Thanks for watching! I've just been buried in this house build here between Haley and Ketchum trying to get my family out of the trailer that we've lived in for the last five months since before the X-Alps. It's actually the day after my crash back in May and then X-Alps and then back here. And that whole time we haven't had internet or even cell service at the job site, so it's been really tricky to record and set up recording. So I apologize for being late with this one. We will get back on schedule as always.
And my guest today is Eduardo Garza, a really good friend of mine, Team Mexico in the last two X-Alps. He's had really good races in both and a really, really awesome performance this year. He was kind of hanging tight with the middle of the crew and then had a breakout flight, took a totally different path, went north like Chrigel did, I think a day or two before him, and really made it work and made it through Piz, Peru and to come in 14th place. And we talk a lot about the race. This is basically dedicated to his thoughts on the race four months post race, which is fun. I think we all go through a little bit of post race trauma, depending on what's next and what's in the future.
And he and I are both pretty firmly in the camp of not doing it again. So I wanted to ask him about that. But we get into his experience, which was all good. And talked a lot about the weather and the wind. And some of the scary stuff that we had to deal with this year. And those of you who are fans of the race, I think you'll really enjoy it. Eduardo's got a great attitude. He's an awesome pilot. I think this year was, I think he was first of the non Europeans, which I've gotten a couple of times in my X-Alps. And, you know, it's just tough to go do battle with the Euros. They're on, they got a massive home field advantage. And so we talked about that, but we had a lot of fun with this, a lot of laughs. And I think you're going to enjoy it. We talked about the training quite a bit as well.
You and I both had the same trainer, Ben Abruzzo, who's also supported me and been really integral to my team since the beginning, since the 2015 race. So enjoy this talk with Eduardo Garza. Cheers.
Eduardo, thanks for taking this last minute invite. I know you've been buried in work. I think the last time I saw you were turning circles in Chelan, which sounds like that's a little more fun than the one we had before. what's going on in your world right now. What are you guys, what are you and Bianca up to? What's happening out on the East Coast?
Well, first of all, Gabby, thank you very much for the invite. This is an honor, really, because I really love what you have been doing with the podcast. So it's awesome to be here chatting with you.
Thank you.
So here at the East Coast, we're trying to fly as much as possible, actually. Weather has not been cooperating that much, really, lately. But, yeah, staying in the air as much as possible.
Cool. And tell the audience what you do, because a lot of people that follow the X-Alps obviously know you from that. And you've done the X-Pyr a couple of times, and this was your second X-Alps. But what's your business? What's your background that's not related to flying? How do you pay for flying?
I should ask it that way. I think that's a very good question, actually. I'm an engineer. I'm a mechanical electrician. I'm a mechanical engineer. And I work for a manufacturing company that makes fiber optic cables for telecommunications. So this is an office job. Hey, I just
got fiber optic brought to my house. There you go. Yeah, so you make the stuff that made this possible in some ways. I haven't had internet for the last five months, and I tell you, it's a blessing and a curse.
Yeah, so we build infrastructure, exactly, for all the Netflixes and videos, etc. So it's... It's a very demanding job, and trying to marry that with paragliding has really been a struggle, I should say, lately.
Now, one of the things I wanted to talk to you about is how did the training look this year? Did anything change? Because we both have the same trainer. We both use Ben Abruzzo. I've used him for all four of mine, and you've been using him for years now, and using him for your first X-Alps in 2019. And what you did really well at as well. As well as this one. So I wanted to ask you what changed. But one of the big differences, I always think about you and always feel for you. In some ways, when we look at the top 10 this year of the X-Alps, they're all what I would consider professional pilots. This is what they do, and they get paid to do it. And that's their job. And you're one of the few, actually, in the race who...
You have to find the time outside of a full-time job to prepare for the race. And I always feel like I've got a lot of luxury in that I can just focus on the training going into it. I mean, I still have to... I have my job and my work, but it's not a nine-to-five like you've got. And it must be incredibly hard to find the time. I mean, that's one of the reasons I decided I'm not doing another X-Alps. It's not just the risk and everything I put out in that article. It's the time. It's the dedication to this 12 days that goes into the year in advance. That must be really tough. Yeah. With what you do.
Totally agree. I couldn't agree more, Gavin. That is where the real struggle marrying my profession as an engineer with preparing for something as large and involved as the X-Alps comes from. Normally, in my day, when I am training for the X-Alps, you're talking about starting training at 6 to 7 p.m. So you work full day, eight hours. Then you start training at 6 or 7 p.m. And as you know, with Ben, it's not exactly a walk in the park.
No, it's no joke, man.
He really tries to destroy your body because as Nelson, actually, I was talking to Nelson DeFrayman before my first race. And he said, you either go to war before the race or during the race. So if you go to war before the race, you're going to enjoy it. Otherwise, during the race, you're going to be destroyed. So I tried to put in as much effort and time before the race. And this time around, since you asked about the changes, I asked Ben to increase the volume. Not substantially because I really cannot afford to be training for two or three hours every single weekday. Because in addition, obviously, you have the weekends, which are normally six to seven hours. And in addition to that, where I live, there's really not very high mountains.
So 70 % of the vertical meters that I did in training were done on a 200-meter hill that you cannot fly off.
Oh, my gosh. You're just going up, down, up, down. You're just yo-yoing all day.
Up and down, up and down. You can ask Ben for that. For some of the tracks, it's just like a scratchy line up and down that incline. I know every single rock, every single tree, even by name.
Hello, Fred. Very disappointed to see you again.
Hello. Yeah. So it's really, really challenging. We have taller mountains if I drive between an hour and a half and two hours. But that's not something I can do during weekdays because I'm working. So that's where the challenge is.
I see your posts. I follow you on Instagram, obviously. And I talk to Ben regularly every day. And I see your posts of snowshoeing in the fog and the ice. And I get to go out and ski tour. That's my training is going out and really having fun and getting a lot of vertical and doing all the hell that he puts us through. But you're in a much more challenging zone to get the vertical. Yeah. Yeah. Hats off to you, man. I mean, because you're obviously coming in super fit.
I know. Thank you. Yes. Definitely challenging. And that's why I'm always trying to find an edge. You know, how can I compete against some of the best hike and fly athletes in the world with limited time and limited resources in terms of, you know, the vertical and also the fact that we're in America, which is a huge, I think, disadvantage. Yeah. Yeah. We are not in tune or flying with the weather conditions or the valley systems that are a world of difference when it comes to staying in the air and just making easy kilometers. For example, we don't have that second like nature of knowledge that comes with living in the Alps.
