Cross Country Issue 265: May / June 2026

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“Did I just get away with something?” asks Christian Black in his article about climbing and flying from some of the highest and most beautiful mountains in Peru. Probably! Is the answer. Especially if your climbing buddy has just helped launch you using a rope and a belay system while you’re both perched on a steep glacier with a gaping bergschrund below you. It is now 40 years since Joe Simpson had his Touching the Void epic on Siula Grande in Peru, so it is good to see climbers and pilots are still able to find true adventure in wild places, and time and space to ask themselves searching questions, in the Peruvian mountains in 2026.

I think we all know that feeling of “Did I just get away with that?” Kinga Masztalerz’s article and online masterclass about top-landing had me thinking similar thoughts: about the time I’d opted to “stuff it in” rather than land elegantly “like a ballerina”, or the time I nearly ran out of room and landed just short of trees, or the time that… Well, you get my point. I will be thinking prima ballerina style and grace each time I line up a top-landing from now on. Point those toes.

This issue of the magazine is full of adventure stories. Jorge Atramiz knows more than many about flying in the Indian Himalaya and remote places, but even he spoke the word “Bhutan” with reverence when he set off there for a flying trip. Now that is off the beaten track. It’s not about miles, height gain or even time in the air – it’s simply about being there, in a valley on the edge of Tibet, with a stack of hard-won paperwork that says, yes, you can fly here. Not many people have managed to do that.

Elsewhere Ole Dalen has an adventure of another kind in the much-visited Bali, meeting local pilots and taking in the vibrant local scene. And finally there is Mytille Heissat’s story about learning to fly and falling in love in the far north. Hiking and climbing among the peaks and spires of Lofoten are well known enough, hike-and-fly among them less so. She has been exploring these peaks large and small for the last few years and everything she has to say about them clearly comes from the heart.

Enjoy the issue!

Ed Ewing, editor

Features

In the Core: People, news and insight

Flying IQ: Helping you fly better

Kitlist: Design insight

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