Hi there everybody, welcome to another episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem. This one took a lot of time. We have tried and failed several times with audio for some reason, well various reasons, with Manu Nubel, Germany 1, for the whole time he started in 2015 and through 2021, just like I have, so we did four races together, we'll start at the same time, and I've been and wanting to do more of these rewinds with the X-Alps, with legends like Manu. And so we did it last week, didn't work. We tried a few times today, didn't work, but we finally got it. So some really fun stories here from Germany 1, from Manu. And he's just had a little boy, and so he's also taking a break this year from the 2023 race.
He and I will be watching from the sidelines. But yeah, we share some fun memories, some fun highs and lows from the race. and stuff together and stuff apart and I think you're really going to enjoy it so without further delay please enjoy this really fun talk with my friend Manuel Nubel Germany 1 cheers
Manu, this is... this is hysterical, man. I'm glad we're both still smiling. We're going to have fun with this, I promise, because man, we have bad luck with our recordings. We tried two years ago, that didn't work. We tried a week ago, that didn't work. We've tried all morning, this isn't working, but now it's going to work. It's going to work, yeah.
We're now professional recorders, I would say. Thank you for having me, and uh, fingers crossed that this time we have a nice, uh, happy end, yeah.
And we were, we were just talking about in the last attempt, uh, talking about bad luck and how we have to embrace bad luck, especially in the X-Alps. We've, we've both had some bad luck and some good luck, so I'm excited to talk to you about your X-Alps campaigns. You and I have, have done the same. We started in 2015 together, and we both ended, at least maybe temporarily, uh, or maybe not, let's see, but in 2021 we're both taking a break. This time, uh, when we tried a week ago, I got to see your new little one, I take it. Let's catch everybody up before we get into the X-ops, just catch everybody up with, with your life. What's going on? And, and why aren't you competing this year? Yeah.
I'm now a professional recorder, and I'm really busy recording interviews. No time for training, except no, just kidding. No, um, yeah, my little son, uh, Linus is here, and I'm really happy that I made this decision to, uh, spend to be able to spend full time with him and my wife, Anastasia. And, yeah, we have no family around really close by, so it's really... well, I when I made a decision, uh, I, I already expected something, but now it's even more time. But it's also on the same, uh, hand, it's so nice to have the little boy, and I, I'm not regretting this decision in one second. So I'm totally happy that I, that I'm not under the pressure to participate in X-Alps and trade for it, and on the same time, I always would have the feeling leaving my family at home and alone, and, yeah, it can really take some nerves.
So, and I wouldn't have a clear mind for training, and also maybe not in the competition.
Yeah, yeah, I—you know, I think you'll—you—you've already learned this, just even though your son is tiny still, but man, they change fast. And that was—that was the big one for me, you know? Fallon was born, right, immediately after the 2017 X-Alps. In fact, we had a whole protocol for, you know, if Maddie, Maddie was back home in the States, obviously, but if she went into labor early, you know, my team had to decide, okay, we're going to tell him, we're not going to tell him the whole thing. And, uh, but they came over with me for the 2019 race. They stayed at Paul's in Austria and, and that was really great, but I didn't get to see him. And, you know, so it was, you know, the training before the race and then the pre-week and then the race itself, And you know, it's six weeks, and that I didn't really get to see them much at all. And she's a totally different person after six weeks.
So, you know, yeah, for me too, this time it was just, man, I don't think I can justify it. Just the time away and the time training is immense. It's so much. So, well, I applaud that. I, I take it you're still, maybe you're a maybe for 2025? Are you thinking? You know, we'll see how things go. Yeah,
I definitely have this in mind, and yeah, I just thought also, so now it's the time when he's so young and he cannot walk on his own, then it's even more, or it's different maybe. But when he's a bit older and maybe could even join the supporting team, let's see, I don't know, in two years. But yeah, we are open for everything. And I still love X-Alps, I still love the training, I still love everything which is in combination with the application of the X-Alps. So I definitely have it in mind and it's for sure just a temporary thing, but let's see how the world looks in two years. I'm quite a bit grayer than you are, Manu, but how old are you?
Look on the side. I have a lot of gray hair starting. I'm 35. 35.
Okay. So that was, you know, you got, you're younger than, I mean, my first X-Alps was, I think I was 42. Yeah. 42. So you got plenty of time. No problem. i
I think so too, yeah. As long as my body is not telling me other things and I am still motivating motivated and yeah, cool. Well,
You know, like we did this a week ago, so you know all this, but just for the listeners to remind them, basically what we're going to do is kind of go back in time and and relive the highs and lows from your campaigns starting in 2015. That was, I believe, the first year they had the prologue, uh, and we we were still up in Fooshall AMC for the prologue. We had wicked weather; it was very, very hot. It was, I think, it was record-breaking heat the first three days of the race, uh, and in, you know, all the X-Alps are kind of dictated in my mind, at least, by mostly by the weather, and they're each very different because of the weather. This was still when we started in early July, rather than now, it's more kind of early as June, but the, the 2015 race was dictated by wind.
We had, uh, at that time it was the longest that it had ever been. We still ended in Monaco. We hopped back and forth across the Alps a few times. I think it was almost 1200 K and the, but the, the wind was, was really strong. Not the first, first couple of days was beautiful. And then, and there was a lot of accidents, you know, they, They don't ever really published the bad stuff, but you know, Toma came pretty close to dying. Uh, Tom was rescued out of a tree. Yeah, he got his face ripped off. It was... he landed in in 100 mile an hour winds. Michael Witschi through his reserve landed in a lake and almost drowned.
That was scary. That was
scary his story that I've had him on the podcast. Oh god, terrifying. Uh, Michael Gebhardt just said, "Enough, you know too much wind." So there was a lot of wind, uh, but a lot of flying. We, I think Chrigel got there in eight days, uh, I got there in 10. You were just behind me in, in ninth, uh, and so you and I had a good race at the end. We're going to hear about that here in a little bit, but yeah, it was, it was both of our rookie seasons, and I'd love to hear your, your, you know, a couple of highlights and, and maybe a hard time that went on. I know there were some bees at one point.
Don't, don't spoil it. No, no.
maybe
Okay, yeah. Um, the good thing is, if you record the things two or three times, you, you can afterwards remember things which you missed to tell the people. And just when you were telling about the wind, and last time I completely missed this, this, uh, experience. Uh, there's this one day where I was seriously, and not just like a little bit, flying backwards with 33 kilometer per hour. I, I was, this was this valley wind, um, gap there next to, uh, prienso area, more or less. There's a huge lake where it's normally a lot of wind, but, uh, at this day it was crazy easy, but
the good thing
that big lake
down by gap, yeah. Oh man, I got slammed there. That's where I—that was the closest I've ever been to getting dead, uh.
