Pierre Verley is a paraglider pilot and hiker. He flies mostly in the southern French Alps, and walks wherever the sky allows. This book grew out of his own revision: to gather, in a single volume that can be read on an e-reader, everything an independent pilot and a hiker need to understand about the sky in order to decide.
This book was written with artificial intelligence. The outline, the writing of the chapters, the 138 figures and their proofreading were produced in dialogue with artificial-intelligence assistants (Claude, Mistral and ChatGPT, each in its own area of strength), based on the author’s choices, corrections and requirements, then reviewed by him. The knowledge drawn on is the knowledge these models were trained on: the public scientific and technical literature, aviation-weather manuals, and training material for free flight and for the mountains. None of the books cited in appendix E was consulted or copied; they are recommended for going further. The typical values retained have been cross-checked, but they are still only typical values. This edition was translated from the French original with the help of artificial intelligence.
Pierre Verley is an expert in artificial intelligence. He designs and deploys AI assistants for businesses and local authorities, trains their teams to use these tools, and supports projects like this one, where AI is used to write, illustrate and check. For a project, a training course, or just to talk about it, you can reach him on 07 88 38 22 21 and on LinkedIn.
Comments, errors to report, feedback from the field: all are welcome, on the same number.
Reading the Sky: Mountain Weather for Paragliding, Hang Gliding and Hiking — complete edition, October 2026. Text, figures and layout: Pierre Verley, with the help of AI. Figures generated with matplotlib; book assembled in ePub 3.