These are good dates to look back on what X-Pyr 2018 was like.
Now that we are close to the next edition, that of 2022, and that registrations are already open, this video accelerates the pulse of what will be the fifth edition of the X-Pyr.
Today Stanislav Mayer arrived at St Helena de Rodes and was able to
complete his flydown to the raft with Maxime Pinot. Nelson de Freyman
arrived a few hours later. Congratulations to both!
Eduardo Garza pushed hard yesterday and managed to get to the
turnpoint at Canigo (TP7). He decided to sleep on the mountain to
give himself maximum chance to fly and get to St Helena de Rodes and
Port de la Selva before the race ends at 10pm tonight. We are
confident he will do it, so stay tuned for our fifth arrival!
In the battle of the gaggle between TP 5 and 6 Haydon Grey triumphed,
getting to Pedra Forca and beyond. Ignacio Aravelo was the sole
competitor to choose a southerly route. He decided to follow the
better weather and fly routes he is very familiar with from multiple
competition tasks he has flown in this region. It worked! He has
over-taken a number of pilots who stuck to the more direct course
line. He is currently south of TP 6. The remainder of the gaggle are
within reach of the turn point and we expect Keller, Koren, Bramfitt,
Coconea and Vuirpillot to reach it soon. Chsing this group hard are
Williams and Cannell.
Amazing progress was made by Linde, Ramos and Kernstein. All started
around/before TP4 and flew across the main spine of the Pyrenees.
Kernstock took off very late and made excellent progress. Linde,
Ramos, Veiga and Kernstock are all close to TP5 now.
Unfortunately, Centa had an incident which hurt his hand. this
impeded his flying yesterday, but be is currently hiking and still in
the race. Gold was finally able to fly… tagging TP 4 he flew in the
direction of TP5. His tracker is not currently transmitting, so we
can’t bring you news of his exact location. Andrews and Shapiro both
hiked up Turbon (TP4) and camped overnight to make the most of an
early flight. Umbricht and his whole team are still sick with food
poisoning. They took a day off to try to recover and hope to be able
to make progress on the final day of the race.
Mario Moreno’s race can be summed up in 5 words: tummy, tree,
torrent, technical (issues) and thunderstorms. He has been battling
with gastroenteritis, car problems and thunderstorms. He landed in a
tree and Angel, his supporter, had to cross a ford to assist him.
After a three hour tree rescue (he was unharmed), they tried to
recross the ford. It was now a fast-flowing river! Stranded on the
other side they had to overnight on the far side and were towed out
by a friendly local. Despite all their hardships, Mario is showing
massive determination to complete the race and fly far today. A true
competitor! Lukas Thoeni is also digging deep. He has walked more
than 60km each day the last couple of days and is determined to get
to TP4 and beyond. Good luck to all!
The forecast is excellent for the final day and we should see lots of
action. And the forecast is for cloudbase up to 4000m – not lower as
our roving reporter Judith Mole mistakenly said in the update video. Sorry!
Today Maurer won the X-Pyr 2018!
He arrived in the morning of day 5, having hiked up to St Helena de Rodes. We broadcasted it on Facebook live and you can replay the action whenever you like. He later flew down to the goal at Port de la Selva. Congratulations to Chrigel!
Chrigel estimated 5.5 days to complete the course and as usual he beat his own time!
Maxime Pinot, having spent a cold, wet and windy night on Puigmal in an old broken shepherd’s hut, which Jeremie described as “just a pile of rocks full of snow”, he continued on and made the final turnpoint and end-of race section at St Helena in the evening. Well done!
Standa was chasing hard, but was not able to complete the course before the compulsory overnight rest time. Nelson de Freyman also made good progress. The weather was extremely stormy in Catalunya yesterday, with the radar showing a massive area of precipitation.
In the chasing pack at TP5, there was lots of action. After tagging the turn point, Hayden Grey and Juraj Koren met up at a coll along the course line and launched together. Strong valley winds meant the were separated with Hayden making the most progress. Vuirpillot got the turnpoint hiking and was back down in sunshine at 1.30pm, heading for a coll to take off from. Other pilots near the Bigorre turnpoint had to battle with low cloud, thick fog, precipitation that mean that visibility was sometimes less than 10m. It made hiking very, very tiring. Arevalo, Cocanea, Bramfitt, Williams and Cannell made it into the cylinder in these conditions, with Umbricht very closely following. Flying off the mountain was not an option. Conditions were far too bad, so a long hike down was required.
Cocanea managed to get himself into clear air and launched from a coll at 7.30pm. This flight down meant he was able to catch up with Vuirpillot and the two are now very close. Joao Veiga is currently the only other pilot who has crossed the main spine and is heading for TP5.
Unfortunately, Wesley Murch has had to withdraw from the race. The mixed martial arts fighter fought blisters, sun stroke and fatigue and was only defeated by a broken clutch in his vehicle.
The roving reporter team of Judith Mole and Andy Read caught up with many pilots and supporters today and you can see their interviews on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.
https://www.facebook.com/100006494946939/videos/2443932219166586/
dia 3 xpyr 2018 from X-Pyr on Vimeo.
Another action packed day! Some big highs and some lows too. Two pilots have withdrawn – Fons de Loew an Patrick Sieber.
In the morning, Maurer hiked up to TP5 (Midi du Bigorre) as did Maxime Pinot. By the end of the day both had made excellent progress. Maurer flew into Catalunya and past Pedraforca (TP6). Maxime is still on his heels between TP5 and 6.
Garza ended up in third place at the end of the day. He had a long, long flight and tagged TP5 in the air, allowing him to progress across the valley to the Coll de d’Azet. He was able to re-launch just before the land-by time. de Freyman hiked up to the same coll, arriving minutes before the compulsory stop time. Wagner is currently between TP4 & 5. This was a tricky day for many!
Mayer flew a blinder today, pushing from TP 4 to arrive to near TP5 and gaining ground of the leaders. After Keller’s amazing day on day 2, he had a long hike, another frustrating wait, but made it past TP5 and into the next valley. He reported extrememly turnbulent conditions. Safety first meant he sacrificed a lot of altitude for a safe landing spot… in this race that means more hiking.
Umbricht had an impressive hike, a challenging flight and the highlight was being reunited with Bramfitt and Grey. Bramfitt had several flights but landed sooner than hoped and although he hiked up to a take-off in the afternoon, conditions did not allow him to make the progress he expected. Grey has a burnt nose, but it fine otherwise. Three bomb outs and then a six hour flight was the story of his day.
Vulpillot gave his friends and family a fright, when his tracker and spot stopped working. He averted a search and rescue when he sprinted to the edge of a ridge to find a signal to report himself safe. Currently in 8th place, he is the competition’s top rookie. Ramos was on home turf, flying past his local sites in Jaca. He is going strong and feeling good as he passed TP3 at Midi d’Ossau.
Kernstock’s supported had a nightmare with a leaking radiator and this meant he had to fly down to the van to get food and accommodation. Worried about not being able to carry on, the van is now fixed and he is back on track. Another nightmare befell Thoeni. A collapse on launch meant that his harness is destroyed and the team had to verify that his wing was still airworthy. It is and supporter Martin Lifka has supplied a replacement harness. No broken bones, Thoeni is back in the race.
Goksal infringed airspace and is currently serving a 48 hour time penalty. Cannell hiked a few km up to a launch, but wasn’t able to stay up but crossed a valley and landed high on the next massif. Later, he had tricky but safe landing and had to detach a stabilo line to get it out of tree. He hiked down to dam at the bottom of a reservoir, and had a cliff scramble around tunnel where he said he “didn’t look down”. All in all, spirits are high and physically he’s holding together really well.
Murch has blisteres and had a bad day where he top landed and his supporters could not reach him, Without water for five hours he had to make the difficult decision to hike down. Seven hours without water left him dehydrated and he has had to take some time to recover. Fellow UK pilot Andrews began the day before TP2 and finished on the way to TP4!
Potel was rescured from the tree on day 2 at 2am, so he had little time to charge his tracker and phone. “Lost” for four hours he was safe and sound. Moreno is tired but motivated and ready to go. Linde had a day complicated by wind. He ended the day walking. Centa is feeling fit and progressing well.
Stay tuned today… Maurer is expected to reach St Helena de Rodes this evening or tomorrow morning first thing!
Unfortunately we had another pilot withdraw from the race. Francu Claudiu was troubled by an old injury and was unable to continue.
Day two dawned well with a great number of pilots near TP 2. Chrigel, Maxime and Nelson passed the second turn point yesterday, but many were in a good position to pass the turn point in the morning. This being the case, most were up and walking by 6am. The problem was that the wind was north and stronger than forecast, so pilots had to cross the ridge to get to the flyable side. Once there, the launch conditions were not easy. First off was Cyriaque Wagner, the local pilot, followed closely by Eduardo Garza from Mexico. Both got high and started to make their way along the ridges to the south east. The early bird got the worm today and both have passed TP 3.
Once conditions improved, many others launched, but Adian Keller, Lars Budack and Ignacio Aravelo decided to walk along the ridge to a lower point. Having waited for more favourable conditions, they launched about 3pm. After the frustration of waiting, they have flown an absolute stunning flight… Adrian and Lars are currently sixth and seventh place and are currently approaching TP4, chasing Garza and Wagner.
It has been an epic flying day… Chrigel is currently approaching TP 5, having crossed the main spine, with Maxime Pinot hot on his heels. Nelson de Freyman landed in trees unharmed, but this has delayed him, allowing others to catch up.
News from other competitors… Wesley Murch broke a few brake lines this morning which required him to walk down and repair them. Jesse Williams’ spin and hard landing left him bruised but unbroken, both in body and spirit. He flew again yesterday and is on his way to TP3.
We now have 25 pilots past past TP2.
Tomorrow’s forecast is epic. Expect big flights tomorrow. High base, less wind will make for an exciting day! Stay tuned!
Enjoy with the first video summary of this X-Pyr 2018.
A beautiful sunny summer day salutes us in Hondarribia. The 35 confirmed participant teams gathered at the city’s Auditorium. We all went through the race rules, air pace restrictions, safety and emergency procedures and satelite tracking. Gear inspection and weight checking was completed, followed by TV interviews for the race documentary. Some of the worlds’ best Hike & Fly pilots head the particintat’s list.
This years’ edition added some challenging turn points that will rise the race difficulty and length. The weather forecast is now good after weeks and weeks of rainy days. The excitement is in the air and all is now set for a spectacular race start tomorrow at the beach (10am local time). The first turnpoint “La Rhune” can only be reached by foot and is some 25km away. We anticipate first lauches around 13h from “La Rhune”.
Note: Team Michael Muehlbach did a last minute cancellation due to medical reasons.
Photos: Daniel Berhelemy