I guess my friend Fabi Buhl is now disappointed that I cannot remember the name because he's flying there and I was actually also flying there afterwards, and he explained me everything how this works, this area. But, uh, yeah, at this day I had no idea. I made a stupid, or like, I thought my intuition was not really working there, so I ended up suddenly flying like crazy, like it was one, two kilometer backwards in the valley wind. But the good thing was, as you were trained at this episode 2015 with this lot of wind, I could see actually in this situation I was not even so scared because I could see a huge field behind me, and I could really judged by the days before, uh, this day I had a really good feeling on how the wind was at the ground directly, so I could really judge that it was not so crazy at the ground.
So when I was landing, it was maybe five to ten kilometer backwards, and there was a huge field where we're actually spiraled down in front of the field, so that I don't miss it. And yeah, and then I thought I was the hardest guy here in the race, and then till I met you and you told me like 80 meter per second sink, I thought like, no way, he's exaggerating. I asked Krieger, actually I didn't tell told you this story, I asked Krieger and said like, hey, Gavin told me like 80 meters sink, come on, I mean he's a bit accelerating, right? And he said, no, at this day I had 25 meter sink, and I was like, what? I was like, okay, yeah, this today was crazy. Yeah, people, people have
Heard that story, but that was... I mean, I still, I remember sitting in Monaco, you know, whatever, a couple days later, and we were all telling our horror stories, you know? Aaron and Paul and and and everybody just just had these nightmare stories of crazy errands, of watching Andra almost get killed as supporter, because back then you were allowed to fly together. But that day it was in Vars and I was just having one. It was beautiful. It was amazing. I was catching up to the guys in front. I thought everything was perfect. And suddenly I'm in all this wind, exactly where you're talking about. And I was kind of trying to cross into Vars. There's an island there. And I got in there and And top landed because I couldn't figure out what was going on. And when I relaunched, it was fine. And that's because I was in the lee. I didn't realize it.
And as soon as I tried to get in through this coal, it just got batted out of the air. And it was literally, there was these ponds for snowmaking. And I thought, that's my only way to survive. I've got to get to the pond. And then I'll just full stall it into the pond. At least I'm going in the water. And and but if I'm later on, I looked at my track log, it was 20 meters down. It was just, I had kind of a, I had a almost a, uh, a breakdown after that. I started crawling. I was totally fine, I landed fine, but I, I started just thought, "Man, this is, this is too much. Now this is, this is too much. I can't"
Imagine it, yeah. And um, about the highs and the lows, and this was just a story which I afterwards, what's what, hey, it's important or interesting to tell, but uh, yeah, the highs and the low for sure. That uh, low and high started uh, before the race when I broke my patella, just uh, less than four months before the race, and I got this huge metal thing sticking out like one, two centimeters out of my patella. And actually, all, all doctors said like, "Forget it, the exams is over for you for sure." Um, and then I, I just said like, "Okay, it sounds really clear that I have no chance." It also looked makes so sense that uh, my whole patella tendon was full with one uh, metal piece.
And uh, yeah. And also, yeah, more, not only one metal piece, even more. And so I thought like, "Okay, but I just want to make the best out of it, so let's, let's try to uh, to uh, take part in the race and maybe after one or two days I drop out, but as at least I have some information or experiences for the next episode to be better there." For sure, it won't be a bad thing as long as I don't damage my knee really strongly for further years. So, yeah, I made this decision with my supporter and then it ended up to reaching Monaco, which was of course absolutely dream. But before I reach Monaco, there was a nightmare again, which was the second lower, and it was really um, a piece out of many, many little things which went wrong.
It started that I made a stupid decision uh, really close, I could even already see the, the sea of Monaco. I was really good prepared and knew exactly my line what to fly, but then there came zero clouds in front of the sun, so uh, and I saw, I thought like, "I need to reach Gavin in front of me running towards the goal." And yeah, to catch Gavin. No, actually, I didn't know that, that I thought you were already in goal, but uh, and then I, the cirrus cloud made like one term already super weak and I need to get over a little call and to make it to the next valley. And it was a matter of like, maybe I was over the call 200 meters and, and then I tried over the coal to glide over there.
And then suddenly I got headwind and sink. And it was a few seconds where I thought, oh, this will be very close. Oh, this will be super close. And then I thought, oh, I'm not going to make it. But I still kept on pushing towards the coal. And maybe three, four seconds later, I said, oh, I'm not making it. And there's everywhere trees in this horrible landscape there of Monaco. So I turned around and realized, oh, shit, I'm now really low for this plateau told to make it even back to the thermal and yeah, I had backwind and it's still a lot of sink and I within the maybe five to ten meters, I sunk into the trees and really with a lot of impact actually, and there the nightmare began. So I hang in the tree, couldn't reach my supporter or very long time suddenly, uh, that I, I pushed the emergency button, uh, on the, uh, the Garmin, but just to tell them that I'm okay, but that I'm hanging in the tree.
Then I could suddenly communicate with them and said like, I please no helicopter. Suddenly a helicopter was coming and it took me to make it a little bit shorter, five hours to make it out of like maybe one hour out of the tree, then on my own, then to, to find a trail or something was really hard. There were thorns everywhere and this little trails made out of maybe a white bores or pigs or whatever, where I just crawled my way to, to, to have any chance to, to reach my supporter and after five hours we made it. And then after we spoke with the meet director, we thought like, okay, now it's just a walk into the goal. Gavin is anyway out of reach in front of me and, uh, Nick Neynens behind me shouldn't reach me anymore, so easy.
We just walked a whole night and it will be easy, um, and I could even leave my glider in the trees and take another glider just as ballast, uh, to, to make the last meters. But then, uh, it was really, uh, the nightmare started. Suddenly my life tracking was not working, so a runner came and gave me a new life tracking device which was still not working. Then in the middle of the night I made this, or we made the decision that I take a little shortcut which I ended up completely getting lost, could not communicate because my, or I could communicate but had no internet, uh, so I just could call with my supporter and it was more like, where are you? Yeah, I'm here on the street seeing lights and yeah, on the left curve. Ah, yeah, that makes sense, so maybe you have to go right or left.
And then my Garmin backup device didn't work because there was an airspace bug hiding exactly the maps at this area. I could not recharge my internet because my provider had a bug and a malfunction. And to make it a bit short, it was really no acceleration, just like this. And then Then when I finally reached Monaco, we thought I would reach it at 1 o'clock or so. Then suddenly at 5 o'clock in the morning, after endless height meters, I reached it. And I thought, like, now I really made it. And all the bad luck is now gone. I reached the goal. Nothing can happen anymore. Till the next morning when at 11 o'clock, oh, no, actually a bit earlier, yeah.
