Hi there, everybody. Welcome to this special bonus episode with Chrigel. Just got off the phone with him in Switzerland. These were basically all of your questions. You guys submitted a ton of questions both before the main show and then after. And he was kind enough to get back on and share a ton of great knowledge. We talk harnesses. We talk instruments. We talk progression, training, acro, skills. We talk all kinds of stuff. Of course, a little bit about the X-Alps. If you had questions about that, food and hydration, blisters, what he would change if he could, this was a blast. You're going to enjoy it. I loved it. And I don't have any housekeeping. This is just a bonus for all of you, all those of you who support the show.
Spread the word. Let everybody know that this kind of stuff is out there and see you at Cloudbase. Enjoy.
Chrigel, welcome back to the show. I'm really excited to ask you these questions that came in via the Facebook and social medias, fans of yours and fans of the X-Alps and folks that have just been listening to the show. So I really appreciate that. Yeah, so welcome back. Thanks for your time. I understand you've just had a big move with your family to a new place in Switzerland there. I know that's always a major challenge. So congratulations. And I thought we might start it off with the Dolomiti Man. And this is kind of the first big event you've had since the X-Alps. I know you had some pretty massive recovery after the X-Alps. So why don't we start there? How did the Dolomiti Man go?
Yeah, after the X-Alps, I was really damaged. I had to recover for quite a long time, longer than the other editions. And I also stopped my training. But for the Dolomiti Man, the special thing was it was very short but very fast. So as fast as possible, for sure. And um, yeah, we were unlucky with weather. Um, the wind and the cloud was too strong in the altitude, so we had to to shorten the race, the paragliding discipline, so that was just the lower part. And it was um, yeah, it was running for 13 minutes uphill and flying down, all in one. It was 15 minutes, quite short race, but for sure very, very hard, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of vertical really fast. Yeah.
That's another kind of hike and fly.
Well, cool. And how do the next couple of months look for you? We were talking about before we started recording, you're going to be giving some presentations in Switzerland, I believe, about the race and also maybe a little bit about your life in November. Maybe tell me a little bit about that. And also, can we see that online or how can the rest of us watch these presentations? Yeah,
actually, I prepared the presentation for November because many people ask about how it was on the X-Alps, how I do, and generally what I do in my sport and my work. And I prepare a presentation about two hours to speak about all my work, all the adventure races and the hard work. But it's a very, very nice part because I see all the Moyes and pictures I did in the last years. And it's a lot of experience I watch now. And to bring all this experience in two hours presentation, it's very difficult, but also good fun at the moment.
Yeah, that would be a blast. Well, hey, before we actually get into the questions, it would be very remiss of me to not. I said this a little bit in our original talk. But a couple of my flight buddies here, Nate Scales and Matt Beechinor, really wanted me to hammer home that the invitation here is not just one of these. This is a very real invitation to get you out to the Rockies. We have put together, if you can come, we can cover everything, probably even your flight. So we've got a house, we've got a truck, we've got a retrieve driver, we've got everything you need to come here and show us how to fly these mountains. So I hope, uh, one of these days you'll, you'll take us up on that. Okay. Well, cool. Well, let's, let's get into it. Uh, we've got a whole bunch of questions here.
I just want to rip through them, uh, in, in absolutely no particular order. Uh, the first one is, it's actually what I'm pretty curious about is harnesses. Um, we had a question come in about what you prefer to use. Do you use a seat plate? Do you not? Obviously for the X-Alps, you're just using a, uh, a hammock harness. Like we all are in very, very lightweight, but what do you prefer? what's your opinion on it what should people be using uh especially for competitions and racing give us give us the lowdown the Chrigel view on harnesses yeah
That's a good question because I start with normal harnesses. It was very heavy with the board, and then for the X-Alps I did 2009, I start to think about the weight and there was, uh, some prototypes of of, uh, hummock harnesses around and we could see that it was just, um, working well and was more light. So we was developing with advanced very light harnesses and, um, finally think to have good comfort and good feeling with the wing. It's, it's better to have a plate and if you want to go really light then it's more efficient without plate and for sure it's, it's not easy to tell to anybody body what's the best because I feel that when I fly a harness it can make the bigger different than when I change wing.