So it's definitely challenging. But I have really appreciated that challenge. And that's why every time that we do or we finish in a decent position is really rewarding.
Yeah. That really hit me in 2019. Not so much this time because it just seemed like the weather this time was so brutal, man. It was just so bad. And all of it was so bad. And still very fun. And we flew every day. It was, you know, fascinating. I think what, you know, I was just talking to Ben. I told you I was talking to Ben earlier today. And the thing that this is always the time, you know, it's been four months since the end of the race. This is always the time where it really starts to hit me that to not do another one is starts to feel really scary. I don't know. I don't know. That's not the right word. It's just that race puts you in places with your teeth.
That you're never, ever going to be able to replicate. And I don't mean just locations. I don't mean places in terms of that spot on top of that mountain. I mean, places emotionally and physically and, and the beauty, all of it is just, it's the intensity of, of the experience that I can't replicate. I know I can't replicate it. You know, if Ben and I got together and went and did a whole bib in the Alps. That's going to be really fun and very rewarding, but it's not going to be the same. You're not going to get out of bed and go do the stuff that we do day after day after day. And there's something very special about that. And yeah, so let me turn that into a question that you've had now that you've had this time of reflection, you know, I did see you very briefly at the awards.
You had a really bitching end to that race. You made some awesome moves. You had an incredible. Yeah.
You had a really good end to the race. You had a really good end to the race. And so, you know, you like all of us at the end are kind of on a cloud nine at the awards, but also, you know, I saw the same look in your eyes that I did with everybody, which was kind of Jesus. That was intense. I'm sure it was the same look you saw in me. You know, you're exhausted. You're thrilled that you're excited to be alive. At least I was.
but what's what have you had you know what's been the reflection since what what are the kind of emotional roller coasters if you've had any I know I have since then you know what do you kind of go through and because now you've done it twice you're a proper veteran I'm curious because I think we each have our own unique experiences after the race and that's always after has been really tough for me you
know Gavin I agree with you that after a few months pass after the race you uh you forget about the painful bits and you start thinking oh this will be really cool to do I can't right yeah and uh certainly after this race after all the weather and everything that happened uh you put it in perspective but to be honest I don't regret a thing and this reminds me a lot about a book I read and and most likely you're familiar with it it's uh how to get in flow and it's written by this now famous person uh Mijali she says Mijai right yeah and I'm sure I butchered that last name by the way so I follow no no that was good but uh in this book he he has a quote that says uh the best moments in our lives are not when we are
doing nothing just relaxing that's not where your best moment is going to be your best best moment in your life will happen when your body or your mind or both are stretched to its limits trying to accomplish something that is difficult and worthwhile so I think that we accomplish that so this goes down in my experience as something that I'm gonna remember for you know the rest of my days and it's one of the you know best moments in my life just because we we push the limits we pass the limits and we're still here yeah
yeah yeah I don't know if you saw that recent article I wrote in cross country about I haven't actually seen it but Ben said it's out you know about this being my last one you and I talked about it briefly at the awards that night you know geez man should we could we do it again uh I really felt like the the risk was absurd this year uh you know and we're all in different places in the course I mean I know you know Aaron Durogati said that he had many times where he thought it was definitely life-threatening you know what he was doing was way beyond what even he trains for and as you know you know he trains he trains in some awfully nasty stuff um because he wants to you know he's pretty fearless uh
you know but I felt like you know so we all we were all in different positions but you know I I specifically remember the day where Lori you know through her reserve they didn't put this anywhere on the in the media they don't talk about bad stuff in the ex-alps but you know she took off basically with you and Cody and a couple others from Laramouse that day and about the same time I you know I don't know exactly I got there later that day and you guys were you know in my from my perspective on the ground at Laramouse you know we're flying the full-on lightning storm and it was it was vicious the sky was insane I mean it wasn't Revis was kind of like yeah man yeah I think you should you know you could probably get up there and make it work I don't know I think it might be good time to just walk for a bit and that was the day that Lori you know went parachutal because the rain um through a reserve to you know because she was coming down on high tension power lines and and you were making it work that day in the air but man it looked dicey and and it was just you know the next day and the next day and the next day I flew and stuff that looked just like that it was just over and over and over again we were in just vicious weather really traumatizing and but it wasn't it's but it's weird it's not it would be traumatizing if we were just normally flying but it was it wasn't it's not traumatizing because you're in the race yeah bring it um but what do you think I mean is it acceptable I mean did you when you finished the race when you were done I mean because that day at the awards you were kind of yeah I don't know I don't think I'm going to do this again I'd be curious where are you sitting on it now are you still thinking that are you thinking yeah yeah better do it once more you
know I'm still thinking that I don't think I'm doing it again just for simple reasons because it's it's just too much time that you need to invest and right now I don't have the time and I did it twice already so pretty much check uh but not not a lot about the risk though uh it's more about the stress that went into preparing for a race with COVID and again with yeah that's yeah that that was that was the worst because I didn't have any any plane tickets uh a month prior to the race uh so there was a lot of preparation at the end that had to go through so the only way that I would do this again is if I live in the Alps there's no other way uh so uh that's uh that's a definite now regarding regarding risk
you know let's um let's just be truthful you cannot play conservative and still try to finish in the top 10 top 15 not even top 20 if you play it conservatively you have to risk it you have to fly if you have 60 kilometer per hour winds from the north and you're launching south you have to manage that's that's I think what you have to do every single day uh you mentioned the day that I flew with Cody with Theo uh Laurie and uh Nicola actually from Lermos I remember that day vividly because we were at launch together and Laurie launches first and she just goes up like okay so it's working it's perfect and beautiful at this point we didn't know if we were going to take the northern route or the southern route or southwestern route uh through the Albrecht Pass so uh I told my team I'm going to make the decision once I'm in the air
so I launched at the end because I was missing a cable so there's four gliders in the air everyone getting getting really tall so when I launch and I pass the Grubichstein Peak and I see to the north it's pretty much like you described it was just nastiness lower cloud base there was darkness in the valleys there was it was a dark omen on the north south you know what decision made we're going south and actually to the south it was it was pretty nice for the beginning it was mellow two meter per second we're just scratching the peaks I was with at this point I didn't see Cody which later I learned that he had taken the northern route so he was he was going towards the darkness so I I couldn't figure that out but uh Theo and Nicola were team flying with me so we got to a point in Imst that someone flipped the switch it's from mellow conditions to nuclear conditions so I'm in a thermal I'm entering this thermal and I'm gladly going up but I remember that we have airspace on top right so yeah um Nicola and Theo are around me and they start spiraling so like okay you know that's where is
