New Zealand 2020

My 2020 trip to New Zealand was somewhat disastrous, after saving my new sub three kilogram Ozone Zeolite just for this (flying around an old rag in Oz), I brought the wrong wing by mistake. It certainly made a difference for the first four day trip, and the rest of the trip was salvaged by the generous loan of a wings for the trip (thank you Brooke, also Josh for the tandem). When my girlfriend left the weather took a turn for the worse and after a few windy flights I was rained out. But all in all a lot of country covered, still with some new places mixed in. Notable this year was the snow stained pink by Australian dust and ash, the horrific bushfires helping accellerate glacial retreat.

Mt Aspiring (distant right) from the head of the Joe. 19 Feb 2020

Paragliding in Pakistan

The mountains of Pakistan have been my holy grail (or should I say, Mecca!) for at least ten years. At xalps Antoine said they’d made it harder with permissions and you couldn’t get away with it as the authorities would follow you and be there when you land. So when I heard of a new competition in Pakistan, supported by the government, I thought I better take this chance while I can. The competition was in the “foothills” (still higher than anything in Australia or New Zealand) but of course my main motivation was to explore the bigger peaks.

Winter in Brisbane

After the excitement of xalps, I’m now back to work, “on the bench” forecasting weather for the aviation industry from the new office in Brisbane. My shifts are day, day, night, night and then 4-5 days off, on a 9 day roster – so plenty of time off missions in southeast Queensland. I was denied a job in Antarctica due to staff shortages in my current role, but on the upside it’s not a bad lifestyle here – winter in southeast Queensland!

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Mt Chinghee from tomorrows launch. Probably tested The Fort today, about the only wind direction without good launches so had fly around the cliffs. It took a while to get away with shade, but a short and rewarding cross country followed with the final climb over this rainforest clad hill. Meanwhile enjoying an evening walk on the rabbit fence track

A post shared by Nick Neynens (@nneynens) on Aug 22, 2019 at 11:44pm PDT

Red Bull X-Alps 2019 day 12

Day 12 was the last day of the race. Having declared my night pass, I began at 3am (after an “early” night, it helped me escape the heat) and hiked to a high point to glide in the direction of Mt Viso. A thermal flight before the midday race finish was aborted due to stronger than expected northerly winds. I later flew down and rejoined my supporters, and we camped in Southern France. The next day I enjoyed a quick sight seeing flight in the incredible heat wave conditions on the way to Monaco for the party. We then spent a night in Milan and Munich to complete our trip in Europe.

Red Bull X-Alps 2019 day 11

Day 11 began in the famous Chamonix valley. First up a hike and glide to Mt Joly, west of Mont Blanc, then the heat wave continued as I pieced together a high route to St Hilaire, tagging it at the end of the day after a couple of hikes to get over high passes and a whole day flying completely alone in the mountains.