No, 11 o'clock, I could sleep till 11. And then I stood up. And the first thing what you need to do maybe after sleeping is to get a little bit lighter. And I just went there, jumped over some huge rocks and did my thing there for two, three seconds. And suddenly something stung me in my butt and I was just like trying to escape. And so I just made my things next to the beehive. You know, I got three stings in my leg.
The bees are like, what are you
doing, man? What are you doing to our home?
And I was really like, "Okay, I'm not gonna fly down to the lake. It's—it's to the sea. It's way too... uh, I'm doomed." And I—I, it's too scary. All these things, I'm scared now. And but in the end, I made it. And and then the the uh bad luck stopped, so finally
You know, I told you this the last time we talked last week, but I want to say it again because it was so funny. But that, that morning, we had this—we got this great beta from somebody in Australia that was just watching us, and we did the same shortcut crap that you did. It was awful. It was got completely lost, and Ben just got shredded because he got so upset at himself because we couldn't find the trail, and so he was just yanking these thorns out of the ground. And and we finally got up to this launch. We had no water, it was hot, I was—I was out of my brain, I had no ability to fly, and I—and I blew it. The the cloud showed the way to go, but I was scared to go go away from goal and fly deeper into the mountains. So I tried to go straight and I made it 5k. It was a complete waste of effort. And I landed and the live tracking showed that I was 3k away, you know, but the, the route was 14k and it was 3000 feet of gain.
And, and I just broke down and I, you know, Bruce caught up with me and he goes, okay, so here's some food, get going, you know? And, and I know I can't, I'm done. And he said, really, you're going to, You're going to to end 14k away from goal, you're done. And and he, he got me going again, and that was good, and but I was just so slow, I was barely moving up this hill, and about halfway up he calls me and he said, "You gotta run, you gotta run, man! Who's in the air? He's gonna beat you, you know." And I saw, really, oh my god, no way, because I wasn't going to catch Ferdy. Ferdy was already in, and so I didn't have any reason to race, and so I start kind of jogging up this hill and I'm just pouring sweat and I'm, I'm so exhausted and my feet are trashed. And then about half an hour later, Bruce called me again and he said, yeah, no, it's okay.
You can go slow. He landed in a tree.
But I never knew all the backstory. I didn't, I thought, I didn't know it was such a nightmare. That's crazy.
I'm sure you're falling like, is he good? Oh, that's really, that's really. Oh, yes. That was
the first thing I was thinking. Yes, for sure. Oh, is he okay? No, he's not
totally. But yeah, in the end, hey, it was such a nice race. So many people also, the people might not know the story from um Stefan Krupe, who landed in the zoo of the Princess of Monaco, and he—that's right, when he landed, he said like, "Oh, there's a nice uh field," which was actually airspace where he got the penalty, and he landed there on the field in Monaco, and then an elephant came out of the bus, and he thought like, oh shit, did I miss the crossing towards Africa or where am I? This is what he was saying.
Oh my God, I forgot all about that. That's really, oh
my God. Yeah,
then the security
came in and locked him or like took him away.
We'll be back to the race in a
moment, everybody. Okay. Oh, it's crazy. Do you remember, before we leave 2015, a real highlight, you know, something that, I mean, obviously getting to monaco was a beautiful highlight but do you remember something else from the race a specific flight or a specific moment that was really special you still think about today
Yeah, actually I think the flight towards Monaco was the highlight because I was almost crying when I saw the sea, and I thought like, I cannot imagine it. I made, we made it. The first episode with my broken patella against all the odds, everybody telling you and I, "You have no chance," and I was, it was such in reach like, and actually we made it. But at this moment, it was really emotional when I saw the sea, and I also, uh, I, I made some messages for my supporting team, "Hey, we are gonna make it. Yes, I see the sea. I see the sea," which was actually at this day I did a 100k flight or something really fast, um, but then maybe half an hour later I said like, I'm hanging in the tree now, no see right now anymore.
It's
cool to have the dichotomy between the really high and the really low on the same day. Do you, you, I didn't ask you this before, but the, you've mentioned that you really knew how to do that section of the course. What is your, what are your thoughts on scouting beforehand? Because I was really surprised before the 2015 race. Remember we did the media thing at Red Bull and I was sitting next to Chrigel and, you know, and I'm just in awe is Chrigel. And I was, we were talking before they started doing the interview and I I asked him, you know, hey, do you go, how much do you scout? How much do you go view the course? And he said, not at all. I don't look at it at all because if I look at it in June, it's totally different in July. And I don't want to have preconceived notions. And that blew me away because I had been scouting a lot. I was very nervous and I was trying to go everywhere I could.
But what's your views on that?
Yeah, my view is similar. I mean, if you're Chrigel, for sure, you have to say like he's like a decade old competition pilot. like he's flying competition for decades before he even started X-Alps, then he made like all these episodes like I can even compare to me like the four episodes I made X-Alps, I, I learned so much about the Alps, which helps you a lot, and I would say the same like if you just go there once and you just see it in a different in spring, and then you're there in more stable condition for sure, it... It can lead you to bad decisions even. So if you would want to scout it, I would recommend to do it one year earlier at the same time, but then you don't know the route. So it's really hard and just very short before X-Alps.
It's also you're busy with other things. So I'm more relying on asking people or looking maybe, for example, this time in 2015, I studied a lot of the approaches towards Monaco, which were quite similar from former episodes like two or three years. I, I had the track logs, and this helped me, especially in this area a lot, um, to, to, um, navigation, yeah.
Because that's, that's really the hardest part of the course in my mind. And it's, it's like you said, there's, there's nowhere to land. There's a lot of wind, uh, there's a lot of sea breeze. There's, there's, it's complicated. You've got airspace stability and you're exhausted. It's at the end of the race. It's in a lot of way, well, we'll get to, we'll get to 2021 when they change the course. And that was for those of us, I think, I think for those that hadn't been to Monaco, probably that was a disappointment. But for those that have, I hated Monaco. I, I didn't, I didn't like ending in the concrete jungle, and I've been very vocal about that. But yeah, that's
the downside for sure, but the upside was really, I mean, it's called Red Bull X-Alps, cross Alps originally, so you have to cross the Alps and, um, yeah, but you're right for sure. Like, once you're there in Manuka after landing on the float, it takes a couple of hours and then you just don't want to go out, yeah, for sure.
