Acro-paraglider Horacio Llorens reflects on his latest project under the Northern Lights 25.05.2020: ...and explains why this flight touched him more than any other. With this stunt, Spain’s Llorens cast an enchanted spell over the world of extreme sports with an eerie flight into the Aurora Borealis in Norway.

...and explains why this flight touched him more than any other.



 

With this stunt, Spain’s Llorens cast an enchanted spell over the world of extreme sports with an eerie flight into the Aurora Borealis in Norway.



An acro-paraglider for 14 years, the affable athlete has flown his wing all around the world, from Zambia to French Polynesia and all the way across Africa. But his latest trip to Tromsø was a whole different adventure.



Here he exclusively looks back at an experience that left him freezing – and mesmerized.



Exclusive Q&A with Horacio Llorens



Three words to describe the Northern Lights project?

Belleza, Frio y Naturaleza - Beauty, Cold, and Nature.



What’s the image you will keep in your mind?


The most memorable image is the point in time when the entire sky lit up and the lights formed the shape of a mouth. I felt that I was somehow getting closer, and then my team told me in the radio, ‘Horacio, you have to go back, you are going a bit too far!’



There were very strong lights, very green, and even purple. I couldn’t believe it, it was incredible. It felt like flying into the mouth to go into another dimension. Crazy!






So what's an Aurora Borealis like from up close?


You believe you are close. With the engine, I was climbing up, and I wanted to climb up to touch it. But you can’t touch it, because in fact you aren’t close. Your eyes will believe it is very close – say 500-600 meters – when in reality, it is perhaps 10,000 meters away. It’s impossible to get close to it, but you are under the illusion that you are close, so you try to touch it, you try to play with it.



I can tell you that when the sky is clear and the Northern Lights are strong, the colors are really intense. I thought this was only the case through the lens of the camera but no, they really are that strong in reality. It’s really impressive. I imagined being a person seeing the same thing 1,000 years ago, and then thinking, ‘Here comes Odin!’ [laughs].



You’ve literally flown everywhere – what made this project different?


It was very special because I had to fly at night, in the cold, up North. And it was different because we weren’t looking for the best flying location. The whole project was about the search of an image; we were just looking for the Aurora Borealis with the best sky and the best conditions to capture it while flying.




Did you use an engine?


Yes. I fly without it 90% of the time and it’s something I use only when I have the opportunity to fly somewhere where I couldn’t without an engine. That was the case in Norway where it was a night flight in an unstable area.






Were you able to enjoy the beauty around you?


Truth is, for the first two days, not really. The technical part was my responsibility - I looked after the equipment, the engine, the clothes, the safety… and of course the flight itself. We only had a permit to fly leeward of the mountain, in a turbulent area. It was a bit complicated and got even worse when the wind blew stronger.



After that, once everything was set up perfectly, that is when I started to enjoy the Northern Lights. It was also the purpose of the project, you know, to take it all in.






What were these nights like?



We flew for six nights to shoot the video, waiting for hours. And every night was different. At times the Northern Lights appeared at 7pm, other times at 10pm or at 2am. The whole team waited in a tipi, a wooden hut with a fireplace and my paraglider, too. Outside, it would freeze and I wouldn’t be able to take off quickly.



So we would wait in that hut. The challenge was to have everybody ready to take off and film in 10 minutes, all the way from nightfall to dawn – that means from 5.30pm to 4am. One of us would stand out there all night to watch for the Aurora Borealis and let us know by radio whenever it was coming. As soon as you see a bit of green, you got to go out and get ready, even though at times, it disappears immediately.



They last from 15 minutes to one hour.  Some nights, we had four hours of Northern Lights; others we waited for hours… you never know and that’s what makes it special.






How can you top this last project?



I am going to Madagascar in April with my friend Thomas de Dorlodot. We've carried out many projects together, like crossing Africa North to South paragliding, we also flew in Pakistan and French Polynesia for example. Now we are planning our trip to Madagascar to fly with a paraglide over spots that have never been flown over. We will do a mix of flying and walking covering very long distances, no cars, no nothing. Pure adventure! Madagascar has incredible landscapes. It’s practically virgin territory for our sport.



I really like competing and would like to continue, but to be honest I just love adventure. It is without a doubt the part that has me the most fulfilled. I love discovering new places, new cultures, flying over places that have never been flown over before. It’s never the same angle from the air.





- Red Bull, photos Frode Sandbech/Red Bull Content Pool