James Braid, Pierre Carter’s support, has sent through a report describing their last few days of racing at Red Bull X-Alps.
Well, more exciting news from the race, it just never seems to slow down.
Day 8 (Sunday) finished with Pierre crossing over the final mountains, Merano 2000, before the wide Meran valley. He was quite exhausted by then, so I met him halfway up at Saint Catherin, where we spent the night. His liquid diet of Coke was starting to work and although still weak, was looking much better than previous days. By the end of the day, we were in last position again, as the walkers who completed their 50km slog were now slightly further south than us, and hence closer to the turnpoint.
However, all was not last, and Day 9 (Monday) proved to be a most exciting day. In the morning, we found this spectacular launch site, about 200m from where we had slept, about 1000m above the valley floor. The wind was straight up the slope. It had one challenge being that the tree line in front was maybe a bit too high for comfort, and Pierre would have to fly between the tree tops to make it into the valley. The little church at St Catherin was the highest point and, to launch, Pierre would need to inflate his glider, ground handle up to the church doorway and launch to clear the trees. He did so, all in fine style and glided off over Merano – and the heads of the five pilots walking through the town below.
Within an hour, we were back in 16th position.
Merano is quite a large city and the valley is covered from side to side with vineyards and orchards, many power lines and poles and no where to land! Pierre executed a very tight landing into the bicycle lane next to the motorway on the far side of town. After watching his glider disappear behind buildings and trees, I was somewhat relieved to hear that he was okay.
From there, we took a direct route up onto the south-facing slopes of the wide Meran valley, to try and take advantage of the morning sun. By the time we got there, three pilots had launched already and flew over us. Conditions looked good but slow. After climbing about 400m up (the other guys had hiked to the very top) we decided that since conditions looked okay, we would launch from here.
In front of us was someone’s nice lawn and we decided to launch from there. As Pierre got ready, I could see a large, curious, Italian woman starting to approach us. Pierre quickly launched and I dealt with the situation as best I could. She was saying something about “the grass, the grass…”. When I explained that he was trying to fly from Salzburg to Monaco, she responded “Si, X-Alps, on tv!” and with a huge smile waved goodbye. Phew, what a relief!
Slightly aside, the coverage of the race in Europe is huge. Every night, an update is given on the sports channel in most European countries.
After ridge soaring some balconies and rooftops, Pierre thermalled up and was soon at the top of ridge working his way down the valley. Our plan was to fly to Sproding (I think) and then to turn left up another valley, as the race leaders had done. The weather slowly deteriorated and within an hour, the sky was totally overcast and it was raining on the southern side of the valley, including along our planned route.
Luckily, Pierre was uncertain about which valley to fly up (when the mountains are hidden in cloud, it is difficult to identify which valley is which) and he flew up the next valley. Despite it being a significantly longer route, he had marginally better flying weather and flew all the way up to the Swiss border at Munstair, where he landed. We crossed now into Switzerland and Pierre was jubilent that he had reached his personal goal!
No time to waste, I rushed in to the nearest shop to buy hiking maps whilst he set off on foot. Since our route was further north, we had lost a few positions, and only had two pilots behind us: the Argentinian (sitting on launch at Merano) and the Czech (walking in a valley far to the south). We had to make a wise route choice to avoid a possible elimination but our options were limited. We could pick up a hiking trail that would move us directly towards the turnpoint but that would climb up to nearly 3000m in snow and more than likely in the dark. Or, we could take a convoluted road pass to the south, which would link up with the route that the other back markers were following and hopefully sneak in a late evening glide down to Bormio.
Although this would not give us an advantage relative to the back markers, it would keep us closer to the turnpoint than the Czech pilot.
