That Time I Tried Paragliding in Murren, Switzerland

Yep, you read that title correctly. Paragliding. Off a mountain. With a 900 metre drop. I did that!

before takeoff! source: Paragliding Jungfrau

Before we’d even arrived in Switzerland my Dad had decided that he wanted to paraglide, and when he invited me to join him my initial reaction was “heck no. No way!”, but as the weekend wore on and we spoke to more people about their paragliding experiences, and when I realised that I wouldn’t have to literally leap off the edge of a mountain I gradually relented. If I’m honest, it was the picture of an 80 year-old woman paragliding that really tipped me over the edge. Not to be outdone by a grandma, I bravely agreed to take the leap (pun totally intended) and so, on a bright Sunday morning, I found myself on a hill above Mürren strapped into a harness attached to Julian from Paragliding Jungfrau. Julian didn’t really give me time to panic, because as soon as we were strapped in he told me to start running, and then I was more concerned about my shoes almost slipping off than the fact that we were running towards the edge of a very high cliff edge.

And we're off!! source: Paragliding Jungfrau

Before I knew it, I was running on air instead of grass (I still had my shoes – phew!), and after settling into my harness, flying over the cable car lines and taking a quick look back at Mürren, we only had a few more seconds before we flew over the precipice. When we flew over the edge of the cliff I had expected to freak out a little, being that heights don’t agree with me, but I was surprised to find that I didn’t feel scared at all – perhaps it’s because I was sitting down, or perhaps the whole thing just seemed a little surreal and I didn’t quite comprehend that I was floating 900 metres above the ground with just a few cables and some fabric keeping me up! Either way, it was a great experience and the views were just breathtaking (although you may notice how tightly I’m gripping the harness in all of the photos)!

source: Paragliding Jungfrau

source: Paragliding Jungfrau

source: Paragliding Jungfrau

source: Paragliding Jungfrau

we survived!! source: Paragliding Jungfrau

I survived the paragliding experience, and so did Dad and Brendan – and we all totally loved it! It wasn’t the adrenalin-pumping experience I thought it would be, but it was spectacular and memorable nonetheless. Have you paraglided before? Where did you do it and what did you think?

For more photos of our holiday to Switzerland, visit the [a bird in the hand] facebook page.