that where Theo got his airspace violation or no that was on
Nicola yeah Nicola got his airspace there uh yeah so I start spiraling as well lightly first and I'm still going up so now I crank the spiral even more and I'm still going up so I'm from 300 meters now I'm 200 meters from airspace it's like this is not letting up so now I have to crank whole spiral full g-force and unfortunately I am still going up so at this point
holy smokes it's
just so much so much noise just going up from the barrier to the top of the airspace and I'm still going up and also now from the airspace alarms that that I just keep the spiral but uh I get to a point where now I get sucked into the cloud so now I don't know where I am and as you know that area is big picks everywhere yeah so I have all this noise around me I don't know if I'm in airspace and I'm still cranking probably five g's and when I think that nothing else can go wrong
I hear a loud snap but it was more of a crack I sink into the harness and I feel a sharp pain on my lower back it's like now I'm in trouble because something is happening with my harness now and I cannot keep this g-force going on for so much longer until I fall from the sky you broke your harness the harness yes because of the g-force it was so nasty the thermal was just bouncing me around and this is this is not a harness problem this is a conditions that I was in cranking the spiral problem
so probably I was two minutes or it seemed like forever but I think it was more like probably 30 seconds uh but I get dumped finally behind the mountain so I I get released from this monster thermal and I know where I am now uh fortunately I didn't spiral into a peak uh so now that I see where I am I pushed forward and the crazy thing is and this is what VX-Alps does to you you just keep flying you're probably shaking a little bit you're you're scared you're thinking that but you're thinking where can I get my next climb so I don't have to land and keep hiking so
and after that we got downwashed in the arbor class uh with the west wind so I land uh middle hill and then we just walked and walked and walked and walked but uh but yeah that that day was definitely a scary one and by the way I regarded the harness uh I thought it was the the air bladder that had burst but uh but no it was one of the rods uh in the back that had broken so that was that was just uh pretty much sticking out and but it was all you know it was still flyable obviously uh but uh obviously it was all wobbly and not proper for control
so you were able to just fix it? did you fix that on the fly did you have a spare or something? what
I did was I shifted my body so it was not uh affecting me for or too much for my flying and in the air I called my team and said you know what guys I need I need a new harness so uh you know next flight that was all set that was it yeah yeah
it's it's it's funny what we do in the air isn't it you just you do all kinds of stuff up there that normally it'd be yeah it's it's I have some pretty amazing conversations with Revis while I'm cruising around in the in the chaos sometimes where the hell am I um yeah so when you when you look back and maybe this was the same at the end of the race or now but what was that when you think about the X-OPS do you have a standout you know what was the best experience that you had in those 12 days during the race?
you know best experience I have I have many many really good experiences uh that you can catalog differently because when you see people go out and greet you and help you and feed you and try to help you in any way they can and they have a huge smile on their face and you have just walked 80 kilometers and you are devastated physically but you still find the energy to you know what you feed from their energy and now you feel great and nothing bad has happened and it's all you know it's all amazing it's all great so I had a few experiences like that uh I remember in Berbia so Yael's hometown
I land down Berbia a little bit lower and this this guy comes and greets me like oh you're X-OPS okay yeah uh I'll show you the way uh you can just hike here and then you can launch you can keep going down the road like okay sounds good so we keep hiking and then more people start coming actually his brother starts coming so he's like okay I'll take you I can take it from here uh I'm the Pino Raja relay so we'll go up uh this uh this road here and you'll get to to launch in about 30 minutes I don't think you can do it today but we'll find you a place to sleep no worries I'm like all right next thing I know this person's father and I believe his his name the the guy who actually hiked with me is Joshua and I'm sorry if that's not the name but Joshua's father comes out with the biggest biggest cowbell that I've seen and he's cranking it bang bang bang bang bang bang bang he's super excited and he's giving me tea he's giving me food he's like everything else if your team is not coming
because I think that they are a little bit far away because because they were watching the race and they knew that I had launched from Mont Blanc on the Col d 'Enclave which I think that you flew from the same one say yeah exactly so yeah Jason had hiked with me and he couldn't because he had crazily uh this is why we called him the mule his nickname was the mule he was carrying two backpacks his wing and and then another backpack with uh winter gear because it was pretty cold and also rain gear because it was thunderstorms rolling through so he couldn't fly with that so he had to walk down so they were like three or four hours behind me and so I get to the top and we go to this little restaurant and I'm like oh my god I'm going to and they find us an actual uh connection for the Tesla because our other car uh was a Tesla and we just brought out a juice so they didn't only find that but they brought us you know beer and food uh the father actually cooked everything it was a sumptuous it was a really really good meal so I have really really good uh memories from from that day just because of how the people behave with us and well part of the reason was that no one went through there it was only Maurer yeah and they were like Maurer came through here but he was thousand meters above us a
typical story about now yes I get those along the way yeah Maurer came through here two days ago yeah
yeah yeah we know we know uh no no but they were they were super cool they were super cool uh so on on that uh let's say category of people it's it's always uh very good stories from the 2019 race and from the 2021 race the people are amazing the Alps they really follow the race so I love that now from a from a flying perspective you know partly why I do this race is I love those mountains I'm constantly impressed by what I see so in this race I flew or we flew in areas that I had no idea that they were so beautiful like for example uh after Santis that you fly south and now you have to launch and cross Valencia in order to get to Klausen Pass
just flying that area I had never seen it before like I was impressed I even did a few a few turns just to you know to gather everything uh take some videos pictures etc and then I kept going because it was just so beautiful same thing happened with the back side of uh Innsbruck you know north of Innsbruck flying from Agenze towards Lermos towards Gatimisch let's say so I flew the the southern part that didn't take the let's say the smaller mountains in the north I was just impressed at this wall that just appeared when I rounded the corner probably 800 meters high 800 meters high completely vertical extending for 10 kilometers I was just uh dumbfounded of such beauty you know so so many days like those uh just just looking at the sites it's it's just amazing so that's another category
that's a stunning place to have that kind of event it really is terrific I mean just the the opportunities for top landing and side landing and relaunching and you know you can you can just put it down almost anywhere launch anywhere and you know basically if you go up you're going to find something that works and it's yeah it's a really it's a labyrinth too you know this time when I got to Lermos this year you guys had just gotten in the air and and you know we made the call that yeah it'd probably be better to walk and and I just started walking down the road that was on the north side of where you were and and that leads to the the valley that leads up to the wharf pass which was what was kind of my plan a you know before the race you know you look at all the routes and that was kind of what I was planning to do and I was like I'm going to go to the north side of where you were planning to go through and I had no idea until that you know that night just turned into a