So it's very important to fly a new harness with the same wing to, to feel the different and then finally to decide, um, about myself what's my feeling and what I like and then I choose my harness. But finally I do different categories, different disciplines in paragliding so I need different harnesses and my, my heaviest one it's the competition harness with two reserves, 11 kilo and the lightest one it's the f light, it's almost nothing, less than 100 gram and, and so, yeah, it's a question for what I need to harness more than, uh, how I feel really in the harness.
Okay. Um, last time we talked a little bit about your choice of using a three liner in the X-Alps versus, you know, when you're racing and using a two liner, I had some people that asked me if you could clarify to talk about it a little bit more because there's, you know, with the, with the release of the Zeno by ozone. zone. Um, I think a lot more people are flying a two-liner now than than ever before because of the xeno. Um, are we are we heading back into a 2011 type scenario or not? And why? And how much, you know, for for those people that are considering moving up to a two-liner, how much more dangerous
Are they, you know, how much, how much different is in flying a two-liner than a three-liner?
My experience also with the scene noise and that this wing, it's it's especially good, so it means, um, it's very easy to fly and a lot of fun. And finally, the canopy is so stable, so it's so so not often that you have collapse. So it's my experience was that I had 50 hours with the zeno without the collapse and, uh, it's never happened with the three line because the three line are not so stable and maybe you can't feel the collapse come later. And it means, what's the question? My question is, what's more safe? And I say with the three line, maybe I have more collapses, but they are less aggressive.
And with the zeno, it's it's maybe the collapse more aggressive, but there are less collapse. So in generally about one year experience, there is not big different. And finally, you can see how many wings are flying in the world and not every pilot is a good pilot. It, I think, with the thinner, but not everybody fell down, so it shows that that this wing is very good. And I think the two liner are more complicated in really tough conditions, but 95 of the conditions are, well, that means 95 of the flights are safe with the tino. So so, yeah.
And in this 95 also you have the advantage of the performance, of the feeling, of the stability, of the speed, and um, it's Uh, after one year of experience, it looks very good for this type of things, but I think it was very important to get the finger of attention with the real two liners because they came too dangerous, and after some accidents, the development was more in direction the safety. And now we have two liners with a lot of safety, and this makes really sense. So, in the future, I think we have more and more two liners, or it means hybrid two liners, which are, are very performant and also safe.
And maybe the image of these wings are a little bit too good; it means sometimes it sounds that everybody can fly this wing, and for sure, if the, if the level of the pilot is not good enough, this kind of wing can be also very dangerous, and we have to, to take care to not to forget that it's a real high-performance wing. It's an Ed Ewing, and it feels easy, but it can be also dangerous because it's a high-performance wing.
Sure. On that note, where do you see – I know you've been involved in the past with testing and developing for Advance and others, but where do you see wing technology going? Are we going to see another big jump like with the shark nose technology or are all wings in the future going to be light? Where do you see that heading? i
Don't know exactly, but but I think that that many companies work on the wings and, you know, as more, it's um, it's focused on the on on one. Um, for example, these paragliders, as more they can bring um success, it means that the wing in future is is more light, more more performant, and more fun to fly. I think we can have all these points in one product. Maybe it's it's the same with the with the kites. Years ago, there was for different winds, there is a need of five or seven sizes of of sails to change in different wind conditions and um now they have one one wing you're
Sure, you're talking for geyser, yeah, because there's so much deep power now.
Yeah, exactly. It's amazing. Yes, yes, deep power and stability and technology, and maybe in, in, in 10 years we have one, one wing to, to do everything—to do acro and cross country and hike and fly, and then maybe so, um, and then then you can, you can take one wing in the morning and you can do everything. Yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah, um...
