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The Birdman of the Karakoram

What's it really like to fly at 7,000 m, crossing frozen mountains, soaring massive rockwalls and forging new cross country routes on a paraglider in the Himalayas? To find out, adventure filmmaker Alun Hughes joins high altitude paragliding star John Silvester on a tandem paraglider and goes 'col busting' in the Karakoram.

Leaving the comforts of Snowdonia, UK, Alun embarks on a journey into the frozen world of extreme altitude paragliding. Installing themselves in Karimabad in the now fabled Hunza valley of the Karakoram Highway, Alun straps himself to the front of Silvester’s tandem paraglider and together they commit themselves deep into previously unflown terrain. The footage they bring back from their adventure is nothing short of astonishing.

This gripping adventure film documents not only an extraordinary pilot and the cutting edge of high altitude Himalayan paragliding, it also introduces a growing subculture of paragliding that has never been explored before.

The Birdman of the Karakoram won the prize for human adventure at the 2009 Coupe Icare film festival in St Hilaire, France.

Extras include:

1. Bob Dury talks to John Silvester at length about his groundbreaking Chogolugma flight in 2009, flying in Hunza and his motivation for these flights. Also about the early days in Wales.

2. John's original footage of the tour of Nanga Parbat in 2005 - the first ever circumnavigation of an 8000m giant.