catastrophe of epic fun it was it was it and I use catastrophe specifically because it was you know I walked and then we tried to you know I found this launch in the ski area that was really dicey getting off I had to run down it was completely cross and all covered around in trees and just a classic exhaust experience was really fun and then I literally went about a kilometer and you know the winds just were totally opposite of what we wanted and you know so I spent all this time on the road and I was like I'm going to go to the north side of where you were and I was like I'm going to go to the north side of where you were and I was like I'm going to go to the north side going uphill and went nowhere which had been at that point my race and uh you know just a series of bad luck and bad decisions and and then but that put us in this position of launching off the castle I don't know if you saw that footage I launched off this castle that night and got a 70 to 1 glide in this sky that was just you knew it was going to unleash at any moment and it did as soon as my feet hit the ground you know I just had this insane glide and you know covered a bunch of ground and you know I was like I'm going to go to the north side of where you were and I was almost caught up with you guys in terms of the distance kind of thing uh Lori was right there and you know so we'd had a pretty good day even though a lot of it was was on the ground and the next day it put us into this worth pass zone and I had no idea that's where Firebird used to be and Robbie Whittall you know cut his teeth there and he used to say that that was the most complicated most dangerous place to fly in the Alps and because it's just a super convoluted it's almost like the Furka Grimsel
type of scenario where you've got a lot of different passes a lot of different stuff coming in that's right before the big jump over to Santus and um and I it was just fascinating to be up in there and you know I had studied it and studied and studied it on Google Earth and I got in there and literally just couldn't get my head around it it was it was just well where are we which way are we going and uh you know it was but beautiful stunning and you know chairlifts all over the place and uh you know it was just it was just it was just it was just it was just it was just uh you know it was definitely one of those kind of days where it wasn't very flyable that day it was pretty nasty but it was one of those days where you had to just stop every once in a while and go this is really neat this is a really cool zone I don't know if I'll ever be back here
exactly it's it's just mind-numbingly beautiful stunning and by the way I also got lost I didn't know exactly where to go when I got to Arlberg Pass there were so many little like uh canyons or valleys that I could go through it's like okay wait a second I studied this why can't I figure it out so you say it's elaborate that was the perfect description because it was like that but now I have to say that us not being from the Alps obviously are a little more foreign to all those nuances but how we try to get through that is not only Google Earth or just checking maps
we also tried more on a simulation based so with a VR headset and flying a glider in simulation wow we actually do that traverse the route I think I did that route two or three times how
do you how do you do that in Google Earth but with VR or how do you you can do it you
can do it in Google Earth however the app just gets you dizzy so there is this uh piece of software it's it's a simulator really it's a it's called a condor simulation they uh they use it a lot for for sailplanes so you're really flying a sailplane so you cannot really learn how to fly an area because also the weather models you can see it but you can see it exactly so the topography and the textures used are actually ultra realistic so you can really learn all the the nuances the little spots little hills in front that might be triggers or you fly on the high side and how that connects to the next valley and everything you can do it on a 2d screen obviously but if you really want the immersive experience you can get like an Oculus 2 headset and just fly fly with that and you're you're sitting in a cabin right you're seeing your glider and you're just flying around doing circles you know you still have thermal even though the weather model is is very simplistic it doesn't have valley winds and you know you see a cloud you're going up kind of thing so you can do it on a 2d screen so it's not it's not that that difficult let's say it's a really good tool to learn the topography and and at least in my case you know we we explore the fact that we don't have a lot of big mountains here and for me the the psychology aspect of being immersed in only you know probably our highest mountain that we fly here is thousand meters you know and 1500 meters
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not in that world. So if you use virtual reality, you can get past that threshold where now you feel confident about flying among such a scenery and such a, you know, big mountains.
When you, when you came into this one, you, you talked to a little bit about, you know, increasing the volume on your training to the extent that you could, cause you were working, but did you come in? I remember in my first, you know, my going in 2015, I was terrified initially before the race. Cause I hadn't done, you know, you had done the X-Pyr twice or once before, twice before the, before the X-Alps. So you had some, some serious hike and fly experience. I had none. I was just going in kind of cold. So I had done all the physical training, but I was just terrified in terms of, you know, am I just going to be totally left in the dust? Am I going to get eliminated? You know, I had, I really had no idea what to expect. So I'm assuming you came in with a little more confidence than I did because you'd had those X-Pyr experiences, but what was the frame of mind difference between the first one and the second one?
You know, cause your, your first one, I can't remember exactly where you placed 16th. Yeah.
So it was, it was, you know, you had a really good race and lots of fun. You know, unfortunately you were with me, we were in that gaggle that did not work. And I was like, well, I'm going to do it. And I was like, well, I'm going to do it. I didn't make it to Monaco, but you know, it was, it was a very, by, you know, comparison standards, insanely tame compared to 2021. Um, you know, we had our, you know, you had that gust front experience, but we had hardly any wind. We didn't have any fern. We didn't have much weather other than, you know, in the middle of the race, we had a lot of that rain and, you know, it wasn't very thermic, but I wouldn't say it was scary, you know, or is this one was really scary, but how did the, how did going into the two races, you know, did you feel a lot more confident? Did you feel different? Did you feel, uh, what, what were your goals going into this one?
I definitely changed the goals in this one. 2019, I was more worried about, well, how am I going to be competing against this crowd? And I was a lot, I would call it more uptight or more anxious about how that would play out. 2021, I knew I was going to be able to keep up and I knew the pace that everyone had. I, so that was, I think one of the big shocks in 2019, I was just surprised about the, the insane fast pace that everyone had. There was no weak team. Everyone was pulling at the same speed. Uh, so 2021, I was, I was prepared for that and I knew that I was going to be able to keep up.
So what I try to do is remove the anxiety and say, you know what guys, let's have fun. Let's try to have fun and do the best we can. That's all we can, because obviously we had a lot more challenges with COVID and everyone was kind of an edge and it will just happen or not. So I said, you know what, let's take it easy. Let's try to have fun. And that was our, our approach, obviously, you know, some days were not as fun with all the weather that we actually had. And you know, this, this scary, uh, situations that we were immersed in. Uh, but that was, that was a different approach for sure.
Hmm. What was the scariest situation you had? Was there a standout or, or maybe scariest or worst? I don't know.
