A daring grandmother of four has completed almost 500 paraglidings with her adorable dog.
Corinne Dhenin, 68, from Geneva, enjoys jumping off mountains with her furry friend Phoebe as a passenger.
She climbs with the dog on her heel and sometimes reaches peaks of up to 2500 meters high.
Corinne estimates that she has made almost 500 jumps with one dog – more than 230 with Phoebe, and the rest with her other dog Megabyte.
She also enjoys hang gliding, speed riding – a skiing sport – and flying microlight aircraft.
Grandmother Corinne Dhenin, 68, from Geneva, has done almost 500 paraglidings with her dog
Corinne estimates she has made almost 500 jumps with a dog – more than 230 with Phoebe (pictured) and the rest with Megabyte
She climbs with the dog on her heel and sometimes reaches peaks of up to 2500 meters high
Corinne showed off her toned physique on the beach in 2021, when she was 66 years old
And Corinne says people criticize her involvement with the dog, but she doesn’t care as Phoebe, a boxer, loves it.
She said: ‘I started with Megabyte on very small slopes, our first flight was only three feet in the air. Then I took her higher and higher.
‘We ended up making flights of about 900 meters, from the top to the bottom of several mountains.
‘When I first took Phoebe flying, she was six months old and stuck in front of me – she panicked and tried to climb up on me in the air.
‘But she soon realized that she was fine and that she was not going to fall. And now, on Flight 230, she’s used to it.
‘We actually fly almost every day, because I’m retired, I just do that: we climb and fly together.
‘When many people find out that I fly with my dog, their reaction is that it is not fair to the dog. I want to make it clear that my dog likes to come with me.
‘She gets the best life, she spends all day climbing mountains and I do it for her. I’m not selfish or anything, the dog likes it as much as I do.’
Corinne, who worked as a manager for a market research company, first started hang gliding in 1981, during the sport’s early years.
Due to its cumbersome nature, she switched to paragliding, which she says suits climbing mountains solo.
Now the mother of three and grandmother of four has been paragliding for more than 15 years and has 1,300 flights to her name.
She says she also enjoys speed riding, which she describes as “half skiing, half flying,” and has even traveled from France to Morocco on an ultralight, a gasoline-powered hang glider.
Corinne photographed with young Phoebe in 2019 before they started paragliding together
She also enjoys hang gliding, speed riding – a skiing sport – and flying microlight aircraft
Corinne says people criticize her involvement with the dog, but she doesn’t care because Phoebe, a boxer, loves it
Now the mother of three and grandmother of four has been paragliding for more than 15 years and has 1,300 flights to her name
She says she has a close bond with her dog and they spend almost 24 hours a day together – so it makes sense that the pair also fly together
And she says that despite her age, she has covered a tremendous amount of vertical distance, climbing some 200 mountains and covering a total of 205,000 meters vertically.
She says she has a close bond with her dog and they spend almost 24 hours a day together. So it makes sense that the couple also flies together.
Corinne said: ‘I live in a small village in the mountains at 600 meters altitude, so I do a lot of sport – I started with hang gliding and moved on to paragliding.
‘I decided it would be fun to let my dog climb mountains with me and the first person I taught to fly was Megabyte.
“She was fine with it, she got used to it, but she got too old to climb so I retired her.
Corinne, who worked as a manager for a market research company, started hang gliding in 1981, during the early years of the sport.
Corinne and Phoebe posed for a photo on the Trou de la Mouche, 2453 meters high in the Aravis Mountains
Corinne posed for a moment during the climb of Mont Blanc, 4810 meters, in 2009
“There are a few people who fly their dogs here, but it’s very rare. I know three people who do that, but they have smaller dogs than me, so it’s a different matter.
‘A boxer weighs about 30kg, so it’s very technical to do. You’ll need to support the weight until you take off, but once you’re in the air, it’s okay.
“Every time she sees me preparing the equipment in the morning, she comes and stands at the door and won’t let me go without her.
‘Directly from the house we do a climb of three to four hours, then the descent takes 10-15 minutes and we land back in front of the house.
‘The company is very important.
“Once we do a climb, she’s exhausted for the rest of the day, so she sleeps and I’m pretty exhausted too.”