As John Ashcroft Might Croon, "Let the Eagle Soar..."

Back in Kusu, the symbol of our town was the 600 meter-tall forested mesa, Kirikabu, that dominated the southern vista and was the launching point for a group of paragliding enthusiasts who could be seen riding the thermals whenever conditions allowed for it. I never got up the gumption to give it a try, partly because I'm a soloist who doesn't like tandem anything, particularly when I'm not in control, but mostly just because it cost a hundred bucks a pop and you never knew if the thermals were going to keep you up for twenty minutes or two hours. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure which is worse, twenty minutes followed by a landing and disappointment, or being strapped to a Japanese dude for two hours going in circles hundreds of meters in the air.

While I'm sure the sensation of quietly swooping through the realm of birds and low-flying airplanes is nothing short of sublime, really, how can you have any satisfaction jumping from Kirikabu after you've seen this:

This is the sport of "parahawking", a new and ridiculously beautiful practice started up not even a decade ago in Nepal. I'll let the folks who run parahawking expeditions do the talking on this one:

"Parahawking is the art of training birds of prey to fly with Paragliders. It was developed and pioneered in 2001 in Pokhara, Nepal by Scott Mason and two friends, Adam Hill and Graham Sunders-Griffiths. Two months into a world tour Scott Mason met Adam, the owner of Frontiers Paragliding and had his first paragliding tandem flight. Having trained birds of prey since he was 11 years old the experience of flying with wild birds of prey in their natural environment was simply awe-inspiring, and thus the idea of Parahawking was born.

"This may sound simple enough but it has been a labour of love involving an incredible number of hours and too many trials and tribulations to mention here. What started out as an experiment has now slowly grown into somewhat of a successful commercial venture. Yet Parahawking is more than just having a bird take food from your gloved hand during flight, although impressive enough in itself. Parahawking gives you the opportunity to get up close and personal with raptors and study them in their own environment like never before. We can now take you on a parahawking tandem flight where you can experience the raptors incredibly agile flight for yourself.

"Eagles, Kites and Vultures are natural soaring birds, together with Paragliders they use thermals to fly long distances whilst conserving energy. Our trained birds are no different, they will utilise the thermals and guide us to them, then be rewarded in the air for their efforts. The ultimate flying companions!
All of the birds used for Parahawking are rescue birds unable to be returned to the wild."

I'm wildly interested in Nepal and the Himalayas anyways so I think this may just be my ultimate vacation wish.

--Matt