You know, that, uh, situation around that was pretty, that was, that was up there, but that was, that was only a part of the flight. After that, it was fine. Before that, it was fine. It was not a long flight. The thing was only 50k. Where I had a lot more opportunity to get scared was on the flight from Berbia to Bellinzona.
So we started the day, uh, we knew that the North Fund was going to be around seven to eight or even higher if the pass goes. So we knew that it was a risky decision to actually go North, but I felt a lot more confident of taking the North route, because I know the Sion Valley and I know that the mountains are high. So as long as we stay high, it shouldn't be much of a problem. What I didn't take into account was that we were going to have 50 kilometer per hour winds from the Northwest and the mountains on the other side of the Rome Valley, let's say the, uh, Mont Jungfrau, Eiger, uh, Massif on the other side was,
in my opinion, going to block a lot of that air. Well, that definitely didn't happen. So I tried to stay high. We did a few hops in the morning. We started early. It was classic flag hiking fly. It was beautiful. Just, just practicing that in Switzerland is just gorgeous because you launch and now you land on the next ridge. You hike up again, another 300 meters. You did that again and keep doing it until conditions get good. And now that you have some altitude, now you can actually go to the South faces on the North side of the valley. But I didn't have the opportunity to do it. I was just trying to get the air. I was just trying to get through the mountains and through the mountains and through the mountains and through the mountains. And at this point that was, I was feeling really tired and it was shaded on the South side. So once the sun started hitting me, once they started transitioning to the North side of the Rome valley with this warmth, I just, I just went to bed.
I just fell asleep and, and I'm not talking about closing your eyes for five seconds and then, you know, start just, uh, regain control again. No, I'm talking about deep sleep. You know, I was dreaming, I
was dreaming about the sun and the mountains and the mountains and the mountains and the mountains and
Actually, I was probably out for one minute or a minute and a half. I was dreaming that I was back in Mexico and my mother was actually cooking food for me. All of a sudden, I start feeling that something is hitting me and I wake up. Now I'm close to the actual faces, huge faces. And by this point, I'm in Loic, Loic, that valley.
And it's hail, big hail coming down. So I cover my instruments because I think that they are going to get broken. But the hail doesn't let up and it just starts getting louder and louder. So now I look up to my wing and I just hope that this hail is not going to puncture the wing, you know, and I'm going to be falling from the sky. So I just want to get out of there quickly. And by the way, I'm trembling at this point because it's just. So cold because now I'm under the cloud. So I press bar, get out of there as soon as I can. So after two minutes, hail just subsides and now everything's fine. But now I'm heading to this big faces and we have the north wind really acting on at this point, as well as the northwest wind.
So I am heading into into a big, nasty trap. And I don't know about it, but I do see an eagle that is probably 100 meters in front or 200 meters in front, 50 feet below me.
And then I see this eagle in seconds, 200 feet above me. I'm like, OK, hang on. The road is coming. It's going to come. And the eagle was out of shape. Right. So it was like that eagle is not really maintaining the wings open. I. I hope I have good luck on this one. So I hit the thermal and whack is just the wing disappears, totally disappears after seconds. It just comes forward. But it has a huge cravat at this point. I think we can call it the cravat. It was like completely in on the right side. So as you can imagine, it just starts winding and winding and winding quake. And I don't have much control at this point.
So I'm thinking about throwing the reserve. But. I'm not going to do it with that rotation. So I need to stop the rotation first. Yeah. So I buried the left brake. I stalled the wing. So now I'm falling and I look down. I still have some altitude to to play around and try to save it. So I release hands up. Wing comes up and now it's only 30 percent thing. So like, OK, this is more manageable. Weight shift, brake on the on the open side. Pump the the outer. And it releases. And now I'm flying again.
So I start thermaling after that. And now I start feeling the effects of the Northwest wind. It was there was not a second that I could actually stay in the thermal without feeling the texture in the air. Huge textures between two meters per second to four meters per second. And then I'm sinking on the on the next half of the circle at three meters per second. So everything is sinking. Every single meter was was gained with huge lift and then huge sink. So it was a combination of fun and the Northwest wind. And it actually was a very good luxury because I mean, if you see hail, there's a lot of energy in the air. But that energy is being revolted down, down in the on the ground. And that nastiness is just coming up and it's getting you.
So I get in contact with my team because now I'm at FIS and I have to make a decision whether or not I'm going to be able to do it. I can stay on the northern route towards Andermatt. Or I should cross Simplon Pass towards Domodossola. So they get back to me and say, weather for tomorrow is definitely better on the south. So now you can cross. And by the way, this is the reason why I decided in the northern route. I was definitely more confident on the Sion Valley because I knew it. But also. I could actually divert at this point without being less efficient. Take that south route or keep on the northern route. If you take the southern route, there's no way you can go to the northern.
So you get stuck down there. You pretty much have to traverse all those bunnies that are south of the Matterhorn, Dufour Spit, etc. So now I'm heading towards Simplon Pass. Well, a little bit to the east of Simplon Pass. But I look at my speed and it's 90 kilometers an hour. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. So I know that big mountains are coming. And you're
going to take a spanking.
Yes. So I see this huge wall. I don't know the name of the mountain. But I was probably 3,200 meters. And I'm just cruising. I'm just whistling by. I get to the peak a little bit after. And the thing starts. It was not rowdy. But I was going down at 8 meters per second. Four, six, eight. All the way almost to the ground.
So you're on the south side now. You've cleared the Simplon or wherever you want to cross. Correct. You're on. So I'm on
the south side. I'm a little bit north of Domodossola. And pretty much I'm looking at crossing that last ridge. You know that the Most of the Valley takes you to Locarno where Lago Maggiore is. So the problem with that route is the airspace. Exactly. The airspace. And normally how you fly it is on the north side. But with this northwest wind, there was no chance that I can take the north side without bumping into the airspace. So I have to take the southern route. But not after saucering and flying backwards for at least, I would say, 10 kilometers. Just trying to gain altitude again after the huge sink.
So I was almost at the ground. But I'm saucering. When I point into the wind. I'm going backwards 10 kilometers an hour. But it lifts still. And then I go down. Saucer, saucer, saucer. All the way to the last ridge. Where now I'm put in this little canyon with only a river. There were absolutely no landing stones out there. For sure. But somehow I was clear in my mind. I was not worried. I just wanted to figure out the situation. Because now I didn't feel any northwest because I was low enough. But now I was feeling. The wind coming down from the high mountains on the east. So once I figured that out. I saw the western face.
