Flying Sites

We teach paragliding at numerous sites throughout Washington, but most notably, we teach at Tiger Mountain in Issaquah. With it's close proximity to Seattle and it's suburbs , Tiger Mountain is often referred to as "The working man's mountain"  in that the best flying conditions at Tiger are usually later in the day and early evening, allowing many pilots to fly after work (and some during). Only twenty minutes from downtown Seattle, Tiger Mountain provides amazing views of the Seattle city skyline and the Olympic mountains to the West, Mount Baker and the North Cascades to the North, the Cascades to the East, and Mount Rainier to the South. Tiger Mountain provides two professionally maintained launches. The North launch, is the most commonly used and usually provides for wonderfully smooth extended flights, and the South launch, which provides a spectacular view of Mount Rainier. The landing zone (referred to in paragliding lingo as the "LZ") is a huge mowed grass field along the Issaquah-Hobart road. Tiger Mountain's North launch site is '1500vertical feet above the LZ, even the shortest flights are more than five minutes, with average flights lasting between twenty minutes to an hour. It's not uncommon though, to have single flights of more than two hours long! Tiger is also one of the most flyable sites in Washington, in that it is usually flyable a hundred or more days per year. It also is one of the safest places to fly, with perfect launches and typically stable weather conditions. If you want to watch paragliding first-hand, Tiger Mountain is the place to do it. Come by on those nicer days, typically late in the afternoon or early evening. The LZ, conveniently located a few miles south of downtown Issaquah on Issaquah-Hobart road provides a great area to watch pilots in the air. You can also make the one hour hike up the trail to both South and North launches. Feel free to ask around for any of our instructors, we'll be happy to give you more information.

Here are some of the other sites we fly:

• Chelan Butte, site of the 2001 National Paragliding Championships
• Baldy Mountain, near Yakima
• Saddle Mountain, near Ellensburg
• Blanchard Mountain, near Mount Vernon

There are many places to paraglide in Washington, refer to the Northwest Paragliding Club's site for more information.

Paraglide Washington, Inc.
Seattle, WA
Ph: (206) 328-1104
flynow@paraglidewashington.com