For sure. Okay, so 2017, uh, was the first time, I believe, in the history of the race that no one flew. One day, our first day, was was just dumping rain and and nobody flew that day. There was a lot of running. And first time, I think that we went south of the, you know, we went all the way down to Slovenia. And so the first time we made a move, you know, immediately to the south side of the Alps. And so really interesting course, and really bad weather. For the most part, there was lots of good flying, but there was a lot of overdevelopment and a lot of storms and a lot of gust fronts and so that was a much wetter x-elps than 2015 but take us back to 2017 yeah
2017 was really nice. Um, I had a very good time with my team; like, it was really flowing and we had nice time. Uh, that's also always very important for me. Um, yeah, it was same team, Gini, Yosi, and maybe was Sasha there already? There, I don't know for sure, same team but maybe plus one. I mean, there are always people coming and joining, uh, joining, and maybe, uh, for example, I think in this year Robert Blue was also there for half of the race, race, and we had really nice time, really showing. Uh, yeah, to to race nice, but but on the same hand, to be able to enjoy it, making good decisions.
And yeah, till almost the end where I got this heat exhaustion. And yeah, we just decided that because, yeah, it was not good for my health to continue with heat exhaustion there in the brutal heat of Piedmont. And yeah, so we just decided it's better for me to withdraw. But on the other hand, It was also afterwards when we saw, or what, how the other pilots did, um, after we withdraw, it was really, um, not a nice experience anymore. You could not fly, it was very stable, it was full with mosquito while walking, yeah, windy, and, um, yeah, so that was, that was one of the
Few times that, uh, you know, I, I had quite a really bad start. We made a bad call on, on using, uh, the night pass the first night, and I was quite tired, made, made some silly mistakes early, and it was one of the few times where you all out front, it got slowed down by the weather, and we had kind of a chance to, to make some ground from, from behind a little bit, which was unusual. Usually, the, you know, Creagles out front and he has better weather the whole way, but it was really windy. That was, uh, I believe that first year that Benoit, only two people made it, Chrigel and Benoit, and then Paul was in Monaco, but it didn't make pay. He made it to the, to the beach, but yeah, it was, it was quite a slow year, especially at the end, because everybody was just trucking it on foot, but you had quite a neat.
That was the first time I had seen, and maybe since then too, you had a really nice gaggle for a lot of the race. It was you and Ferdy. Remind me who else? That, uh, was that Simon's first year too? Yeah, Simon, maybe. Um, I cannot remember exactly, but you had a nice, it was kind of a cool. There was like four or five of you that were doing a and
All the time someone else, Sebastian Hooper, was also, uh, sometimes with me, but yeah, I think I made one really nice decision where, which I'm actually proud of, that's maybe my highlight if we're talking about the highs and lows. 2017 there, it was the turn point at Monte Baldo, Gada, Lago di Gada, and, uh, we made this huge push up there, the 1800 height meters up, and the terminals were just, they were already really good work working around us, but not at Lago di Gata. And I knew also from scouting before and preparation that the other side, San Simone or Limone, or how is it? Not San Simone, uh, Limone, or so, the other side of the Lago di Gata is very often stable, and also the sun was not shining perfectly in.
And if you do, if there's, if this side is not working, you're running out of options, so you cannot even glide around the mountains in the nice direction, you cannot land because it's impossible to land and also impossible to restart. So I was there up there with Sebastian Hooper was catching up when I was waiting there, and there was Stanislaw Meyer and someone else, and at Monte Baldo at the takeoff, which I know also from aqua flying and other experiences, quite good, so we decided to walk. So we wanted to go to the one mountain further towards the north, which was higher, and there was a little cloud over it, and it was better from the south, from the sun, it was facing towards the sun better. So we said we want to go up there and start there, and then we thought about like making this like little glide towards this mountain, which maybe is like 250 meters in altitude, and there is like a landing place up there on the other side, maybe 1k glide.
But then I spoke with my supporter and we said like, "Hey, it's, it's a good thing because, uh, fig one or two sun is love," and and and Sebastian Hoover, they had already prepared their gear, so I thought like, "Hey, if I'm the first one," and they had other opinions, they want to go to Limone, and I said like, "Oh, it will work there," and I thought like, "It's too risky." I'm running out of options if it's not working. So if I do the little hike more, maybe 250 meters down and on the other side 500 up, I can easily glide on the next mountain and I can even reach a terminal there. And I have a lot of more options afterwards. And it's also not so scary there because I think you were landing there. No, it was Gaspar Petillo. You too? No, I landed
in the trees. I just tagged the turn point up from the ground. I flew across the lake in the morning, hiked up, got the turn point, flew back across the lake. But by then, the wind was howling, and I just stuffed myself back in one of those canyons on the other side. And there was nowhere to land. There was nowhere to go. I just landed in the trees. And luckily, it just came down out of the trees, and I could keep going. But it was really scary, very violent. It was blowing 50 miles an hour. It was crazy.
I wanted to avoid it. So to to, yeah, then we decided, "Hey, if I glide on the next mountain and also the landing places we're adjusting glide reach, so I was a bit scared if I don't make it to this little gap in the forest, I, I would have to fly really the completely wrong direction and even further down to find the next landing place and to hike up even more." So we said like, "Hey, come on, we have still the gear packed, so let's run down this 250 meters trail," running fast down and on the other side up and and then we have two advantage because like Sebastian Huber had the gear prepared. So he could not really, if I would make it flying and he said, oh, this worked good. He would maybe follow me. And when we walked down, he decided to go to Limone. And when we started, we could turn up really nicely on 3000 meters over Lago di Garda.
This was really the most impressive moment. Yeah. And then I made a huge crossing and a huge flight.
and the other one was stuck in Limone. Is Limone just on the east
side of the lake? Is that the little town over the other side? Yeah,
west over the lake but it's the south east side, yes and it was a good decision for sure
Ah, okay, cool and then from there, did you take more the southern route? Remember how Paul did it? He did way south in the little foothills and then you, okay? So, Bella Zona, the car know exactly that? Yeah, okay, yeah, which was fast. Yeah, cool. Let's see, that was the highlight. Low light was, that was the injury, was that having to withdraw, yeah?
yeah yeah
I tell me more about that. So, it was just... it was you were low electrolytes, or just you just worn out? What, what I...
Could not, uh, the food and drinks were not staying inside and, um, I got fever and all the stuff, so heat is the killer then also for, uh, dehydration and all the stuff, and then we said like, okay, it's over now, ah.
and that you were, you were kind of up near Mona Rosa or, uh, just
Uh, our star valley almost out of the flat, so they would have been just hot, hot walking in front of of me. Okay, god, yeah, yeah.