And then got out of there. And kept on going. You know it was one of those situations in the exiles where your brain is so used to flying in these conditions. That you know you're rising above it. It's all
making sense. Exactly.
You start making sense out of this. Your body is like, yeah, yeah. No worries. We'll just keep on going. So now my team tells me that I need to get to a certain height to cross Lago Maggiore without a problem. I get to that altitude. We cross it. And now it's almost the end of the day. And I'm heading to Bellinzona on the south side. And as you know the airspace. And this is the reason why people fly the north side. Because the airspace on the south side. South side is impossible. Encroaches you to the mountain. But I had never flown there. I have no clue. So I just keep on going until I notice that it's a little too late to find a landing zone. Because the west wind is pushing me. And I'm not penetrating west again.
So I'm heading towards this trap. This literal trap. The landing zone is against the mountain. So I have two options. Airspace or trip. So I just keep on going. I say, you know what? I'll find something. I'll figure something out. So my brain is still trying to figure out.
That's a very treed area. I know this part of the world. Really well. That was Bellinzona is a place I've flown a ton. And yeah, the south side is all trees. Thick trees.
Big trees. Exactly. So there was no clearing. Big, thick
trees. There's no clearing. There's no openings. There's no wow. What did you do?
But I didn't know that. So I just kept going to see if the trees were actually blocking a small landing zone that I was not seeing from afar. I just keep on going. I'm getting lower on top of the trees. Like, okay, well.
I guess I'll just keep going. I'll have to figure it out once I get to the end. So the airspace, I was literally five meters from the airspace. Okay. And I finally see. The
CTR, the bad one, the one that goes all the way to the ground there. It was past the
CTR. Because
there's the wings on. Oh, wow. It was past the
CTR. So there is a hole. Yeah,
it's here
in one of the wings. Because the steps actually are a little bit higher every single, I think it's two kilometers, three kilometers. Yeah. So the steps that I got to, now that opened up a small gap between the airspace and the treetops. But the landing that I found was a tiny thing that was below airspace. So I didn't really know if I was going to be able to just go to the treetops and then scoot in the airspace and then land. So I was like, you know what? This is my only option. So let me try it. And so I park it into the wind. So I'm facing west. My wingtip is five meters from the airspace, literally, because I was, I zoomed in and my instruments, a hole I could. And I was like, okay. And I could see that any small movement changed the line.
It's like, oh, okay. So I'm four meters. No, three meters. Okay. No, no. The other way. So now I'm sinking on top of the trees. I'm going down to the trees. I just see the trees coming up and I don't see the airspace in my instrument letting up. It's like, you know what? Might be a tree land. So I just keep going down. And at the last second, literally, I probably had 20 meters that I can scoot under the airspace and then
five seconds
later land. Oh my God. No way. That's awesome.
No way. You did. I had that exact flight. I started in Belenzona in 2015 and ended in Orsières, which is right across the pass from, from Verbier. So you did the reverse. So I know exactly what you're talking about. And I didn't take the Simplon. I was a little bit north of that kind of between the Simplon and the Newfoundland. But going the other way and I was battling a hell of a headwind in 2015, but I was, I watched you on live tracking a lot that day. You just had one. When you decided to go north, I thought you made the biggest mistake. I just thought, man, I don't know. That's, you know, Chrigel did it and he really made it work. But I saw with that North Fern coming, I thought you were just, you know, usually North Fern, it's, it's not very flyable on the north side when it's a strong North Fern, cause it's low cloud base and rainy and, and nasty.
And that's what got all those, that's what got Maxime and all those guys, you know, being on the south in that, in
that, in that area. And I was, I was in the
South Fern day and Chrigel later said he didn't think it was very strong South Fern, but you know, I can tell you when I was in the, I was in the same place as he was, but further north that day when he was having his breakout day, I was trying to get to fish on the, you know, basically backdooring into Titlis kind of what we did the year before in 2019. Cause and, and I could see the South Fern just dumping in over the Andermatt in that area. I mean, it's sure it's certainly looked like South Fern to me. It was a nasty day. It was.
It was,
you know, 50 K plus at the peak tops and really ugly, but you know, and those guys were on the south side where, you know, usually when it's South Fern, it's not very flyable in the south side cause it's just, you don't have the sun it's rainy. And so I thought you were putting yourself in a terrible position and you really made it work. That was, that was genius. That was great. And I mean, that's a hundred and you did about 180 K on course line that day, I think, right? And that's
something like that. Something like that. It was a big day. Yeah. Yes. I was, I was just drained physically and mentally because you know, mountains in Switzerland are not exactly small. So we did a lot of little hops and the little hops means like, you know, you do 800 vert every single time. And then just as a mental drain of, okay, I need to figure out what to do. Right. So I think that was a, all in all, it was a good day, although it could have turned bad really easy. Very easy.
Yeah. Yeah. What a breakout day. That must've been so exciting and so fantastic. And I would imagine too, you know, that route doesn't lend itself very easy to the chase three way out ahead of your team. Were they able to stay up with you? Because that's a very roundabout, uh, it's, it's hard to keep up. Yeah.
You certainly know what you're talking about because my next comment was going to be, well, my team was three hours behind.
Isn't that awesome? Yeah. Crushing my team. They can't even keep up.
Normally when your team cannot keep up with you, it was a good day for sure. That's a good day. For sure. Yeah. That's
a good day. That's a good day. Eduardo, you mentioned, um, you know, the kind of, this is what really, it didn't hit me so much in the first couple of races, but it really hit me in 2019 was the lack of, you know, I think compared to the Europeans, you and I have, have, sorry, compared to North American pilots, you and I have quite a bit of experience in the Alps. But compared to the Europeans, it's just a joke. And in, in 2019, it really, it was actually really discouraging. I came out of that race. Cause I really felt like that in a lot of ways was my best race in terms of the decision making and, and the ground game and the fitness and, and, uh, and still, you know, it was, we had one bad day and it just wrecked us, uh, in terms of getting to Monaco and stuff. And, and the bad day was, was up here.
It had nothing to do with the terrain, but it did, you know, there were a number of days, before that, that really just, it just really came down to local knowledge. Often it was just, I just consistently found myself in places where I really didn't know what to do. And, you know, there's an argument that that's just piloting skills and, you know, you get better as, as you fly more and, you know, you can figure it out on the fly like Chrigel does, but it was also just, it really struck me that year that, man, we are really at a disadvantage. Um, you know, just not having the races. Yeah. There and the time and the, just knowing the lay of the land, because it is a labyrinth. It is a very complicated place. You know, we, you know, flying here in the Rockies, you get up and you go east, you know, and, and there's not, you're not dealing with a lot of Fern.
