Paragliding at Bir Billing

I recently went to Dharamshala and stayed for a few days, where one of the most remarkable experiences is paragliding.

It happens at a place name Bir Billing, which is around 2 hour drive away from Dharamshala towards Palampur. Bir is the valley, a little flat area where usually gliders land, and Billing is the top of the mountain from where gliders take off. When you reach Bir, where you will find plenty of shops and the folks who will help you do the paragliding, we did at Extreme sport, which seems to be famous and trust worthy, we saw the pic of pretty Zinta and all in their shop.

Bir Billing is world second highest place to do the paragliding, which is at around 8000 ft from the sea level, world highest is in France and then comes Bir Billing. I think the most important factors to make Bir Billing also one of the possible destination for paragliding is wind condition and flying destination are many, you can fly to Dharamshala and also go towards Manali and all the view from the top is amazing. Long distance flying is done by professional solo flyers, armatures like me will fly from Billing and Land to Bir.

We needed to sign one No indemnify agreement with Extreme sport, pay Rs. 3000 for the paragliding, which also includes taking you from Bir to Billing in cab or any other vehicle, this is around 14 kms journey which takes around 40 minutes because it goes upward and curvy road. The road was bit narrow but it was pretty good experience, as it goes up temperature falls, wind increases and you keep seeing the valley Bir is getting tinier.

Dharamshala is situated in the mountain range called Dhauladhar and some of the peaks will usually have snow and others will have full of pine tree, which makes them look spectacular.

I went with two friends Tara and Saurabh and overall we were pretty cute triplet. When we reached the top of the mountain means Billing, it was pretty awesome, wind was crazy, cold weather and from the top everything looked so tiny, with full of green snowy mountains was mesmerizing.

When we fly, there will be a pilot who will fly with you to control the glide, we saw many solo gliders as well, as they were getting trained over there, and there are championship happens at Bir Billing for paragliding.

When I realize that we have to jump in the valley with the glide made me anxious but I was sure to do it. Though my pilot, whose name was Pankaj gave me a lot of confidence and made me fly. I did further research(after flying) on fatality rate and I found that it pretty low, as per stats it’s 0.46 out of 10000, so it pretty safe, and most of the fatality happens due to pilot, so choose your pilot who are having high experience.

They make you wear all the safety guard which contains one backup parachute also, and final check and they make you run a little to make the glide come up in the air, it’s very simple, the amount of wind at Billing, you’ll be up in air within 20-30 meters only and then you realize OMG we are in the air and you see the valley and wooow, it’s scary in the beginning at the same time, super exciting, that’s the moment I took a few breath and started enjoying.

You can see the range of mountains, deep valleys and high speed wind wow, what a lovely experience. When I used to see the valley depth, the thought of the possibility to fall and die makes you scared a little but experienced pilot will give you confidence and within a minute you realize that it’s not scary, it’s pretty stable and good flying experience.

I have always thought in the childhood that wish I could be a bird, and that moment I was almost a bird, flying with wind, going in the circle, sometime up, sometime down (when you come down you don’t even feel much loss of gravity, more I had felt in the roller coaster), but the Ariel and panoramic view of the Earth while flying it amazing, this experience makes us more than human, it’s a meditation.

While flying Pankaj also did some adventure of circling, up and down etc. for which he charged 500 extra, but it’s worth it. It enhances your thrill. When you come little down, you’ll feel like almost hanging in the air, and you can see the whole area. It takes around 20-25 minutes normally to fly from Billing to Bir which is more than enough to satisfy yourself, and the landing is usually very smooth, you don’t have to do anything, just keep your legs up and pilot will take care of the landing.

Thank you so much Bir Billing and the whole community of the people who made this place for paragliding.