Charlie King combines her twin passions of trail running and flying on a 10km run through the hills carrying lightweight gear. How light can she go?
It’s 7am on a chilly November morning, and it’s still not quite light. My headlamp casts a bright but narrow spot of light in the frosty autumn leaves that carpet the steep, rocky footpath I’m jogging down, to the icy river in the valley bottom. The tunnel vision from the light beam adds to the meditative feeling from running, and by the time I reach the bridge across the river some questions I didn’t even know needed answering, had been.
This is one of the reasons I love running. Its magical head-clearing effects, and the zinging you get when the blood warms up your frozen fingers and toes. What a morning! I stashed the torch and started to jog the ascent on the other side of the valley, 2,000m below where the sun was just grazing the very top of the Cheiron.
I’ve hiked-and-flown from home to the Cheiron many times, but not always via this route. Today I’ve chosen the longer but less steep footpath, intending to run as much of it as I can. I’ve run it before, but not with a paraglider. I hadn’t really thought that an option – the thought of carrying a big bag sort of diminishes the fun of running.
But the arrival of AirDesign’s 16m2 UFO in a box not much bigger than a shoebox, made me realise the combination could be possible. The folded wing in its stuffsack easily fits in a 32-litre lightweight rucksack, and Advance’s Strapless harness takes virtually no extra room at all. Even after I’d added a climbing helmet, water, a cereal bar, gloves, windproof jacket, Ascent vario and my phone to the bag, it weighed just 4.4kg, and was comfortable. Yes, challenge on!
Now, I’m very aware that I’m no Ueli Steck, for whom a jaunt up the Eiger before tea is a perfectly acceptable proposition, and for me, with or without a rucksack, ‘running’ up a very steep path for 2,000m of ascent is likely to involve a lot of walking. I decided to choose a route that would give me the most enjoyable run, to a place where I could launch from and land back in the valley, or cross it, if the glide angle permitted, to land in our village which is perched 200m or so above the valley floor on the other side.
For my first attempt, I decided to aim to launch from halfway up the mountain, rather than continuing to the top, which would have been less runable (for me). There is a footpath that traverses the hill at around 700m above the valley floor. It undulates pleasantly, is totally runable and offers fabulous views. It forms a circular walk that we have enjoyed many times en famille, and I stopped to look for a launch place just before where the descent path starts.
The run was every bit as enjoyable as I’d hoped, and the rucksack didn’t bother me at all. Potential launches were plentiful in the rocky area just below the footpath. It’s covered in small bushes and herby plants, and is not all that steep in places, but it does all face into wind, of which there wasn’t all that much early on a November morning.
I picked a spot and unravelled the wing, laying it out over the top of the plants and trying to keep the lines as free as possible. I velcroed the Strapless harness onto the carry loop of my rucksack and stepped in. It feels very big and open, like a pair of trousers that is falling down. Only the fact that it’s attached to the rucksack keeps it up on launch, and the first time I used it I wondered if I’d fall out of it if I fell over on launch!
Once in the air though, it feels totally secure. The straps connect to the main karabiners, so they are high and you feel fully enclosed. The chest strap comes across higher than on other harness.
I stood for a while, ready to go. The wind was coming up the face, lightly, but all of a sudden the slope felt rather shallow, and the runway quite bushy. Oh well, might as well give it a try.
I put some pressure on the As and the sail came floating up easily – the wonder of single-surface wings – and I turned and launched into the beautiful sunny morning. It worked! Running and flying works!
Since then I’ve found other runable routes to places I can launch, although not all of them into the valley ‘back home’, so you have to factor the run home into the plan. There’s a lovely run from our village to a launchable cliff, with a landing below, where ‘home’ is one good thermal away, over the back. I’m sure it’s possible, but I would probably want to use a reserve and that makes the bag heavier. For now I’ll stick to minimal kit, and calm-air flights but I urge runners out there, if you can get hold of superlight kit, to give it a try!
How light is light?
AirDesign UFO 16 (single skin), 1.7kg
Berghaus Vapour 32 rucksack, 803g
Petzl Sirocco helmet, 165g
Petzl Tikkina headtorch, 85g
Advance Strapless harness, 190g
Metal karabiners, 120g
Water, 650g
Ascent H1 vario, 93g
Cereal bar, 90g
Phone, 200g
Montane windproof jacket, 100g
Gloves, 100g
Bits and pieces, 100g
Total weight: 4.4kg
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