Okay, switching, switching gears a little bit. I'm just kind of rolling through these, but uh, mountain weather, your your ability to read... we just had Honza on the show, you who you know, of course, the ex-Alps campaigns, and then he's—he makes a living as a meteorologist, and he was bringing up the three main different kinds of weather being synoptic, so the stuff that we're looking at in the models, and then the localized weather, more geographical, and then the thermic weather, the stuff that changes as the sun passes through the sky. Um, but you, you seem incredibly adept at, um, at reading mountain weather and using it to your advantage while you're in the air, you know, uh, knowing that, you know, seeing Cirrus come in and top landing just in time and then carrying on afterwards.
I realize this is just an hour's thing and intuition, but how do you, how do you teach some of those skills about reading mountain mountain weather to your students and learning that and kind of getting more fingertippy with that type of stuff yeah
It's a good question. I, I think that I started to fly for generally, as I live in the Alps and I never had weather forecast really, and I started to fly without out weather weather forecast. So when I had time beside my work, I tried to fly and in all the conditions. So later on, when I went into to a more organized work, or when I was um trying to go really far for cross country flight, I really tried to to analyze the weather forecast to be more more success, and I never had a really good feeling with the weather forecast because they are often wrong.
So I, I really tried to to feel what the weather does during the day and then when I see, or when I feel that it changed something, then I really think about what I can do because because we can't change the weather, but we can change strategy. And I really tried to do this. And maybe because I started to move in the Alps, to fly in the Alps, without really checking the weather forecast, I get a good feeling about it. Now I really try to understand the forecast and the different models. hotels, and also when I do the hike and fly competitions, I have to know what's happened in the day in the next days.
But then finally, the experience of moving in the in the Alps without forecast helps me a lot, okay?
Um, when you again thinking about your students, you know, let—let's assume that maybe a lot of our listeners are probably in the boat of maybe 100 hours a year, kind of pilots, you know? So, um, maybe a little bit more than the weekend pilot, but not much more, and maybe one or two trips a year. Um, where should these kinds of pilots be focusing most of their time in, in your experience? What—what are the—what are the kind of foundational stuff that—that's—that's really key and maybe often missed?
It's always a mix between training and practice, and for sure, if you have more time, you want to go more, um, progressive successful. Then, for sure, it's better to have more practice, but also you need more training. Focus training, it means safety training or theoretical stuff like weather forecast, planning, all these things. But also ground handling, it's a very important part, especially if the weather, it's not good for flying, but maybe good enough for ground handling. It's good to have one hour in a month of ground handling, maybe in, in limit conditions.
It means around wind of 25 to 30, and in this wind, you can really go to your own limit and you make some progress. It means not only on the, the ground, it means also after in the air, so It's not always, um, flying experience; it's very important. It's also all around, which, which you can, uh, which you can bring you in a better position. And sometimes the normal people, they forgot this practice; they just like to fly, but they're wondering that they don't can make progress, sure.
That's great. Uh, how do you view, how do you view your acro training with your cross country? In other words, how important is it to, you know, become a pretty proficient acro pilot, um, to flying well distance? You know, we saw, we saw that, uh, kind of highlighted this year with, with Pál Takáts, and you know, he did incredibly well in these, you know, obviously amazing acro pilot. Um, but I, I've been trying to push people in into acro for a long time, feeling like it's a, it's a really important discipline. But you know, I, I know you've got a lot of acro background. How do you, how do you view those two? I
Don't think it's really important, but it, it really can help. But in acrobatic, it's more important to have the really good feeling. It means if you don't like this cheap course, it's not efficient to do accurate training because you feel bad and maybe a little bit angry, and then it's, it's very um, it's unprofessional. So it's better to focus on, on your own wing in cross country and do maybe trying to fly um, some precise landings or takeoff in different conditions. It means ground handling in strong wind and, and to, to find out what really is, is your goal and to focus how you can go there instead of doing different disciplines.
