Dominic West is a man used to a challenge. An actor with a back catalogue of some heavy duty roles, he’s illuminated the darker corners of the troubled psyche that most of his peers would rather ignore. He’s played the drunken, obnoxious but strangely lovable detective, Jimmy McNulty in US hit series, The Wire. He also starred as Iago in Othello, Oliver Cromwell in The Devil's Whore, Fred West in Appropriate Adult, Hector Madden in The Hour and Theron in 300. Enough said. The boy’s got form.
(Dominic West as Hector Madden in The hour, with co stars Ben Wishaw and Romola Garai)
No real surprise then when a group of fellow thrill seekers upped and headed for ten days of hardcore paragliding in Northern India, Dominic West was in.
The group headed for Kangra in the Himachal Pradesh region and were led by flying supremo, Jim Mallinson.
At 12 000 feet in the air, regulating body temperature is a top priority. For the trip the team chose Sunspel fine Merino thermals. Dominic wore the Sunspel merino base layer (also favoured by polar explorer, Ben Saunders). These have a natural wicking quality that traps moisture away from the skin while still hugging the body – brilliantly effective in cold and extreme weather. The fabric is made from entirely natural materials and is incredibly soft and comfortable. The thermals are based on a classic design modernised with our own performance fabric where hollow fibres capture moisture and insulates the body with supernatural efficiency.
WE INTERVIEWED JAMES TO FIND OUT WHAT IT’S LIKE TO PLAY IN THE DHAULADHAR MOUNTAINS AT 17000 FEET.
Where did you guys fly from and to?
We flew in the Kangra region of Himachal Pradesh in north India, exploring most of the range which stretches 100km from Dharamsala to Mandi and goes up to 5000m (17000 feet).
How long did it take?
We did a ten day tour.
How long was a single flight?
With Dom and Ru our longest flight was about 35km from our camp at Phooladhar to the Taragarh Palace for gin and tonic. That took about two and a half hours, but we did some longer flights too that took us up to around 3500m or 12000 feet.
Impressed that you made time for a G&T. Do many people fly in the region?
The flights we did with Dom and Ru were reasonably tame, but considering how inexperienced they were at the beginning, they were really impressive. Before Dom arrived in India, his longest flight was a 15 minutes soaring flight up to about 200 feet above the Wiltshire hills. His second flight in India was over three hours at 12000 feet.
(Dom West paragliding wearing Sunspel)
That’s pretty amazing progress. These guys must be super fit?
I put it down to a few factors – good but safe kit, a fantastic flying region, great weather, excellent guides, giant cojones on their part and, of course, Sunspel merino undies that stopped us from freezing our balls off!
Sounds like an extreme sport. Is it?
To be honest we only scratched the surface of what can be done in that region on a paraglider. I've made 5-hour flights from Bir to Manali in 2 hours that took me up to 19000 feet and covered over 100km. And then flown back the next day. The same journey by car takes about 12 hours since you have to drive around the mountains. But it is necky stuff. If you go down you could be in deep trouble. At best you’d be looking at a walk-out that would take days.
How cold was it during the day and night?
On the ground, it was warm during the day – somewhere around 25°C. At night it would get down to near freezing. Flying high, definitely below freezing.
Did the merino wool help?
Absolutely. The base layer kept us warm as toast when we were in the air and when we were sleeping at the camp. The great thing was it didn’t get stinky or sweaty when we were hiking to a remote take off or landing place.
What did you see up there?
Amazing views, of course, as well as fantastic birds and wildlife. My favourite of all the soaring birds is the lammergeier, or bearded vulture. It drops bones to smash them, then eats the marrow. Very clever.
What were you doing when you weren’t flying?
Um. I'll have to run this one past my lawyer... Let’s see, we visited some local 8th- century temples. We also got to hang out in McLeod Ganj, where the Tibetan government-in-exile's headquarters are. It’s also where the Dalai Lama lives. We tried to fly there and almost made it but landed 10km short. We also visited a fire temple with natural flames coming out of the ground. An ancient sect of yogis have a monastery there. Then there was G+Ts at the Maharaja of Kashmir's Taragarh Palace and a stay at the Maharaja of Patiala's palace in Punjab (the prince, Tiku is an old mate I met through the climber, Will Stanhope).
Would you ever do it again?
You bet. I've done it for the last twelve years and see no reason to stop!
Jim Mallinson first went to India in 1988 and has been back every year since. Fluent in Hindi and a scholar of Sanskrit and Indian religion, he’s made Bir his autumn base for the last ten years. His film Temples in the Clouds about a vol-bivouac adventure in the Bir region, was released in July 2008 and won the Matinales du Off prize at the 2008 Coupe Icare. James is an accomplished XC pilot in the UK, holding the distance records for most of the flying sites near his Wiltshire home, and an occasional member of the British team. In 2011 he captained the victorious South in the inaugural North South Cup.