That was, that was, that was terrible at the end. Okay, 2019, as a reminder to those listening, 2019 was, in from it, was crazy hot and stable at the end of the race. The last few days, just, I mean, record-breaking. We had this massive kind of stability come off the, come off of Africa, and all the sky was filled with dirt and dust, and I remember walking through Chamonix. It was a hundred degrees on the ground in the morning. It was crazy. And, uh, that was the same time that all those people top landed Mont Blanc. So if you could get above the stability, you were loving it like Toma did. Uh, the early part of the race was, was nice and sunshine and easy, but the, I never had any wind.
I, everywhere we went, you could launch. It was no, there weren't really storms so much the middle of the race. There wasn't any sun, uh, But it wasn't ever... I remember 2019 as never being dangerous. It was just, uh, you know, we had interesting weather, but it was never... most of the xops have been at times really pretty dicey, especially 2021, but we'll get to that. But 2019 was, was kind of mellow in a lot of ways, yeah.
Yeah, that's true. Um, I mean the only danger was maybe that you rip your gear off because you're so angry about the stability, because I mean on one hand it was so, so nice weather as you said, no wind, no, a lot of sun, no thunderstorms, but there were also so weak terminals and so much patience was required. So yeah, like when we saw the forecast we thought like, hey, in the middle of the race, hey, we will make it to Monaco for sure. Nice, nice, nice. We had a really good race. I felt really good physically and yeah, I was in a good position, I think, most of the time after this race and um, yeah, so. But then like three days before the end there was this, this huge heat wave coming in and like this was this day where even Michael Sanders, he didn't make any thermal progress the whole day with full power sunshine in the middle of 3500 meter high mountains.
I did struggle a lot and I was, was the other ridge which I made progress luckily, uh, but this was, uh, crazy like stability wise And yeah, this was maybe my low, like this, this moment when I thought like, "Oh, this will be now really close if I don't, if, if the progress is so slow because of the stability, now even Monaco can be, uh, in danger." So yeah, this was the, uh, this was the
titless titless year too, I think Chrigel was was the only one that top landed Titlis, which was his. That was the game winner for sure. That came over then that that night, that was an amazing flight from Davos up to there, but I think pretty much everybody did about 5,000 meters on the Titlis day. That was, that was a monster. Holy cow, I got it. I I got up there late in the afternoon. It was hammering snow and really windy and totally unlaunchable, and I got in the in the uh the the the top of the gondola, you know, area, and I thought, "Oh, what a beautiful place. I'm just gonna sleep here and have the most wonderful night." And my supporters were going, "You're not gonna sleep there. You're getting off that hill, get outside and wait for a break." And, "No, it's hammering snow, it's it's windy, it's scary, I don't want to fly." No, get outside, go in it.
And they were right, that I got off the hill. Man, that was
A big day, yeah. It was, yeah. I did also 5,500 meters. I can remember this, this day, hide me, this brutal. We
We started calling you, uh, the comeback kid right around then, or maybe it was—it was, I can't remember which—but you, uh, had tended to have slower starts and then really started moving well. And that was definitely one of those years you had a great end of the race, and and we'll get to 21 where you had an unbelievable finish, uh, just incredibly fast. But what do you chalk that up to, you? How do you, how do you kind of pace yourself that you seem to get stronger and stronger as the race goes by? Yeah,
I think I just have not a very big problem to make decision, even if they harm your ego, you know? So, for example, if I'm in a race and someone running next to me and they're overtaking me, I give a shit because I think, "Is this the right pace for me? This is the right speed? This is the right decision?" And if they're overtaking me, I have no problem, and I'm—I'm really good in like keeping my own pace, I would say. And so I still think the race is so long, and you can see it every time and every episode that at the end, very many mistakes were done by other pilots, and maybe it's not that I'm making—I mean, for sure, it was like like two or three episodes it was not working good for me at the beginning, and then in the end I was, uh, extraordinary lucky, and at the beginning I was extraordinarily unlucky, I would say.
But, um, also I—I just think that I keep my energy to the the very end because you still have a lot of opportunities in the last days to push out all the power you have left, and, uh, yeah, 10 days are long or 12 days highlight. For 2019, highlight was the nice flight when we had already big doubts, and we knew we need to do two very good days to be have any chance to reach Monaco. And the first day, uh, the the day before the last day, I did a huge cross country flight from um, almost uh, I took the turn point Monteviso, which was stunning, together with Gaspar Pedillo.
We were flying. It was such a nice thing. I loved how we combined our forces, and it was so nice, the flying. And then even in the evening, the last terminals, in the very last terminals, we made it almost to the sunset and knew that with this huge 150-kilometer flight, we were able to have monaco and reach the last day he
Is proof positive that you don't have to have a very solid body to compete in the X-Alps. It's remarkable, I mean, he's so slow on the ground. He's got such bad—his knees are worse than mine—and every time I've been on the ground with him, it's just, I can't maintain his pace. It's too slow now. Okay, see you later. And then he always passes me in the air. He's such a good pilot. Yeah, that must have been beautiful flying with him. That's... That's beautiful. I had never flown through Le Grave from St. Hilaire. I crossed and then hiked back up and then had a beautiful flight almost to Brienzone and then a gust front put me down. But it was that is an amazing. I want to go skiing in there. That's a beautiful part of the world.
I never had seen this landscape before and I was never there. And it was a really nice experience for sure.
That was where Aaron Durogati was flying through and he was so tired. He was watching YouTube videos in the air to stay awake.
Okay, I'm curious, which one, yeah?
Right, I know that we should. Yeah, we want to know that. So, before we go to 2021, for those listening who are rookies or maybe thinking about doing the x-elps after four campaigns, what do you wish you would have known in 2015 that you know now? How, what would you change in terms of training, or approach, or team, or anything? Good question.
I think in 2015, I had not such an idea about how the valley winds and how also the protected areas are working. That's why I also made this huge mistake of flying backwards 33 kilometer because I actually flew the full venturi, which was maybe like on the line, but like on the shortest line. But afterwards, it's obvious for me that the wind has to go through there, and I had not such a good understanding, and I was actually even not so comfortable to flying in huge mountains. I can remember when I was in Mata Valley, taking turnpoint Mata, and I was, oh my gosh, all these huge 4,000 meters mountains around me. Oh my god, the glaciers and everything, it's really breathtaking.
So when I, when I took the turnpoint, my mind was a little bit like trying to get out of this area again. But very often in cross country flying, I think it's better to stay in the high mountains and to stay in the protected areas than to fly to the big valleys where the strong valuants are.