You're not dealing a lot with, you know, the Valley winds are very predictable. They're not complicated. And, uh, anyway, my, it's a very long way to ask a simple question, you know, do we have a chance? You know, do the, do the. Do the people that are, you know, hopefully going to follow in our footsteps and, uh, you know, join up for races like the X peer and the X-Alps, uh, from over here in the side of the pond. Cause I, you know, I think you were the first non-European this year. I've had a couple of those nicknames is always a hard one to battle, but you know, for the most part, it's a Europeans race and certainly at the top 10, you know, is that discouraging to you? Is it encouraging? Does it bother you?
You know, it can, it can sound discouraging. Uh, we still have our experience and we, uh, establish our goals based on that perspective that, you know, we don't know the area and, you know, be being happy with your performance means, uh, how close you are to your expectations. Right. So you have to tame your expectations, but, uh, having always expectation that you're going to be outside the top 10 or it's going to be tough to finish. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere
Jared Ranere Jared Ranere
Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere Jared Ranere You know, they've flown around the Alps a lot. So they can extrapolate the situations that they have already been in and apply it to, you know, the particular challenge that they have in the route. But we don't have that. You know, I don't fly with a valley system. So I have to figure it out and potentially bomb out at a higher probability than them. So I like the scouting. I feel a lot more encouraged with the scouting. So to answer your question, I think it's going to be very tough for a non-Alpine team to actually place top five.
And I'm not saying it's never going to be done, but it's going to take definitely more effort than teams that are already in the Alps training there and knowing where to fly and where to go, etc.
Yeah, I think another aspect. Of it is just flat out. Hours in that kind of endeavor, you know, until we have, you know, when you look at Chrigel. He went from the X-Alps to the Eiger to the Verco to the, I mean, he's done over a half a dozen since the end of the race. I haven't done anything, you know, and it's, it's I think there's also that aspect of it that, you know, the other side of it is, you know, the young guns that are coming up into this. You know, we didn't have to worry about them too much in 2015. You know, it was an experience thing. And now, you know, these young guys are really good pilots and they really know.
And this was a uniquely hard year on the rookies. That was interesting. I thought it was really interesting. But, but typically, you know, the rookies historically have been able to do pretty well. And anyway, I think it's the other. The other thing that's hard. For me emotionally or that, because it only happens every two years, you know, I come out of this with a ton of takeaways and a ton of things that, okay, I would do this differently and I'll change that. And, you know, this year I went in with a ton of mental coaching from Tom Thomas, you know, Kriegel's coach. And, and, and I, you know, I really tried to rejigger my head around, like you said, expectations and goals and all that kind of things. And then you get to try this and you don't get to try it again for two years.
And it's, you know, there's, there's a, there's a limited time that you can really anyway, what I'm trying to say is it's hard to improve enough because you've got 30 other people who are improving really well. Exactly. And, you know, and they're doing it there and they've got, you know, they've got the Dolomiti and the Bournes and the, and just so many events that can help sharpen those skills that, you know, we can just do it visually. We can't, we can train. We can't train, but we can't train like that. And I think that that was the other thing. I did write this in an article. That was the other thing that I'm just finding, you know, it's tough. I was, I was given a little piece of the goods in 2015 and I came away from that thinking, gosh, you know, it's more, you know, if I really put a lot of effort into this, I can hang with these guys.
But that hasn't proven correct because it's just, it's, they're getting a lot better too.
Yes. And I, and I know, uh, if, if it also happens. But, uh, the more races you do, your body gets more resilient, right? So people who raise constantly, and I'm not talking only the ass, but just racing constantly, there are really, really beasts on the ground. Because I felt it, you know, my first experience, for example, I walked probably one fourth of what I walked during this race and I was completely destroyed after this race. I mean, I saw you at the award ceremony. I was feeling fine, actually. I was, I was perfectly fine. Feet didn't hurt. I was a little bit tired, obviously, but other than that, I was, I was feeling really good. Um, yeah. And that does.
No, I mean, I was the same. It was exactly, I didn't have any blisters. I did 590 K on the ground. I just wanted to keep going. No, it's yeah. You, you do get more resistant. You get a lot more durable. You get a lot more resilient.
So that's, that's on the body side and on the, on the flying side. Absolutely. I mean, in order to compete against that, you have to be living there. You know? Um, yeah. There's, I, I don't think. There's, uh, there's any other way to do it.
If you had a different scenario with work and life, would this be something, you know, if you lived in the Alps, say for example, could you see yourself doing all those and keep doing the X-Alps? Is this something you'd love to, you know, in an alternate reality, something you'd love to pursue as a, as a profession? Because a lot of these guys do, you know, a lot, like I said, the top 10, you know, most of them are test pilots. Most of them work in the industry. This is what they do. This is their life. I
can definitely see it just because again, I, I love the mountains and I love the sport. You know, it's, it's really, it's really a passion. Uh, you really have to love it in order to keep putting yourself in these situations. So yes, I think that, uh, if I live there and I had, you know, the, uh, the resources to, to just do it as a, as a living, uh, I think it's a high quality of life.
Last question, bud. For those who are listening, who have the X-Alps as a, you know, a maybe aspiration, something that they'd like to try to tackle someday. What advice would you have for them? And let me add to that. And I'm trying to ask shorter questions. I'm doing a very terrible job with you. I'm asking very long ones because I'm so passionate about this subject, but I was, I'm always a little not surprised. I don't even know what the word would be, but you know, live tracking. I'm a little nervous. I don't get to watch it that much, but that's what everybody tells me that, you know, you can get in the cockpit and the whole thing. Obviously there isn't the weather aspect. People don't see the weather, but you know, I'm a little nervous just to think what people actually think about the X-Alps.
Cause when you're not in it and not experiencing it, I think, I think people have pretty radically wrong views about what it is and what it isn't. Do you, do you feel that way? I mean, I, I, I, I, I run into a lot of people that say, yeah, you know, I just learned how, how to fly. And I'm thinking about doing the X ops in a couple of years, you know, or four years and you just think, yeah, you're batshit. You're talking about,
you know, I think we're on the same page there. My recommendation, my advice would be no really well what you're getting into. It's not the, you know, there's not a little more, it's not only the media, you know, there's a lot behind the scenes that needs to happen. And to prepare for this race, you know, not only from a physical aspect but you know, flying skills route sponsors, transportation, if you're not from the ops, you know, you, you have that, that burden on top of everything. So there is a lot that goes into this. And the problem is that if you go, let's say half half ass in this case.
