Paragliding in Iran
Damavand rises 5,610 m over the Alborz, and below it sit some of the least-known flying sites in the world. An open reference to where you can fly here, when it works, and what the trip actually takes.
Why here
The Alborz runs 900 km across the north of the country and tops out at 5,610 m. Outside a small local scene, most of it has never had a wing over it.
High alpine, bare desert plateau and humid Caspian forest sit within a day of each other. A two-week trip can fly all three.
The plateau works in spring and autumn while the high Alborz runs through summer. There is somewhere flyable most of the year.
Away from the city basins you will not be sharing a thermal. That is the whole point, and it will not last forever.
Flying sites
Eastern Alborz · Golestan
A five-launch ridge site in Golestan where the Alborz drops onto the Caspian plain. For six months a year the prevailing wind comes in off that plain — and almost nobody outside Iran has flown here.
Data unverified Central Alborz · Mazandaran
A 5,610 m dormant volcano standing alone above the Alborz — the image that sells flying in Iran to the rest of the world.
Data unverified Central Alborz · Tehran
The Alborz wall rising straight off north Tehran, reachable by gondola from inside the city — the most accessible high mountain flying in Iran.
The map
Pins are approximate and meant for orientation. Amber pins mark sites whose technical data has not been verified by a local pilot yet.
Before you go
Nobody abandons a flying trip because the thermals looked weak. They abandon it because they could not work out the visa, the money or the customs desk. So those pages get the same care as the site guides.
This is a reference, and references get better by being corrected. If a season is wrong, a launch has moved, or a site is missing entirely, tell us — and if you can verify the technical data for a site, that is the most useful thing anyone can send.