It means also you have to have a good feeling on the aerobatic. You also have to change wing, and the wing makes a difference. So sometimes people try to do acro with, with the normal EN B or C wings and they feel it's really, it's really difficult, for example, to fly a sat or a helicopter, and if you take a big acro wing which is made for aerobatic maneuvers. It's a big different; it's much more easy, so you have to really think about that also.
Instruments, Kringle, what do you use? Yeah, what do you use in comps, and what do you use in when you're thinking about weight, you know, like in the X-Alps? And then tied to that, do you do any of the instruments you use? Do they have, do you use like an app that has a thermal mapping tool? Do you use that? And do you use sync tone? And if you do, what threshold?
First of all, I hate sync tone because it makes me nervous. It means I like to have a sign when it's climbing; the beep makes me, um, positive because I know it's going uphill, so I like to to have this sound. But if it goes down, I hate this, so I don't want to know that it goes down. And, uh, I mean, if it, if it's climb, I can change my my turn and sometimes I can optimize. But if it really goes down, for sure you can fly with more speed or less, but in generally you can't really optimize the sink. You understand? It means, um, the climb, it's much more important to optimize than the thing.
And therefore, I also try sometimes to fly with a thermal assistant. This, I get easy from my exit track app. And, yeah, sometimes it helps, especially in the flats, but in the mountains, often it's not important to have this. And my question is, how much help I can use? So, it means too much technique, um, makes me unsure, or I don't know the word, when you check different things and not focusing on the main thing. So, it means too much technique also can lead me to to not focusing on the on the really important thing.
It means thinking about the terminal and and the flight direction, for example. And I really like to have easy instruments, but for the competitions, for sure, this big triangles to calculate all this, you need assistant. So, it's always a mix between, um, the the the discipline and In fact, I need for sure I have my cell phone with the extra track app and the XC Racer. It may, it's a very good variometer with solar, and so I have the the sound and the navigation in two small instruments. And if I go cross country or really competitions, I have my fly master, which also makes the live tracking, the live tracking which I need.
It's very interesting for people at home or also for my own safety. And finally, I also like to have the naviter because naviter, they show me everything on on one instrument. And yeah, so I play always a little bit
So the for the X-Alps, just to summarize for the xops, you're just using phone and XC Racer. In the phone, you use the xc track app, yeah? And then for the competitions, you add, uh, another dedicated vario and the Naviter big one, yeah, gotcha.
yeah that's right
okay yeah
In Xops, I really like to optimize everything, so I have my cell phone, which I have the communication, the XC Track app for the navigation in the air, and the OSM app for navigation on the ground. Okay, and finally, we we also have to carry the Fly Master, and so I had two instruments because it's an electric instrument, so you never know it works or not, so it's good to have a backup. But um, yeah, in competitions I add a big instrument like the Naviter, Oudie-4. Great.
In the last one, we talked about this a little bit, but people are really curious about your work. I'm assuming that your living is made from paragliding. Is there any way, can you parse that out for us in terms of what percentage is guiding, what percentage is sponsorship, what percentage is racing, seeing kind of how you yeah how many how many areas are there and how do they kind of divide up
Yeah, it's—it's always shifts a little because, um, of the—of how much people they ask me to do, for example, um, coachings, or how much companies they ask me to do presentations in the wintertime. But in generally, it's 20, so it's 20 and sponsorship and competitions. And in summer, 20 tandem flights to 20 and coachings and 20 speeches and, um, yeah, depends of the weather. It's always the—the problem of the paragliding pilot, but I like to switch in between the—the nature and the office. And, yeah, I play like this for five years already and it's good to have this job and
How do you the the next question is kind of tied into that, um, you said in the show, the main show, that you fly about 300 hours a year. How do you, how do you manage your work, which is paragliding those 2020, 2020s with your family? That's one of the main questions we get. It's not just really for you, but people that have families are often really curious how professionals like yourself also have families and you have enough time. So the exact question was, do you have dedicated downtime for your family or does that just happen because of weather? How do you manage it? And I I guess it's kind of a long question, but how do you manage the kids and your wife with flying?
