BZ'Alps 2017

Singularly alone with paraglider and tent over the arc of the Alps, from Nice to Ljubliana: ADVANCE graphic designer “Bänz” Erb took the whole of July off to put his dream into practice. After 36 days he was in Ljubliana. Of the 1,000 or thereabouts km flying line the flying instructor and tandem pilot flew only about a third. Bänz put 767 km and 42,800 metres walkup behind him, and was to experience the deepest winter one day – unendurable heat the next. We asked him about the “BZ’Alps”.

ADVANCE: Did you intensively prepare yourself physically and mentally for this project? How long did it take?

The training plan took more than half a year. The mental plan runs all the time. For my sponsoring folder I estimated roughly the same effort. That’s about a thousand hours in a half year. That includes everything: from route planning, physical and mental training, getting the equipment together, testing, assembling five Alpine online hiking maps, checking airspace, finding out about weather stations, comparing high-resolution weather models – and much more.

ADVANCE: Did your punishing preparation actually help you during the tour?

Yes. Absolutely! I was very happy with the physical stuff. Of course I knew very accurately how much nightly recovery the stages would need. This comes from the 2015 experience when I was less trained. 50 km and 2,000 metres walk-up was too much then. I have done days like that, but I couldn’t recover overnight. Then, the next two days did not contain much hiking ... so I knew that 35 kms and 2,000 metres up was enough for a day; I should not go over that.

ADVANCE: What gave you most trouble? Did you have a low point?

I had many lows and highs. Mostly I was prepared to be permanently wet. Or if it was too turbulent in the air, to not fight long enough – and fly away in the hope of finding a better thermal somewhere else. But this didn’t happen.

ADVANCE: How did you stay motivated?

Thinks about it ... Each day is simply another new day. Sometimes you have to completely give up the idea of flying, pack the glider and focus on a small minitask. Mental trainer Katrin Ganter taught me that, and other people I talked to. Some relaxation always helps me. For example a swim in a lake, showering, eating and drinking. Perhaps also a soft hotel bed sometimes. That helps immensely. And then it’s into the next day fresh again. The lows are always short, if you are not fixated on them.

ADVANCE: What was your best experience?

The changes of the countryside - for example in the south of France when I could thermal up from the Arpille takeoff near Col de Bleine. On one side you can see the sea. Underneath there’s the brown dry landscape – and then there’s the first line of mountains. On the third day I made the jump to the prealps, and saw the complete change in the terrain happen very quickly; suddenly I was in the Alps. That was very nice.

ADVANCE: Was that still the case later on?

Yes, absolutely. If you cannot make big jumps like that, because the flying day just doesn’t deliver, you sometimes have the feeling that somehow I’ll be stuck in Wallis or the Pustertal, for example, for ever. But after three days you’re in a completely different countryside again. Then I thought: you’re making progress, that will do. Good moments were all the encounters with other people, and interaction with friends in Switzerland. I am aware that when you do things by yourself, you become correspondingly more open. The more mentally groggy I was, because flying didn’t work, the better were the dealings I had with people.

I really noticed how valuable is the interaction with others. If things are not going well for a long time and you cannot communicate, you can also become obsessive.

ADVANCE: Would you do the whole thing again?

Definitely! Not this year, and I think not the next. But this kind of paragliding pilgrimage is a profound experience.

ADVANCE: What off the cuff tips would you give to other pilots who would like to do something similar?

Make a small test run first. And then I have the rules “From the known to the unknown”, “from the easy to the difficult”. Match the project with your flying experience and physical fitness. I deliberately chose the Alps, for example, simply because of the infrastructure and, among other things, the food supply; but there’s also the rescue facilities and ability to abandon the trip in this “Dolls’ House” scale of habitation. Weatherwise, however, it’s just as difficult as elsewhere.

ADVANCE: We are happy that you are safe and sound and wish you good recovery first! Thanks for the interesting talk, Bänz.