SAFA Skysailor Magazine

46 SKY SAILOR September-October-November | SPRING 2025 Hypoxia – 2025 Refresh by Iain Clarke – SAFA Safety Management Officer For the 13 years I was living in Europe I was based in the Mediterranean. Working in the yachting industry gave me the op- portunity to go see them, but I was never able to do this for a variety of reasons; principally I was always either working or surviving. That industry is great for short-term financial gain, but incredibly insecure. On the size of vessel that I used to skipper (68’-82’) you would frequently be cast aside at the end of the season and forced into survival mode until the next gig came around. But I digress. In the videos I’ve been watching, the pilots are doing some great flights, fre- quently hitting over 4000m altitude, but there is no supplementary oxygen system to be seen. This got me thinking that it may be time to dust off this article I wrote in 2019 and update it, for the benefit of all and particularly those who have joined us since then. Let’s recap the events that brought about the original article. On June 26 of 2019, while the X-Alps 2019 edition was running, we saw a day of exceptional flying conditions allow a bevvy of PG pilots top-land on the 4810m summit of Mont Blanc (Phil Hystek was there ) . Greetings fellow pilots. Lately I’ve been tuning into a couple of pilots on Youtube, posting some interesting flights around the Mont Blanc massif. Visiting the European Alps has always been on my wish list, ever since I experienced the Southern Alps of NZ as a kid. Getting into paragliding has only exacerbated it.