Antoine Girard soars to new paragliding record above Broad Peak in the Karakorum

On Saturday 23 July France’s Antoine Girard completed a absolutely startling paragliding trip, soaring above the 8051m high summit of Broad Peak in Pakistan’s Karakorum before reaching a max height of 8157m.

Girard’s flight, described by some as "the flight of the century" lasted seven hours and began with a flight up along the Baltoro Glacier, over the summit of the famous Trango Tower and on to Concordia. After waiting for circa an hour, Girard found the right thermals that enabled him to gain height along the west face and even fly over the summit of the 12th highest mountain in the world.

"I left the thermal at 8100m because I all fingers were frozen" explained Girard, adding "it was certainly possible to ascend higher than 8300m. I made two flights back and fourth over the ridge for take photos and then left (fled) to lower altitudes where oxygen was more abundant."

An extract of the historic flight is published below, as is the interesting animated 3D map. It’s worth noting that this record is only a small part of the Girard’s vaster flight in Pakistan, which lasted 19 days, solo, and covered 260km in total.