Paragliding royalty Tom de Dorlodot and Horacio Llorens have both experienced memorable flights but their latest aerial adventure was one of the most extraordinary as they became the first paragliding pilots to reach K2 and soar up its face to 7,577m.
Belgian De Dorlodot is a Red Bull X-Alps regular and this was his seventh adventure in Pakistan, while Spaniard Llorens is an aerobatic paragliding legend and multiple world champion with the duo combining previously for Higher Ground in 2020 – an unforgettable trip to the Himalayas.
The expedition in July 2022 saw them travel to Pakistan with the main objective to become the first people to ever paraglide to K2 – the second highest mountain in the world at 8,611m – flying new lines along the glacier and, weather permitting, then soaring to its summit.
‘Flying Between Giants’ begins with their arduous journey to base camp in Paju, via Skardu and Askole – the last bits of civilisation before entering the Baltoro Glacier. From Paju, they made several pioneering flights to K2, exploring new lines no one has ever attempted previously.
The nature of flying in the Karakoram region is that you can fly for more than 100km a day without any safe options to land therefore pre-flight planning and weather control had to be meticulous.
The duo always flew together, each carrying a GPS, cameras, supplementary oxygen, radio systems and a satellite tracking device for safety – adding more than 20kg to their flying weight.
De Dorlodot’s mentor – Spaniard Rámon Morillas – who flew to 7,821m in 2009 with a paramotor, also joined them for the first three weeks, while they filmed everything themselves with no camera support crew or helicopters due to the high altitude and lines that they were flying.
On the final day of the trip they took off for one of the most spectacular high-altitude flights ever recorded in the Karakoram region, a seven-hour journey they dubbed the ‘Grand Slam’ after taking in Trango Tower, Muztagh Tower, K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum and more.
De Dorlodot, 37, explained: “The mountains are so big. It’s so wild. We climbed to 7,500m on K2 and we could see all the way into China and Nanga Parbat, 185km away. We could see the Siachen glacier and mountains for as far as you could see. This was really special.”
If they had reached the K2 summit, they would have broken the paragliding altitude world record of 8,407m held by Frenchman Antoine Girard. They needed strong 35-45km winds to do so, but what they got were perfect blue-sky conditions but no wind, making it impossible.
Llorens, 40, revealed: “It’s a good reminder that we don’t always decide. Nature decides. We will just have to come back and try to break the altitude world record.”