sandwich” – that’s the freedom of paragliding. And then of course you can stay for the night and get into vol-biv adventures, which is where my heart is.
Why they are important
When I coach XC we always start with polishing our top-landing skills – because you need them. Sometimes landing in the valley is too difficult because of strong or turbulent valley winds, or there is a gust front ahead of a big cloud, or you get caught out by rain.
There are lots of reasons you might not want to land in the valley while on XC. And of course, if you are on a vol-biv adventure you will soon tire of hiking up from the valley every time. Top-landing also allows you to move fast in the mountains – essential in hike-and-fly races.
Being able to land on top of or high up on the mountain expands your options and gives you incredible peace of mind, even if your plan isn’t to top-land or go vol-biv. If you need a big soccer field in the valley to land every time you fly XC that means you’re going to get anxious when it isn’t there. So...