Yeah, it's not so easy because of all this work, and I have fixed days where I play with the kids, where I say it's my Sunday. Actually, it's Friday, and I have my plan with the holidays with my kids also. So I try to focus on these days and weeks and so on. They have to fit. Otherwise, it's very difficult, especially when I sit in the office at home and the kids like to play with me. So they have to understand that I stay at home, but that I work. It's my work. And when I was young, it was not so easy to explain them.
But they grow up and it's more and more easy that they understand. And then generally my family have to to understand my mother, my everybody around me, they they learned how it works because you know it's not, it's not often or not usual, just that the sports guy can can bring money for all the family, but I'm, yeah, I go in like this step by step. I was working for Advance in test pilot, and so it was something in between, and now I stay completely self-employed, and yeah,
it's okay.
Chrigel, your Lee and rotor skills are legendary. We got this question a lot. How should people approach that kind of training? Because you talked a little bit on the show about, you know, going out in the snow and flying behind cornices and that kind of thing. But how do people kind of put their toe in the water to develop those skills? Because especially in the Alps, flying in the lee is critical. You just have to do it. But it can be quite dangerous. So how do you approach that with your students, I guess? is
the biggest problem for me, it's to go step by step. It means when I don't know the steps, it's the big danger. So if you fly into a lee, which you don't know if it's a big step or a small, that's the problem you're, yeah, we're, we're honest. And finally, I check my feeling because not every Every day I have a good feeling. Sometimes I feel really comfortable and I can push my limit more. Or it means if I take a big step, a step which normally is too big, I can manage on a really good day. And if I have a bad day, it means I feel bad, I'm a bit angry.
And sometimes I say, I don't like to fly. But because I have to fly, I go. And in these days, the steps have to be really small, because if I take a big step, for sure it's not good. And this feeling, I say it's my stomach feeling, and everybody have this, but we really have to learn to trust or to listen on this feeling, and to trust this, and to go um, only steps with a good feeling. And yeah, it's the only way I can explain, yeah, intuition, okay.
A specific Xops question I really like this one too. Uh, did you know after day three that you would win, given what you saw the others doing? And then, if so, or you thought you maybe had a good chance, did you set any kind of pace accordingly, or do you always just go as hard as you can in
No, when I was lead, I, I really think about to to take care of my energy with my body because I, I had the the feeling that when I stay in front, um, the others have to push, and if they catch me, I still in front, so I can a little bit, um, slow down, and if catch me, I, I can start to push again, end. And this was my tactic, and you know, when you, when I can stay in a lead, I can really enjoy the, the, for example, the decisions I do, I can do it more precise because I'm not in a hurry, and if I take care about my speed, I can take better decisions, and it helps me to be more efficient.
But when we analyzed the tracks, I was really on an edge that, for example, he caught me almost, but finally he did small, imprecise decisions, and it stopped him immediately. And finally, I was a bit lucky that he had to stop his race. For sure, it helps to be more relaxed in the race. And I was really on the border with my knee, so the injury on my knee was not too funny. And I know that when I push too much on the ground, maybe I have to stop too. And I was very careful with walking on the flat.
Jump in here a little bit. What is the single most underrated technique when flying XC? So I'm assuming this question is looking for, you know, is it is it better thermaling, is it better gliding, is it better headspace, is it better training, is it better SIV?
Maybe it depends of the pilot, because and not all the pilots are on the same level, and it's also my work to find out what's the next step for for pilot X, um, not not for for For everybody, it's the same way, the best. And I think generally to have fun, to set some goals, to follow these goals, it's a good way. And for sure, it's good to enjoy the flight. But to be more efficient, it's good to set goals and to reach these goals. Because with all the reach goals, you have better motivation, or a better feeling, you're more proud about yourself; and then you can set the next bigger goal and to try to catch that.