In the meantime, the Argentinian pilot launched and promptly crashed into a tree, somewhere near where Pierre had launched from. I would be most amused if it was in the same garden of the irate Italian woman. Here was a dilemma now… If the Argentinian retired from the race, the next pilot who would be in last position (us or the Czech) would be eliminated the following morning. If the Argentinian pilot was in an okay condition but did not wish to continue, then he would be eliminated. Unfortunately, he managed to injury himself sufficiently to require a helicopter rescue and a stay in hospital. I am not sure on the details. From what I could understand from his supporter, he suffered a broken rib and minor compression to one vertebra. The tree landing was fine, the fall from the tree was not. Unfortunately, he had to retire from the race and the pressure was back on us to keep ahead of the Czech pilot.
By the evening of Day 9, Pierre had flown more than 50km (in a straight line) and hiked nearly 30km up the pass above Saint Maria. His strength and determination had returned. At sunset, we were at 2300m again, at the old Italian-Swiss border post, high in the Alps, offering a huge glide to Bormio below and a gain in a position or two. Since night had fallen, we decided not to hike down, as the glide would be far more beneficial from this high point. Whilst we had an early night’s rest (and Pierre had eaten his first proper meal in days), the Czech pilot continued to slog on foot, into a valley with a T-junction, that required him to go straight. We could out
glide him from our position.Day 10 (Tuesday) started very cold (I slept in my glider for warmth) and since we were on top of the Bormio pass now, we only had to move about 50m to find a suitable launch spot and wait for favourable conditions. The Czech athlete had started early, climbing up the mountain in front of him, but not gaining much distance from us, he was still well within reach. For us, the time game started: we were waiting for flyable conditions, or for the 07h00 elimination phone call.
The Bormio valley faces south west and has incredibly sheer valley sides. The road winds its way down through numerous switch backs, then follows the southern cliff wall via a series of tunnels, perforating the cliff face! To make things more intimidating, two nasty power lines run down the valley, cris-crossing it like a spider’s web. We couldn’t see the end of the valley since it meandered to the west, the plan was to either (crash-)land into the road or onto the roof of an avalanche shelter, if there was nowhere more suitable to land.
We were laid out and ready at 5.30am, just waiting for half a puff of wind to launch. But alas, the cold air on the western side of the pass (in shadow) was sinking down the valley and was just too strong, in completely the wrong direction, for a safe launch. We tried to find a more sheltered launch spot where the wind would at least be zero, but searched in vain. As time ticked by, so were our chances of out gliding the Czech pilot who was now stuck in his current position.
At 07h00 on Day 10 (Tuesday), we received the phone call that put us out of the race. We were a little disappointed, by happy for Jan, the Czech pilot, that he could continue. He’s a pleasant character and we have spent lots of time together, in the previous race. Despite Pierre’s poor health, we managed to hang into the race for a very long time, making clever route choices: on one day, Pierre slept for 18 hours and we were still in a comfortable position. Pierre had very few problems with his feet, unlike the previous race, and those that hiked from Brunico to Bozen to Merano, just the after effects of heat exhaustion.
Although we are out of the race, the race continues and Maurer should reach Monaco today or tomorrow. His lead has increased and, even after receiving a 24 hour penalty, he is still far in the lead. The fight for second place is hotting up with Paul Guschlbaur (sp?) and Martin Muller, hunting down Toma Cocenea. Martin has had an amazing recovery from his 25th position on
Day 1, to fourth now!Yesterday afternoon, Pierre and I drove to Zermatt, to visit his parents, and to have a real shower again!
From us, a huge thank you to those that made this race possible us: we were sponsored equipment from Gradient, Solomon, First Ascent and Blue Eyewear. Thanks to Red Bull SA for organising the plane tickets. And a special thanks to all for the encouragement and support before and during the race. I am sure that work productivity levels in SA have been at a serious low and bandwidth levels at an all time high!
We should be home at the end of the week, I will send out a concluding report covering the end of the event and the final results.
Cheers
James
Image from James Braid.
An announcement has just come through from the event. They have announced a new event called Red Bull X-West, the same kind of paragliding and hiking event in North America. It will be held in the American summer of 2012. This time only 10 athletes will get the nod. The event website is www.redbullxwest.com. This is the media announcement.
And race leader, Christian Maurer, has just ‘written’ Red Bull X-Alps followers a message:
