23 July 2007. Thirty athletes, twenty-two nationalities set off on an assault of the Alps: an East to West traverse using only paragliders and their own two feet. The itinerary for the 3rd edition is an incredible journey of 850km linking the Dachstein massif (south of Salzburg in Austria) to Monaco via the Marmolada (Dolomites), The Eiger (Bernese Oberland) and Mont Blanc (French Alps). Hundreds and thousands of internet surfers will follow live tracking of this extreme endurance race, sponsored by RED BULL drinks, PEAK clothing, NOKIA and the well reknowned paragliding brand GIN GLIDERS. Each competitor carries a GPS and a bluetooth linked mobile phone. The GPS records their position every 2 minutes which is uploaded to the mobile phone, this duly transmits waypoints & direction of travel via SMS. Thanks to the tracking system, each athlete’s route is posted on www.redbullxalps.com and visitors can see if competitors are flying, walking or even sleeping!

Before the race can begin everything is carefully orchestrated by Zoom Productions. Three days before the start the athletes are gathered in Obertraun, a village at the foot of the Dachstein massif, for various technical briefings, equipment tests and interviews. At the first briefing Steve Cox – race director - wishes a warm welcome to all the teams involved: ‘Hello everybody and thanks for coming. During the next 15 days you are going to experience an extraordinary adventure - physically exhausting and mentally demanding. The X-Alps is a race against yourselves with the natural elements being your referee! Between the mandatory turn-points your route choice is up to you. Once the start-line is crossed each kilometer will be covered walking or flying. I did say flying and not being flown ! Being frank - most of you will not reach Monaco….the X-Alps is tough this year and it will get harder!’ The tone is set.

Release the beasts.
After all the briefings, the declaration that the race has started is an ecape for the competitors. Thanks to a short snap of good weather, the beasts can be released from Krippenstein, July 23 at 7am, 700m beneath the summit of the Dachstein. Friends, foes and press alike gather under blue skies at the meeting point on the glacier to accompany and to cheer on the 30 X-Alps athletes up to the launch at 3000m. Unfortunately the southerly wind picks up as competitors near the summit. The start of the X-Alps 2007 is made on foot and makes use of the via ferrata funneling across the south face of the Honerkogel. So it’s underway – 2 weeks of walking, flying, choices, doubts, suffering and meetings. How many will reach Monaco and what state will they be in?

Although the course is a long one the first competitors set a blistering pace; they already know that bad weather is coming in that night complicating the traverse of the Grossglockner massif and its cols, over 2500m. The first day, less than 30km have been covered flying into wind. The competitors are forced to test the asphalt.
At this point in the race, the teams cross and re-cross paths. Some of them share big walks together for several hours and separate suddenly when route choices have to be made. Today, four parallel valleys are the options available to cross the first mountain range. Some walk late into the night to beat the bad weather and to enable them to clear obstacles that would hamper flying the following day. Others adopt a trekking rhythm which consists of pitching a bivouac at dusk and striking camp in the early hours of the day after sufficient rest.

Support
Very quickly the life of a X-Alps competitor evolves around a vehicle (usually a minibus), driven by their support person. On board there is a sleeping area, a good supply of food, clothes suitable for all types of weather, and dozens of maps at 1:50,000 and 1 :100,000 scales. Oh yes and I forget the computer and latest generation of mobile phones that do everything apart from make the dinner ! The role of the support person is not just to drive around in this mobile base camp but to obtain crucial weather information to assist with route choices. As in any competition, it’s good to know what your opponents are up to. Sometimes this motivates you to keep your position or to stride on regardless. The support crew must be the link between the athletes and the organisation and also respond to requests from the media. They are often found parked up on the hard-shoulder or in petrol stations, sometimes giving first-aid, treating bleeding blisters or massaging cramped calves – all under close scrutiny of the video camera. This may all seem like a bit of a reality show but it all makes good viewing for this gruelling challenge.

The key to the X-Alps is to be in the right place at the right time, to speed up or wait at the opportune moment. The support person intervenes when the competitors judgement weakens. Unlike vol bivouac, the X-Alps is a race – you have to keep moving forward, before and after moments of flying. Speed is of the essence, but there’s no point in running to Monaco either !

Every mistake costs hours of walking.
The 2nd day, unable to fly across a col, the french competitors Julien Wirtz and Vincent Sprungli find themselves trapped by storms and forced to land out. They walk for 10 hours to get to a mountain refuge where we have dry clothes waiting for them. They dry their wings and instruments in one of the dormitories. Violent gusts of wind put paid to any plans to fly in the morning and we make the decision to go back down to the valley on foot. It’s a 10km trek down, but the next take off point is 25km away. Sprungli and Wirtz think they can make it by midday. At Karschberg pass, Julien Wirtz settles for putting an end to the current run of bad luck and waits out the wind to end up flying to Lienz. At the same time, the leaders, Martin Muller and Alex Hofer are about to fly round the Marmolada turnpoint. Vincent Sprungli, almost a corpse, pushes on. Having left Karschberg too soon, he’s on the ground at 14h – at the entrance to a village, his wing over a lampost. He pays the price of impatience once again – 3 hours walk to a takeoff at 2000 metres for a 30km restitution flight. 10km further on foot before dinner and the first signs of tendinitis in his legs. After yet another 15 hour day we bivouac in the village of Radlberg, below perfect east facing slopes – ideal for an early takeoff. Tomorrow is another day – 4.45am wake up call !

X-Alp gear
A wing of less than 17m2, harness, reserve, helmet, tracking instruments provided by the race organisation is the minimum equipment required for the race. Most competitors have high performance wings made from ultra-light material and ultra-light harnesses. The Russian competitor arrives at the kit check with a competition cocoon harness weighing more than the entire average rig ! Gin’s Boomerang 5 Ultralight with a Sup’Air harness and reserve, a petzl helmet and the Xalps tracking system weighs 9.5kg.

Flying cures all ailments.
5.30am, stuff legs and dead shoulders. A 1000 metre climb is the norm to start the X-Alp day. A quick tea to wake up, new batteries for the GPS – and better to eat something a bit later, when everything’s working properly. It’s a perfect day – you can feel it in the air and can tell from the horizon. Sore tendons and tired body are soon forgotten. At 8.45am the first cumulus form over the east facing slopes. If the wind is good on take off, we’ll be in the air by 9.30. What a stroke of luck.
Vincent Sprungli flies 208km in 10 hours ! After a few radio failures I spot him in the sky above the Dolomites heading for the Marmolada. It wouldn’t have mattered where we stopped today – tonights bivouac is without doubt the most beautiful. We eat moroccan soup and canned ravioli between the Civetta cliffs and the Marmolada glacier.

Mechanical failure
The development of cumulus clouds complicates the task to get into the Engadine range, and the X-Alpers land out, one by one. Most come down in the valley, forcing them to hike amongst the holiday traffic. 30km on asphalt takes its toll – tendinitis, oedema. When it’s impossible to walk any further, we have to abandon ship.

GIN pilots in the race.
Martin Muller, Vincent Sprungli and Kaoru Ogisawa all set off on the X-Alps with an ultralight Boomerang 5. Thanks to a fantastic flight from Dachstein, Martin was in the lead the whole way. On the 10th day of the race, he almost abandons when he incurs a 36 hour penalty for flying in restricted airspace near Sion, Switzerland. He decides to continue and pushes on towards the Mediterranean. He gets to Mont Gros, above Monaco in the lead, 13 days after leaving Dachstein. His penalty means he has to wait 36 hours before flying onto Monaco beach. Victory eludes him.

Vincent Sprungli, after some spectacular flying early in the race, is forced to abandon with acute tendinitis in both legs on the 7th day of the race. He holds 4th position. He nevertheless achieves the longest flight of the contest – 208km between Lienz and Marmolada.

The third pilot, the Japanese Ogi, Gin test pilot, is 5th into Monaco, thanks to a fantastic last day of flying - over 200km. He arrives in Monaco barely beating the competition deadline, with an unbeaten spirit and exhausted body !