And for sure, you have to know that many details play in, so it means especially the weather if you set a goal It's maybe just 30% you as a pilot, 70% is the weather decide if you can reach this goal or not. But with all the experience you do in this flight, or in this reaching the goal, you can analyze it if it was you or the weather or something else. And as more experience you get, as better you can say how you you can reach or how you can set goals and how you can reach this you
Mentioned fun in there, how important it is to have fun. What do you do? What do you do for fun other than fly? I know you're, you're quite into backcountry skiing and, you know, and I don't know, many people probably don't know about all the other stuff that you do. What's, what's, uh, what's your non-paragliding life look like? Yeah,
I do actually do a lot of, um, endurance training, so hiking up, do trail running in bad weather. I, I like to run without bag just for two, three hours, hiking trail up and down and just to enjoy. And if I go flying, I try to go specific flying on acro training or cross country, or, or carry pilot people with me in a tandem. And for all this, um, flying goals, I take the special specific wing and I try to find the best spot with the, with the weather, actual weather forecast. And yeah, sometimes I really take the best decision of the day and then I'm really happy about.
Sometimes I, I miss and then I can learn from it. And yeah, that's the fun five
X-Alps, what have you learned about food and hydration and blisters? That was one of the questions we did... we did a race, or we did a big, a really good talk with a guy named Matt Wilkes, who's a, in a kind of an expedition, expedition, er, doc, and he had... a they did that fun thing on Kilimanjaro a couple years ago. He was the expedition doc for that, and he wanted me to ask you that: is it, is that really changed, um, over the, over the years of the races, or do you just eat whatever you can now?
I, I push more and more to the limit, and I know that I really have to take care of what I eat because of pushing more to the the limit. And normally, it's it's important to to eat as much as possible, but as faster you go, as more you have to take care what you eat because of the body, that the body can take all the food, all the energy in. And when you, for example, when it's very hot and you push too much on the ground, you have to drink more than four, five liters. It, for myself, it goes up to seven, eight liters a day. And then it's very important to have not only water, that you also take, um, salt and sugar.
And it's also good to have some, um, special salt. It means bouillon to take some, um, you know, the water from the pasta when you cook pasta. Yeah, sure, it's very good to, to drink this, this, um, and so there was small points where we are just during the years, but yeah, the most important is to organize when I go out, when I go away from my support, that I have not too much to carry, not too much food, but, but I have enough. And for this also, I took more and more this, um, carbohydrate powder, which I can do in the water during the walk.
It's around 200 gram, and I can drink and eat with this more than thousand calories, so it's a very efficient, light weight food, food, and Yeah, things like this I learned, and I was very lucky to have no blisters. My feet, my socks with my shoes, almost are perfect. What I did, it's in the normal shoes; they have a very cheap um inlet thing. How do you say that?
yeah yeah which
you can change, yeah, the souls, yes. And what I did is, I organized, or I buy very good souls. It means they, they are made especially for my food on one part, and on the other part, they have a really stable shape. It means when I do running or hiking down, especially the soul stay in shape and not and make some blisters. And I tried a lot of which socks on which soles works well, and when I found out this, I changed his soles in all the shoes, and it's perfect.
that's that's excellent yeah that was my feet look like somebody beating on him with a hammer and the first one in 2015 and we got it sorted this year which which makes things a lot more pleasant. That is, that is a lot of pain. Um, talk to me about speed bar and, and speed to fly. Uh, I, I saw you made a comment, you know, near the end of the race when your knee was hurting really badly, you said it was, it was hard because you couldn't use full speed. Um, I, I think the speed bar, you know, Even for the really good pilots, remains a little, little bit of a mystery to, in a sense. You know that you're, you know, in competition, you're just hammering bar because everybody is, um, but but break it down for us a little bit more and take some of the mystery out of it.
