The Pyrenees are on fire at the moment. After Mattin’s epic Easter crossing of the chain and the excellent flights by our Catalan competitors, here comes our local young French pilot! Romain Larripa lives close to the start and his normal flying area is around TP1 in Larun. So much so that he has attended three race starts, dreaming that one day he would be in the ranks of those departing the beach and climbing up his home mountain. That dream will come true on the 21st of June.
But training is essential in advance and Romain missed the Easter weather window which saw Basque pilot Mattin Iñiguez make an excellent traverse of the Pyrenees.
Romain explains what happened on the 16th of April: “After missing the weather window the previous week—when Mattin flew 215 km from Peña Montañesa—I was really focused on the next opportunity. At the start of the week, everything pointed to Thursday, Friday, and Saturday being perfect on the Spanish southern slopes. I was expecting two good days… but the reality far exceeded expectations.
On the first day, we started by hiking up. I took off from Bizkarzé, near Pico de Orhi, with that slightly intimidating feeling of having nothing but forest beneath my feet. By 1 p.m. we had a cloud base of around 2,500 m, which gradually increased on the south-facing slopes, though it was hard to get above 3,000 m. The initial plan was to reach Peña Montañesa, but the conditions at the end of the day were so good that I decided to keep moving east.
With all my bivouac gear, water, and food in my backpack, I kept linking kilometers until passing Castejón. After 173 km and 6 hours 30 minutes of flight, I landed on a ridge below the summit of Corronco. Flying like that, self-sufficient, with the wing and bivouac gear, is hard to describe… a feeling of total freedom. The evening was perfect, with views of Aneto, good food, and the peace of being well positioned for the next day.
The night, however, was tougher: constant wind and humidity. I barely slept three hours.
The next morning, I went for a 5 km run to get going. The north wind was blowing strongly until mid-morning, which made me hesitate. But at 11:30 the first thermals started on the east-facing slopes, and I decided to take off early, at 11:45. The key was to stay high: in that area…there aren’t many landing options.
I moved quickly and felt good, discovering Andorra from the air. Above 3,000 m, the north wind was very noticeable: turbulence, degraded glides… it wasn’t comfortable. But between Andorra and Font-Romeu, the conditions clearly improved, with cloud bases up to 3,700 m.
At Font-Romeu, the headwind slowed me down and put me in a tricky situation, but I managed to push through and continue toward Canigó. In that section, an eagle passed just five meters from me—an incredible moment.
And shortly after, coming out of a thermal, the Mediterranean appeared. An almost unreal image, like a dream.
I made one final 36 km glide, ending up just 5 km from the sea. I landed with a mix of happiness and surprise: I had crossed almost the entire Pyrenees in two days. That second day was 184 km in 6 hours 45 minutes of flight.
That night I slept on an empty lot in an industrial area—a much less epic bivouac… but I slept deeply.
The next day, I took a train from Perpignan to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, arriving at 10 p.m., and walked home. A full day to return… and to begin processing what I had experienced. Now I can finally say it: it wasn’t a dream.
They were two exceptional days—the kind that leave a mark.
And beyond that, this experience did me a lot of good mentally: flying solo in Spain, managing everything on my own… it’s a big step.”
What an incredible adventure! Hopefully we’ll get conditions like this during the X-Pyr.