Yeah, that was—I learned that in 2015 going into Matterhorn. Everybody that went in and went back out, like you do, got hammered. And I, we just stayed high and flew to Verbier, and it was—it was fun. It—it was spicy. That was, you know, I think Hansa and the Korean flu in, uh, in wave that day, it was so strong, but it was, it works. Yeah, you're right. That's good advice.
Okay. 2021 crazy weather, at least, uh, for many people, it was scary. Again, a bunch of accidents, uh, a couple of proper fear injuries, you know, uh, and again, they don't publish much about this, But some pretty scary weather, especially the day that Chrigel had his big breakout move. I was going the other way, and he said he didn't feel much firm. But, boy, I was seeing some crazy strong south firm that day. And, you know, the clouds just dumping in, and it was pretty terrifying from my perspective. But you and I and Theo thought we were making a really good move leaving the Geisberg the first day. And, man, did we have a bad first day.
We were way off the back. But the Comeback Kid comes through. You had an amazing finish. So tell us about 2021.
Yeah, I mean, 2021, it started. Have you ever had these nightmares, like from competition flying or even X-Alps, like having the nightmare that you missed the start or forgot your GPS, like real nightmare in sleep? Did you ever have this?
Totally, especially going into 2015. I had these just awful, oh, my God, I missed the start. You know, that kind of stuff.
Exactly. I had this actually, when after I participated, I had not anymore the nightmare so often, at least maybe a rally, but before that I had this very many times, and this was actually the start, like in a nightmare, like everyone is flying away, and really like we made this one thermal, we sawed in Geisberg, we sawed up there, and then we found this first little thermal, which I thought, like, "Oh, perfect, there will come a lot of more thermals," and normally I noticed from my competition competition experience, it's always better to, like, it's really, really rarely to be one of the first, it's really rarely the best to be one of the first, it's more often good to have this little, how do you say, like, um, uh, mapping in
front of you. Yeah, exactly, people showing you the way.
It's flying and showing you the tournaments, and then I, I didn't went with many people, uh, to to go with this, maybe 200, 300 meters over the Geisberg peak, and I thought like, yeah, there will come a lot of opportunity. And suddenly, after this one terminal, when everyone, when the half of the group went, I sunk down with three and a half meters, and I just top landed at Geisberg, and I felt like because it's better than to even sink down further than than the takeoff, and this would have been super scary to to to land at sidesburg back again, and you, you sunk even further, I think, yeah, I
Got, I got way below launch. It was terrifying. I thought, oh, why didn't I top land with Manu and deal that? Was it? Was just nothing was working, right? That day, that was terrible.
It was Michael Lacher. Ah, yes, right. I think, uh, still think we Teo was actually, I think he told me afterwards, he was like 100 meters above the ground when he left, like, uh, when the reach next terminal really, really low. And yeah, so we end up landing there and everyone made it up back in the next trouble, but we not. And then it took 10 minutes there to take off, then we could fly do another terminal, miss another, because it was still not high enough to go and have to back to land up back there to take off again. And I mean, everyone is almost gone, and then finally, I mean, we left, but the conditions were getting worse and worse. We had no mapping pilots anymore, and so I mean, in the end, it was not a huge, huge downside. I mean, it was maybe to the leading guys, maybe 20k disadvantage, but I mean all the The decisions, I would still say it was not a bad decision, but it was just really unlucky that it worked out like this or it didn't work out.
Yeah, and it just got grayer and grayer. I mean, nothing was really working our way that day. We landed almost together and then hiked up to that little coal and got all ready to go. And then, this isn't going to work, packed our stuff up again. It was just, yeah, it wasn't very flowy, using a word you like to use. use not flowy at all yeah that was that was a tough one um okay how about was that was that the low point of the race was just the first day the
low point came afterwards, actually. I, I was struggling before the race already with some problems of sleep, which I actually solved just two or three weeks ago, I think. To, to tell the people, it's interesting, I think it was just a matter of electrosmog, like being sensitive to the, the cables inside the wall, which I figured out finally. And, uh, yeah. So, so, uh, yeah. To, to, and I just had like four years, actually, the problem of not being completely recovered after sleeping, feeling really like, like not good, even if I mean, I slept the whole night, but I still feel like weak and not good. And it was especially 2021, in front of the race, really hard, and this took also away my nerves.
And I, during the first day and the second day, I was puking a lot of the time when I walked up, or actually almost every morning, and I was completely done with my nerves. I couldn't handle the easiest decisions, actually. And so I was, after day two, after the glide down, I was crying, really badly crying, and completely down and destroyed. And, and luckily, my supporter and especially my wife came and they were hugging me and just sitting there for half an hour. I knew that it was super nice terminal time. Actually, I should have rushed up, but I just said, I cannot, I cannot. I'm so weak and I'm not at the right place here. It is not the right place for me, I said all the time, because I cannot handle it.
And then they said, like, hey, come on, let's do little steps, try little things, and try to eat a little thing, and try to to just try another one. Day stay in the race one more day, stay in the race one more day, and so I kept hanging from one day to another, and then it improved day by day, and I felt day by day better, and my nerves came back, and then in the end, of course, I made this incredible comeback, which I never dreamt to to be able to to catch that far in front again after being so far back. How did that go?
How did you unlock that key there? What happened? Because I remember some of it from the live tracking. But well, I remember I was watching some of your, you know, at night when I would walk and stuff, I'd watch some of your videos. I remember there was one landing, there was a lot of wind and you were kind of landing backwards. But I don't know if that was in the Aosta Valley, but you made this flight from... There to Kronplatz, you had a huge flight at one point through there that was just amazing.
Yeah, I think I did a lot of little good decisions since before Fiesch. There was one day when I reached Fiesch, I already made a good distance to all the other pilots who I started with this day. Then the next day at, uh, at, um, I made a little, little distance, but the big two days was for sure after Mont Blanc. I made this decision to run through Aosta, and actually I had really a lot of power. Then suddenly there I was really running maybe 25, 30 k's or so to be able to reach a takeoff, which was way better in my opinion, but it was a huge push. And also the takeoff was like my highest ascent ever; I think it was 2200 height meters or to just reach the takeoff only from the valley to the takeoff.
And so, but we said, "Hey, this will have a huge advantage because we don't need to make crossings there on the south side of the mother home." Was this actually the Monterosa massif? And yeah, we made it to the takeoff in time, and I felt good, and I made a nice strong flight around the Monte Rosa Massif, battled through this crazy fern conditions there in Mackinacua, Locarno, and catch up with a lot of people in front of me. And then I landed at this day in this crazy backwind event, which was not making a huge disadvantage to the other ones who made it maybe 10-15 kms further. And then the next day was the most important day where where I took off next to Turnpoint St.