Yeah, finally the question is, how much? It's enough, or how much you have to pull? And, in you know, in in short cross country competitions, most most of the pilots let's fly full full speed because you know exactly where to fly and where it's the best core of the terminal. And then the full speed, it's the most efficient. But in cross country, especially in in in adventure races, when you fly long flights in a day and you fly most of the time alone, then it's not full speed the most efficient. So I changed my tactic to half speed, or maybe three third, uh, three fourth percent, three quarter, and yeah, because then it's more relaxed to fly.
It's less work on the bar or on the b risers, and you can hold this speed for for a long day, day. It means it's more relaxed for your body, for your feets, but if you go in high In very strong wind conditions, for example, if you go down in the valley breeze or in the fun, you have to push more and to to know where is the limit of your equipment, your glider, your body, you have to know exactly what you can do. And it's also good training; for example, in in windy conditions, you have to know what is the limit, so you have to learn this in weak conditions. And you also can train this in normal conditions where you say, "Okay, I do a speed bar training and I fly from each turn to the others with full speed." Maybe it's not important, but I train this feeling, feeling, and like this you can improve your your feeling, your reactions on the on the bar, and then if you have to use it, you know how it works, okay?
We're getting down to the last ones here, uh, or maybe even the last one. Uh, who are your mentors in the sport? And, and why we all have mentors, do you? I can't imagine that you do, but I'm sure you do.
Yeah, no, in Swiss, we have—I have Roger Federer, the tennis player. Yeah, and and he's very strong all the time, and he was very successful, and everybody talks about he have to stop because he will, he will um, not be successful anymore. And he was, uh, for a long time, he was very successful, and he always say, "You know, I just have have fun to play." And I really understand what you mean, and as long I have fun, I like to compete, because in my situation, they are people, they say the same, I have to stop because um, I can't do more than to win, but
I feel that I really have fun in the competitions, and all the competitions are a a new game, new weather, new situations. And so I have my mentor, Roger, that that he really say because he have fun, he like to play I
like that, um, finally your brother, uh, you've done some amazing flights and some really cool videos, uh, with your brother. You guys have done some huge stuff, stuff together, and then of course he's, uh, amazing competition pilot. Are we going to see him and in these kind of races in the future, or is that, that not his bag, I
push him, but he don't really like to walk, and I remember when I start for X-Alps training for X-Alps, I was 26 and I was watching out for a new adventure or for a new life. It means I want to push myself in another direction, it means the enduring sport, and then I was motivated to to train with the goal to do x-ups, and in this period the the level of the athletes was not really really high, but there was Tomoko pushing on the ground, but there was not so many others, they really push hard
At the moment, my brother is eight years younger, so if he likes to start or to do X-Alps, he know what's the level. And when he compare, for example, flying or running, he compare with me, so he compare pair with the with the best. And then it's really hard to to find the motivation to start, but maybe sometimes he will start and then we will see what he can do.
Yeah, yeah, um, Griegel, that's it. Thanks so much. I, I'd love to hear, before we close, you know, what are you, what kind of mode are you in between now and in 2019? Do you even think about the next race for the winner or, um, yeah, tell me, tell me about how you approach that. You've done it five times, you know, I've just done it twice, but it's, it's, uh, you know, I, I, I imagine at the end of the race, you know, I, I always think, okay, I can take a nice long break, but it, it's never that far away, is it?
Yeah, yeah, no, it's especially when I think about the break, then it's too late for 19. So, my opinion, it's to have two years' time to be better. Yeah, so I, I really happy to to focus on I have the big goal, the X-Alps 2019, but I know it's a long time until there, so I focus on small goals and, for example, next year there's X-Pyr, starting starting from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea, crossing all the Pyrenees. And it's also a beautiful adventure race. And to do this, I know I have to do the training. And for this, I plan some ski touring races in the winter.
