bivouac flying Paragliding: Everything You Need to Know Before You Get Started

bivouac flying is as much a philosophy as it is a practice. You don’t just set out to hike with a tent in your backpack. You set out to live in the mountains for several days, accepting their rules, their moods, and their silences.

It is a discipline that brings together skills that are often considered separate: piloting, terrain awareness, meteorology, physical conditioning, and navigation. And unlike a session at a developed site, there is no fuel attendant, no weather report posted at the takeoff area, and no car parked at the bottom.

If the idea appeals to you—and it certainly should—here are the 8 pillars of solid preparation to ensure that your first bivouac flying is memorable for all the right reasons.

#1 Plan before you go: a " bivouac flying " starts on the ground

The classic mistake beginners make when camping is thinking that improvisation is part of the charm. It is part of it, yes, but it must be based on a solid foundation. In the mountains, when you’re on your own, every unplanned hour can turn into a problem.

The development of a “ bivouac flying ” is divided into four key areas:

#2 The lightweight kit: When camping, every gram counts

When you go backpacking, the first step is to hike with all your gear on your back. The weight of your pack isn’t just a matter of comfort—it’s a matter of safety. A pilot who is exhausted from carrying too much weight makes poorer decisions in the air.

The goal: a complete bag weighing less than 12–15 kg, including the sail. It’s ambitious, but achievable with the right choices.

🪂 Compact ultralight paraglider—ideally weighing less than 3 kg
Specialized bivouac paragliders (such as the Supair Savage 2 ) are designed to pack down small and withstand changing mountain conditions.

🎒
Hike & Fly Harness with Ample Storage Space The Strike 3 is the ultimate versatile pod harness for backcountry camping: 2 kg, 64 L of storage, a removable internal pocket for your overnight gear, and an aerodynamic fairing. 

🛟 reserve parachute ultralight
Weighing less than 750 g and with a volume of less than 2 L, the X LITE is the lightest reserve parachute in the lineup. Its patented DYNALINK riser absorbs energy upon deployment. When bivouacking, it’s the go-to reserve parachute when every gram counts.

⛺ Tente légère ou bivy + sac de couchage adapté
En dessous de 2 000 m en été, un bivy suffit souvent. Au-dessus ou en intersaison, optez pour une tente 3 saisons légère (< 1,2 kg).

📍 Navigation: altimeter, charged phone, paper map
The phone might break down, and the vario might shut off. But the paper map never fails.

🆘 PLB or Spot beacon, first aid kit
The PLB is your ultimate safety net. In areas without cell service, it’s your only link to emergency responders.

#3 Finding the right place to camp: half the next day's flight

Where you sleep directly affects your flight the next day. A bad spot means a restless night, weather that’s impossible to read when you wake up, and a difficult takeoff. A good spot means 8 hours of restful sleep and a clear understanding of the conditions at dawn.

Here are the things to check before setting up your tent:

✓ Look for a slight natural depression or a group of rocks sheltered from the prevailing wind

✓ Unobstructed view of the horizon so you can check the morning weather as soon as you wake up

✓ Near a water source within 500 m, for use in the evening and in the morning

✓ Excluding protected areas, national parks, and nature reserves

✗ Exposed ridges; risk of lightning and strong winds at night

✗ Valleys and valley bottoms, humidity, possible frost, morning fog delaying takeoff

#4 Interpreting the Multi-Day Weather Forecast: Another Way to Read the Sky

In the " bivouac flying," you don't check the weather in the morning while drinking your coffee. You read it constantly—in the sky, in the light, in the wind. And you plan for several days ahead, interpreting the usual indicators in a different way.

#5 Self-Sufficiency in Water and Food: A Pilot's Fuel

#6 Safety When Traveling Independently: Flying alone in the mountains requires thorough preparation

bivouac flying ing is often practiced alone or in very small groups, far from infrastructure, in areas where it may take several hours for emergency responders to arrive. This reality should not be a cause for fear, but it must be taken into account from the very beginning of your preparation.

• Give your itinerary to someone on the ground, along with your estimated return time and a plan of action in case you don't check in.
• Bring a PLB or a GPS messenger (Garmin inReach, Spot)—the only way to alert emergency services without a cell phone signal.
• A portable charger is a must: Your phone is your map, your weather app, your camera, and your backup phone. Don't let it run out of battery.
• Emergency numbers: 112 (general emergency), 15 (SAMU), 17 (Gendarmerie). In the French mountains: PGHM (High-Mountain Gendarmerie Unit).
• Master emergency landing techniques—landing on a slope, in a forest, or on rough terrain. These skills are learned in flight school, not on the day of the emergency.

#7 Leave the mountains untouched: camping is a privilege, not a right

bivouac flying opens doors that few people walk through. These wild spaces, these deserted ridges at dawn, and these high-altitude lakes exist because relatively few people visit them—and because those who do take good care of them.

Every off-road driver has a responsibility to the community that will come after him and to the ecosystems he travels through.

♻️ Leave no trash behind
Take everything you brought with you when you leave, including cereal bar wrappers, tea bags, and empty carbonation capsules.

🔥 No open fires at high altitudes
Gas stoves only, except in areas explicitly authorized. The risk of fire and the fragility of high-altitude soil leave no room for error.

👣 Stay on the trails
High-altitude vegetation takes years to regenerate. A single step off the trail, repeated hundreds of times by hundreds of hikers, leaves lasting scars.

📅 Maximum of 2 nights at the same location
To allow the soil, vegetation, and wildlife to regenerate. This is also required by regulation in most French nature parks.

🦅 Respect wildlife
Avoid flying near rock faces during the nesting season (March–July). Birds of prey and jackdaws are particularly sensitive to repeated overflights.

#8 The Backcountry Mindset: Patience, Humility, and Curiosity

bivouac flying ing isn’t a sport where you impose yourself on the mountains. It’s an activity where you learn to blend in with them. The pilots who describe it best are always the ones who talk about the flights theydidn’t take because the conditions weren’t right—and who knew how to wait.

This patience is not passivity. It is a skill in its own right, one that is learned through experience. When camping, a day of hiking and observation is often better than a forced flight under extreme conditions.

Humility also means accepting that the mountain will give you whatever it chooses to give you. Not necessarily the flight you had planned. Sometimes a better one, often a different one. Always memorable.

Ready to take off at dawn?

bivouac flying ing is a skill you learn gradually. Start with a simple overnight trip to a familiar location with an easy return route. Master reading weather forecasts, navigating the terrain, and landing techniques in a variety of conditions. Then venture farther, stay longer, and fly with greater confidence.

At Supair, we design our gear for pilots who seek out the mountains where they truly are—not just from the cable car parking lot. Eiko 2, Savage 2, Strike 3: each product is designed for those who hike as much as they fly.

The most beautiful flights aren't necessarily the longest ones. They're the ones that begin at first light, when the mountain is still yours—and yours alone.