“Welcome to my playground. I am a paraglider, and even though I like to fly all over the world, the Haut-Giffre Valley remains my favourite place to fly. Why?”
A bit of history…
The history of paragliding started in 1965 with the creation of the Sailwing by Dave Barish. He called this new discipline slope soaring.
At the same time as this invention, Domina Jalbert created a parachute with boxes which he considered to be the substitute for the parabolic parachute: the parafoil. This concept evolved into freefall but handed down the concepts of double surface and boxes to paragliding.
Dave Barish and Dan Poynter made a slope soaring demonstration on a ski jump between 1966 and 1968 and then toured several ski resorts. Some mountaineers became interested in this practice, seeing it as a quick and efficient way to get back down after a ascent.
In 1971, Steve Snyder put up for sell the first box canopy in the United States under the name of Paraplane and in 1972 the first canopy of this type was shown at the French Parachuting Championships.
By the end of the 1970s there would be only this type of canopy at these championships.
In 1978, the members of the Annemasse paraclub in Haute-Savoie decided to use their parachutes to take off from a mountain. They chose the Perthuiset mountain in the commune of Mieussy.
André Bohn, a high level Swiss parachutist, organised the first take-off in the company of Jean-Claude Bétemps, who tested the take-off and immediately went back on the slope. André Bohn also decided to take off to land at the bottom of the valley on the football field of Mieussy, it is the first slope soaring flight. Jean-Claude Bétemps eventually follows him and the following days, it would be Gérard Bosson and several other members of the Para-Club of Annemasse turn…
Paragliding was born, the Para-Club of Annemasse became the founder of “Parapente”. On May 5th 1979, Gérard Bosson from Viuz en Sallaz, Georges Perret from Annecy and Michel Didriche from Mieussy, created the first paragliding club in the world: “Les Choucas”.
Paragliding today
30 years have passed since then! The practice has evolved, as has the equipment. Today’s canopies have gained in performance and safety. We no longer have much to envy to rigid hang-gliders’ canopies as the horizons have opened up so much in terms of distances options, ease of use, weight of the equipment…
Practicing areas in the Giffre Valley
- Samoens 1600
- Mieussy Perthuiset, historical site
- Les Brasses
- Agy
Hike then fly in the Giffre Valley
- La Bourgeoise
- Le Criou
