Miracle in the Storm

In Australia 2007 160 pilots undertook the cross country challenge at the summit of Mt Bora. Among them was Ewa Wisnierska a member of the German team and the world’s leading paraglider who had narrowly escaped death, with just a fractured pelvis in Switzerland August 2006. Six months after she had fractured her pelvis, she was going after the world championships. Ewa had to work very hard with her physical strength to return to the top after being out for six months. After four years of flying she had already topped the highest ranked female paraglider in the world. Paragliding for Ewa was like a virus, she couldn’t get rid of the activity. Everything began to revolve around paragliding, so she decided to live in the car and follow the competitions. Ewa has won the German Champion, and 5 World Cups and she wanted to win the World Championship, which were to be held in Australia, on Mt Borah, in New South Wales.
Mt Borah is located in Australia, New South Wales, Manilla. Borah in aboriginal means meeting place, the aboriginals would have most likely met there to watch its magnificent views over the wide western plans. Mt Borah has been a flying site since the 1990’s when some hang glider pilots found a few small cut out hang glider launches on the West, South and East faces. The property “the mountain” was bought by Godfrey Wenness in 1994 and with additional land in 2005, which contains all the private lands associated with Mt Borah. Normally storms in mountain areas grow gradually over a number of hours, but the storm that Ewa faced grew quickly over a few short hours.
Paragliding is a sport that uses a large highly modified kite like glider. The pilots use rising columns of hot air, known as thermals to gain altitude. In cross country racing, pilots gain distance by climbing up in these thermals and then using the prevailing winds to climb down from each thermal. Pilots look for larger clouds because they create a faster wind. Large storms are one of the