Wow, what a trip! The Alps are huge and walking and flying in them is among the most wild outdoor adventures that we’ve had. Take a look at our best of the best photos to get a little vicarious taste of what it was like.

It’s the whole package that makes a trip through the Alps so captivating. The whole range is full of so much history, mountain culture and natural beauty. Long distance trekking in the Alps is very different than in the United States to be sure. There really isn’t any “wilderness” in the Alps that is not covered in ice. However in the absence of wilderness, there is an incredible network of valleys that are, in many ways, lost in time. Traditional life permeates the alpine regions of some of the most modern countries on Earth. In the Alps, the biggest surprises over the next ridge are in the villages, the kind people, the cheese and the meats.

We’re estimating the total distance trekked on our journey to be right around 1000km. Our luck gave us what was described on more than one  occasion as “the rainiest summer in the Alps in 20 years.” This fact led us to find ourselves walking the vast majority of the route. The soul gets damaged after so many climbs to the top of a mountain only to be greeted by an approaching front or cranking wind over the back. Still, we did get some amazing flights and some truly remarkable new paragliding experiences. We launched from the top of mountains where perhaps no one had launch a paraglider before having only seen the valleys below on maps. We flew cross-country, landed in a town soccer field and wandered in to figure out where we were only to find a music festival in full swing. We stayed in refugios, camped in Japanese Gardens and were taken in by an incredible Austrian ski guide.

Vol bivouac is a captivating and extremely challenging endeavor. One that we could spend our entire flying careers toying with and tweaking and mastering.

There will always be so much to learn out there in the mountains, in a thermal, along a ridge.

Here’s to the wild hunt!

Sati & Melody

If you’d like to check out all the photos from our trip please visit our 2011 gallery.