Bernini. How was this called? Monte Plotny. How was this called, the Turnpoint there? Yeah, I forget. Yeah,
I forgot
it. Not Pitskovich. Yeah, whatever. The high one there. Yeah. So I took off, and it was also not really easy. No, it was the whole day not really easy. And I took the decision to fly straight on the straight line. There were different options where also the pilots in front of me, they took other options, and yeah, it worked out. There was really a lot of dark clouds around me, not really threatening dark clouds; it was more like this water clouds where there was also rain showers, but I knew that they were not really dangerous rain showers, so it was a lot of instability in the air, but I could maintain to stay in the air and, um, yeah, and fly a lot of distance to what's actually this day, even to, um, Kronplatz, and yeah, all the other pilots, they made little mistakes and, uh, yeah, even I went from maybe 13th position to a fifth position, there no sixth, sixth position, did you top
land kronplatz that night, no
unfortunately not, I was there in the I I I flew the whole very whole day from start of thermals to the end. And in the very evening, I knew that because I took my night pass, because the next day it was over at 11. So I knew if I'm able to glide down from Kronplatz this evening, I have a huge advantage because then I can glide down and I can walk the whole night towards the goal. And then the next day at 11 o'clock, of course, I expected not that so much, uh, will be flown by this time, till this time, and so I was landing two mountains before Kronplatz, and then I pushed, I gave, I had a had to give a lot of power to make it up this mountains, maybe a couple of hundred meters glide towards Kronplatz, and then make a full power push up to Kronplatz to be just in time.
I think I took off at 8:40, and then I knew already, I calculated while I was running how much time I would need, uh, in, in, in trim speed to glide maximum, uh, time towards the right direction, and yeah, it just worked out perfectly. I was just maybe one minute before, uh, that line I was on the ground, and I knew that the others who are just a bit behind me, uh, they cannot, uh, glide down. So this evening, of course, everyone took their night pass, but I knew it will not help them so much because they can, of course, run up the Kronplatz, but in the night you can just run down again and then run to this whole valley, which is like takes a couple of hours, so they have to wait up there on the Kronplatz till they can glide the next morning, and I could, uh, walk the whole night.
So this is, is what I did, but then in the end I actually had to also do one really difficult decision because I was actually under Krente, this Antholz valley, and I was not sure with my whole team what to do because there was this huge no takeoff area in front of me, so I knew, okay, I could either run the whole night and it will be a 60 kilometer and I think 3000 height meter or 2000 height meter or something, um, to the next takeoff, which was also directed to the south and not to the east, and or I could take off, I could stay there, actually waste my completely night pass and take off the next morning at Kente, which I know that it's a perfect cross country mountain
And this, this 40 kilometers, um, um, air line, direct line, which I run the whole night, and 60 kilometer running, of course, can be flown by one and a half hours if you take off in the nice, take off in a good east phase. So it was really hard this decision, but then I thought, of course, I don't want to waste my night pass, and even if I'm stuck there on the other takeoff in the south side waiting for the sun to go around to the south, and the other might fly over me in worst case situation, could, could have happened then. I still tried everything, that was my reason, and then, yeah, I, I, it was really nice experience actually with my wife Anastasia, she's also trail running, and we walked around the whole night and together, actually, I was sleeping, no joke, like sleeping walking, and having her on my hand, like I closed my eyes, and it was felt really like sleeping while I, I was walking in this night.
Wow. Yeah, it was a good experience for us. And so we made it in the right time to this takeoff. And then while I was waiting there, because it was obvious that I cannot take off as early as the others, suddenly Tobi Großrobazer glided down from this Grumblotz mountain and found the entrance at 8 o'clock in the morning, or even I think before 8, it was so early. He found terminals and climbed up to Krente, where Paul Guschlbauer was waiting. And I could not believe my eyes and I thought like, oh no, now these two guys, they were battling each other, will battle each other and pushing really hard to catch me. So I need to get away from this takeoff now really fast, I thought. But luckily, Tobi went landing somehow.
He left power quite a bit after that, short after that. And yeah, I got airborne, found some really nice terminals and I was really happy. And I thought like, okay, that's it, that's it. I, I think I will hold this fifth position, but then it was just half an hour until the deadline was a really short before. But then I stuck in a strong north, which grounded me, and I was clear that I cannot make any progress towards the north where I need to go. So in the air, so I landed and packed my stuff and I ran like everything I could because Paul was really, really closed and approaching me from another direction, and I just run this street up there with my team coming and happy me, maybe I think six, seven kilometer to this half-hour was over and Paul was coming really, really close.
It was really spectacular finish in the end, so I just managed to it was, uh, get not overtaken again that
was a nail-biting finish. I was watching you on live tracking and I, I had Paul in 3D the whole... the only time I've ever been able to watch that, you know, usually we don't have time, but you know, my race was, was done and we were in the camper and, you know, ready to go and and, uh, come back for the party and and I was looking at it just going, "Oh my god, he's got him! He doesn't have him! He's got him! He's got it!" Oh, it was so close, it
was a matter of one, but then of course he also came in this area where the strong north wind was, and then everything, I think he told me also, he was so happy that he could land when the race was over because these conditions were so crazy there. Uh, because he, that's also what makes excerpts, in my opinion, so um demanding is you have to go in one direction where you have to go and not which, which direction you choose, so you just have to go towards the stupid north and you cannot stay in the protected areas, and yeah, you're just pushing every meter how far you can get, and that's the difference to other competitions where you set your task where you want to be
I'm curious now, with the little one on board, has anything changed in the way you approach? Is it any different now? You know, if you did the 2025 race, would it be any different? Would you take any different level of risk than what you did back in 2015? And can you talk, if so, can you chalk that up to the kid or to age? Excuse me,
Um, the question, I mean, I can definitely say that I was always a person and a pilot who I really enjoy and enjoyed my life, and I always knew, and I was, I was not taking crazy risks. So it was even a speed flying or other things, I was always doing the things which I can really control, and if I have a strange gut feeling, I was often just hesitating and doing the chicken out decision, and not even sometimes I could not really understand, but I could not really explain why I was doing this. I was really at the beginning of my flying career, I had this a hard time because I had friends who were
Just like a little bit more equipped with bigger balls, and they were just like, they were just doing the things and they worked out for them, and I could not even explain why it should be dangerous. For example, trying to stall it took me like six, seven years till I finally—I was always doing stalls, like one, two stalls a year. I want to install sessions a year, but then it worked always, all perfectly fine. It was a totally nice experience, but always when I tried it again in front of doing it, I was so scared that I didn't do it, and I could not even explain why I should be scared, but I just was scared. And then I end up not doing it because I, I was doing hard to force myself into a situation which I don't like.
