With the summer ban on human flight over Mont Blanc lifted the start of autumn has seen a flurry of wingsuit and parapente activity over the mountain. First up a speed record for the summit of Mont-Blanc to Chamonix church.
On September 4th Nicolas Blanchard and David Bozon took just over 15 minutes to complete the trip, half the time set by skiers.
On the 1st September Valery Rozov flew with a wingsuit from the Aiguille du Midi with some excellent footage taken from a GoPro equipped drone.
Pushing things a bit higher Julian Zanker and Yannick Gundi flew 3000 vertical meters in just 90 seconds from the 4221 meter summit fo the Zinalrothorn in Switzerland.
The sport is high risk. In August Mark Sutton, who doubled for James Bond in the London Olympics was killed in Switzerland after hitting a ridge at over 200km/h. He had jumped from a helicopter with the intention of landing near Chamonix. In the same month there were fatalities at Fer-à-Cheval, the Brevent days after a lifting of a ban on flying in the sector, the Dent de l'Arclusaz in the Bauges and on the Obiou in the Isere. On the 14th September 2013 a 33 year old Californian wingsutier was killed on the Brevent. Wingsuiting is permitted on the Brevent after 15h00 if the pilot has informed the Gendarmerie.