And now my training is with the Dolomite Man. And next week is Red Bull Elements. It's also a super small or super short hike and fly race. And I do training for this. It means my trainings during maximum one and a half hours at the moment, but very intensive. And then for the winter, I do a break, and then I start with a good ski touring training, and then power training, and then I hope to be ready next summer for the XP. And then I check if everybody fits well. If I stay healthy, I do the inscription for Red Bull X-Alps 2019, and if I select it, I think about to start if
you're selected I
hope they do. I
Think you're kind of a shoe in there? Yeah, cool. That's okay. I gotta ask you one more question about the... about the... you mentioned the X-Pyr and the X-Alps. Uh, I'm going to have Christoph Weber on the show here pretty shortly, and I know he hasn't... you know, Hannes used to be the race director, but it's really mostly just to get his perspective of how the race has changed and, you know, the new rules and, you know, what... what would he change? What would you change about the race if you... you know, you've seen it, you've seen it now five editions. Um, you've changed... you've seen it change from, you know, you could go all night to having a night pass. Uh, you know, there are teams flying with, you know, have four different cars and a whole bunch of people and a bunch of guys in the air.
Uh, you don't do it that way, but you know, what's your opinion on that? And what's your opinion... what where would you like to see the race go? Would you like to see it rewind a little bit, or are these steps they've taken good steps? I
See, two views. One view, it's my view, it means the athlete view; and the other view, it's the event, the organization view. And for the organization, it's clear to to have an a race, an event, which they can sell. And for this, it needs, for example, turn points where they can visit the athletes that they can sell. These turn points, and it also makes it more interesting, maybe for sponsors or fans. But in athlete view, this is the big bullshit, yeah, to to to focus. I'm really on the limit on the on the on the nature on on everything else than to fly down in the town to sign a board.
Yeah, but I think that makes it also unique, this race, that that you have these two sides. And if I can kind of can can do an adventure race where I go alone without any support, um, to try to organize myself all the day, all the night, it will be very, uh, a good adventure. But for sure, it's very close to cheat. It means in this in this rule, every athlete have somewhere there some friends they help with food and and things. And maybe it's very difficult to control this, um, rules. But I also like to have a team because the preparation, it's very interesting in a team.
To race in a team, I feel very good. But everybody have to know by self how much help you need if it's one car or three cars for Us, it was good to have one car, three people, and so we stay really flexible. Everybody had have to run or to fly myself, so it's difficult to have more help. And yeah, actually, I, I say I'm the athlete and I go to a competition with some rules, and I try to, to focus on what we have to do instead of thinking, what's the best to do? Yeah,
And what about the night pass thing? Just curious, because I, I wasn't around when you guys could go all night. Would you prefer that they didn't have that, that you could just go and night pass?
I think it's a bit, um, marketing thing because if, if I can use the night pass, it will be an option when I don't have have to announce it before the night, so to say at 12 in the day what you have to do or where you stay in the evening. That's very difficult, but if you change the rule to to to have a night pass but you can choose for safety, it means if you're not ready at half past 10 to stay in a hut or in an accommodation, then you can use it. Then it's very helpful, but to use it for for pushing, it's very dangerous, or for me it's very dangerous because I know if I don't sleep enough, I will have problems on the next or the next days to
have the right fitness for my decisions and everything, so it's for me, it's not an option to push all the night during the race. Maybe then last night for sure you can do, but yeah, it
Takes it out of you, Chrigel. Thanks so much. Is there, uh, is there anything you'd like to add before we sign off? I really, really appreciate it. I think people are gonna be thrilled with this. No,
For me, it's very interesting to hear all these questions. Maybe in a few weeks or months, they have you have more questions, and then we can speak again. Great, because um, yeah, I like to help other people like this and to spread my experience, so thank you for calling me and putting all this information together, and I am, I like this, yeah.
Awesome. Well, cool. Well, I, I look forward to seeing your presentation in November and, uh, we'll put that up for those of you listening. All the questions that we just asked, those will also be in the show notes and, uh, thanks, Gregor. Talk to you soon and good luck with everything. Thank
You, Kevin, yes, thank you. Cheers, good night, bye.