Uh, once you're really prepared, once you know what you're doing fully, you might not get selected because you already burned your ticket. So uh, just be really, really conscientious about, uh, gain all the information you can, you know, through podcast. And I don't want to scare anyone. Uh, by the way, I'm just, uh, detailing my experience. I love the experience. And this is something that I'm taking. Uh, uh. Uh, uh. You know, as one of the best moments, let's say in my life, because of the adventure, the challenge, the scenery, the camaraderie, the people that you meet. So it's, it's an awesome adventure. Okay. But really know what you're getting into.
How are you going to fill the hole? What do you, uh, that I haven't figured that out. You know, I, I think about it a lot and, and I think about it a lot before the race, knowing that I'm going to be in this, you know, in this place after. or, you know, I think some of the athletes, Chrigel and, you know, they, they have filled it by just constantly training and looking forward to the next one. You know, he talked about, I've talked about this quite a bit on the show, but, you know, he talked about going to a pretty dark place after his first two in 2009 and 2011, because you're at this, you're pent. I mean, you are maxed out. You're just, you're having one, whether you're having a bad race, like I did for the first few days in this one or a good race, like I did at the end or whatever. We all have these amazing experiences, but you're pegged.
And you're, like you said, you're, Chick sent me high. You're, you're in, you're in flow for sure. Whether it's good or bad for 12 days and, and then it ends. And, and then, you know, you, you go back to the East coast and go back to your work and your job and nine to five. And now you guys are trying to find a house. I mean, it all seems, I'm just, just finished building a place. It all seems a little less exciting than, you know, than being in that race. How do you. How, how do you think about the future and what's next?
You know, what I've thought about doing is definitely more of all the, after seeing all this beautiful scenery that I had not known until this race, I want to visit those places again and, and probably in a kind of a non-hardcore mode, you know, taking trains here and there, buses, et cetera, but, but really going where I want to and exploring the area. It's, it's just, uh, just huge. You know, and there's many, many places that, uh, I have not visited. So I'm going to take a step back from hiking flight competitions, just to be able to explore more, you know, be more on my own, you know, camping high and then launching from there and going from, I don't know, Chamonix to told me again, uh, doing that kind of trip.
Yes, absolutely. But definitely. There's some. Some flying involved, you know, it's just as you, it's our passion. We really love it. We love the scenery. We love the flying. So, uh, that gap is going to be filled with a lot more flying, just a little bit, you know, toned down.
Any,
any world cup aspirations and competition type stuff? Cause I know you're quite keen on, on racing as well.
Uh, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, I just came back from, uh, pre PWC actually, uh, where Maxine was there. Uh, we had a, we had a nice chat. Uh, so yes, definitely competing, competing, uh, race to goal, uh, heading down to Monarca, which hopefully I'll see you there, buddy.
Oh, of course. I never miss Monarca.
Yeah. That's an awesome place. So, uh, we haven't really defined the schedule, you know, I'm, I'm normally traveling with Bianca and she's, she's a lot more into a race to all competitions than I am. Uh, but it's really fun to actually fly together, you know, experience, uh, this competitions together. So definitely, uh, you know, PWC and other race to goal competitions are, are in our future as well.
Yeah. I got to get her on the show one of these days as well. It's, it's cool. You're one of the few couples who really make it at work. That's, that's very exciting. And she's an awesome pilot. So, Hey, Eduardo. Before we wrap things up completely here. Um, I'm sure you've got some people you want to thank this race is not just about us. Is it it's our teams and, uh, they're so critical and, but who do you want to put a shout out to?
Absolutely. Gavin, uh, this is not, uh, Eduardo Garza going through the Alps. This is team Mexico. And I know that, you know, websites, et cetera, focus on the name of the person, right? The name of the athlete. But this is a team. Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's
Jared Baronis it's Jared
Baronis it's
Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis it's Jared Baronis
it's Jared
Baronis it's
Jared Jared Baronis it's Jared Jared Baronis it's Jared
Jared Baronis it's Jared Driving a van, any van in the Alps is quite a hassle. And that was Anton and also cooking, Anton Salusky. So complete appreciation to him as well. Now we also had in the team, Peter Grice, a.k.a. Magic Hands.
Don't go into details. It's fine. It's on PG-13 here. He was a massage therapist and he did a really, really amazing job. He actually works in Switzerland in clusters. So I really envy that part. But he was instrumental in getting us as far as possible down the course line.
On the other hand, remotely, we actually had Paul Van Liew in Hamburg. So he was in our time zone and he was feeding us information. So readily, timely and accurate that I was really, really impressed with his work. Was
that weather? You were getting weather stuff from him?
Weather, what other people were doing, hiking routes. So he would send us GPX files for us to traverse efficiently because sometimes you don't have any signal or you just don't have time to look for it. So he was doing that. And well, of course, Bianca. Who has always supported me.
And in this time, in this race, she was not there with us because I don't know if you know this, but in 2019, up to that point, she had been four times national US national women's champion. Right. So she forfeited that during the 2019 race just to support me because she missed a couple of. Well, one competition that was a national. So I didn't want that to happen again. So I was actually pushing for her to come back to the US. Just help me on the, let's say, prologue and that week prior. And then she actually had to go back to the US. So I definitely owe her a lot of this.
You can call it a success that we've had. She's been a huge part of the team and she was also helping. With weather and, you know, it was, it was a lot of moral support. You know, sometimes you just need someone to talk to when you're walking endlessly.
So, so yes. So very grateful to the whole team. I appreciate everything, everything they did. Oh, and I really want to thank my supporter from such a long time, Skywalk. Because since I started hike and fly competitions. They have always been. Very supportive of me and my team. So thank you to Arnie Verlin, who again has always been supporting me and we'll see what happens in the future.
Well, Eduardo, what a treat, man. That was fantastic. It was great to catch up with you and see you and can't wait to see you in Dubai. We didn't talk about Dubai. We've got this crazy race coming up over in United Arab Emirates. That looks pretty exciting. I just started training two days ago. I think you got a little jump on. Yeah. I'm going to get myself in shape in what, three weeks counting here. So, but we'll see you there and then we'll see you at Menarca. That'd be great.
Absolutely. Well, Gavin, it's been a real pleasure seeing you, talking to you.
And I guess I'll see you soon. See
you soon,
bud. All right. Take care.
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Bye.