And but then this, on the other hand, this attitude or this feeling maybe protected me from situations of being too, uh, too, too dangerous, or so I don't know. But for sure I can see my thoughts already, sometimes even on normal tandem flights also, which I, I did in the past when Linus was already there, when I thought about him, which I, of course, didn't do it before he was there. So, um, I, I imagine that I will be a bit more passive than before, for, for sure.
I've always kind of liked Tom DeDorlido's approach. He seems to really just take it as, as the adventure. And he's, he's very pragmatic about risk. You know, he's just totally unwilling to, it's a, it's a weird one, isn't it though? Because I find that the head space, and I've talked about this a lot on the show, but that the head space that you get in during that race is not something I could ever emulate in training. It just doesn't, It doesn't come... I'm, you know, the you, you start taking risks that normally you would be really uncomfortable with, but you're not uncomfortable with it in the race at all. I, I've, I've never felt like I've done that. I've gotten into situations like the one we were talking about in Vars in 2015, where it was really extreme, but it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't that I was pushing it really hard; I just ended up in a really gnarly...
I mean, it was a perfectly, it was a wonderful recreational flying day. I was just in the wrong place, you know? So that could have totally happened just flying, but there's, there, but at the same time, you know, when I'm training for the X-Alps and purposefully going out on days that are really marginal because I know I have to train for the race and I'm really scared, and in the race, I, I can honestly say I don't remember ever feeling really scared. I, I, I have always felt like, you know, when it gets to that point, you've just you're in this headspace of, yeah, this is awesome. Bring it, you know, and it's a funny thing, isn't it? And I've talked to many others who have done the race and they all kind of say the same thing that they don't. You know, Chrigel has kids and he feels like he's really got it.
He's really he's trained for it. He feels like he's not taking too much risk. I
Mean, he's proving it for so many years without major injuries, so that's the proof that he is doing it right, I would say. And yeah, I would totally agree in this situation where I really got scared. I was not pushing and taking this decision really consciousness conscious that I said like, I will fly now in thunderstorm all the time. When I was taking bigger risk, it ended up being completely controlled, but then suddenly it was also this 2017, I had actually then I had to think about you because I had also 40 meter sinks there after this Monte Baldo flight where I, I saw actually I do some things also in flying on my phone, communicating in WhatsApp, and I also looked up at home, I saw that there's a huge cold front coming on the north side and also this cloud, clouds which I saw made me a little bit like really far away, but also over me there were these scattered covered clouds and I, I spoke with my supporting team, "Hey, how is this cold front?
It looks really strange," and they said like, "Oh no, no, it's really far away and only on the north side." And then a couple of minutes later I suddenly got washed. I mean, it was a local thing, maybe there was in the valley, it was just next to the valley on one ridge and in the valley was maybe 40 kilometers per hour wind, so not super crazy or 35 to 40. I was just barely flying or standing actually, but on the side on this ridge I suddenly got sinked, like we sink down with 14 meters. I never experienced something before and I had to think, "Ah, that, that is what was the experience what Gavin told me to 80 meters, that's how it feels." And then in the middle of the valley at three, four meters climb, which also felt not nice because I thought like, "Ah, hopefully there will be not coming more wind," and I anyway didn't do any progress forward, so I was just standing there climbing a bit and standing in the wind.
So I thought then I actually ended up spiraling down and walking and, uh, yeah, so this was all things which happened suddenly and you didn't expect them to come, yeah.
Yeah, it was... it was interesting catching up with Cody and in at the uh, the Swiss Swiss turn point, the first one. I forget the name of that beautiful place coming out of the war last year in 2021, before
Santis, yeah, he was... he was sitting there at the launch and I walked up and he just had this look. He'd had that terrible experience leaving Lermous that a lot of people did, you know, and big thunderstorms and hail and and and he just had this look of he was kind of done mentally. He was done. He just... that was too much, you know? And I... I've never reached that in the X-ops. It's always been, you know, I've always felt like it was reasonable risk, but when you look back, you think, oh, I don't know, yeah.
The the 2015, for example, there was one day before that was what I was, was mentioning that I could judge quite the wind good because two day before I was also, I was, there was also very stable day, and I was scratching, like I said, it's kind of a toilet flush. I felt like I was flying really low in the valleys, from valley wind, um, soaring hill to another, and I just could not manage to get higher, but I just like was, yeah, caught in this valley wind, and I was doing progress, but it was all the time in strong winds, and it wasn't really, not landable areas. And one time I can remember where I was really gliding towards this, um, a soaring ridge, which is, um, was good in the valley wind.
I was so low reaching it and knew if I, if I don't climb, there's no landing, and the wind is so strong that I, I mean, it was, I was really reaching it by maybe 30 meter or so, like I was 30 meter over the valley floor, and I knew, I knew it will work because it was so strong wind, but I knew if I get a lot of sink before I reach it, and I don't reach the mountain or the, the ridge, then I have to land in strong winds standing, and there were obstacles all around me. So these situations, for sure, were way more nerve-wracking and scary than the next day where I saw, hey, okay, behind me is a huge field. I'm flying 30 kilometers per hour backwards, was, but I mean, I'm not getting blown. I was quite low already at this point, so I just thought, okay, I just have to take care that I'm not getting blown over this field.
I see down in the grass that the wind down there is, for sure, not so crazy that I get hurt when I land, even if I'm flying backwards. So I thought, okay, spiral down in front of the field, and then you just go on the brakes and fly backwards into the field. So it felt quite controlled, actually, even if it sounds crazy, crazy, yeah.
So many good stories, Manu. Thanks for sharing, uh, for the fifth or sixth time now. I think this one worked, buddy. And, uh, but I appreciate it. It's great, to great to see your smiling face. It's great to relive all these special moments and excited for you and your new family and, uh, excited to maybe see you in 25. Thanks, buddy. That was fun, yeah.
Thank you as well, and it was always a pleasure. So we can do it also several more times with you; it's always nice.
It's always good, actually, when we didn't do the recording was not working. I thought, like, you can never tell it again like so authentic, or so how you feel when you do it, tell it the first time, but it's never getting old.
It never gets old. It's a fun race. Thanks, bud.
Yeah, thank you too, and we wish all the other pilots lucky. I am really, yeah, curious how it feels the first time to just watch it in live tracking and have a lot of friends who I'm cheering and, yeah, oh
I know, is it going to be torture? Is it going to be fun? I don't know about that, but yeah, me neither. I've thought a lot about it; it's going to be exciting. It always is. Thanks, man, if
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