Hello there, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem. Usually, I don't force you to look at my ugly mug, but we're going to release this as a video version. We'll have it as an audio version as well, for those of you who want to listen to it like you normally do, in the car or as a podcast. But I recorded a video interview with a few athletes right after they made it to goal during the Red Bull X-Alps. And I wanted to just get their thoughts, their highs, their lows, their scary moments, their sweet moments. Will they do it again? Kind of ask the same question with everybody. These were all short, just five to ten minutes, and I just wanted to get their perspective. I got as many as I could. I got Tanguy Renaud-Goud, as he was having lunch with his team. He came in ninth place. Shane Tai, who came in 17th from Australia, first time Australians made it in.
Remy Bourdelle in sixth from France. Jean de Bioli, 14th from Belgium, who had that crash, a hard hit, leaving St. Moritz early in the race. And stuck it out. I mean, a heck of a performance. Jared Scheid from the U.S. in 12th. Had an awesome campaign with a really small team. And I caught up with those guys quite a bit. Flew with them a little bit, too, during the race. And they were having a lot of fun. It was awesome to see him make goal. And the Slovakian stoic, as I kept calling him during the race, Juraj Koreň, who's going to be coming over for Global Rescue X Red Rocks, the high-fly race that I organized. So that'd be really fun. And Juraj was in 13th. The race was amazing. A lot of fun. A lot of meaty headlines. Chrigel finally unseated after eight pretty dominant campaigns.
And Aaron Durogati finally broke his Red Bull X-Alps curse, flying a heck of a bold line right there at the end, leading Lermous and flying his own thing. And a solid win from him. It was amazing seeing those guys. I mean, Lars coming in less than 10 seconds in front of Simon. And then Chrigel shortly after. Really awesome to fly with those guys. That last day on the way to Lermous, did about 50K with those guys. And just amazing to see how calm and relaxed and everything they were on launch. And then see him go into full race mode there at the end. But so many incredible stories from this one. Of course, the scary North Fern on the second day, which ended Max's campaign.
And several fear injuries in this one. Several other injuries. None of them major. I mean, Patrick Harvey Collard, who I actually flew with today. He got hurt and had that hard top landing, broke a bone in his foot. But he'll be fine. So we're going to do a whole other episode with Tom de Dourladeau, who was also on the media side of things this time after all of his campaigns since 2007. He's done nine. This was going to be his tenth. But he had that terrible crash that we have a podcast about from a few months ago. Snow kiting up in Norway. But he and I are going to sit down next week and get his perspective on risk, get my perspective on risk. And, you know, there was a lot of chatter this year about that, especially after seeing David Sassidelli's launch, who I spent quite a bit of time with.
Actually, this year I flew with him from Laramus to Zelle. Not quite to Zelle, but had a nice flight with him on that final route. Neat kid. I'd love to get him on the show. We've got Celine Lorenz coming up and several others. So plenty of Red Bull X-Alp stuff coming in the future. I know we do a lot on that, but it is my most favorite topic. It is the most excellent race. It was a blast. It was exhausting. It's an amazing job. I really love it. Very grateful to those folks for providing it. And I know the athletes and the teams are as well. But lots to break down there. Before we get to that, just enjoy this chat with a bunch of these fine gentlemen who made it the goal, made it all the way. Hardest course yet. Weather was great.
They were able to fly a ton, but you can see the exhaustion in their eyes and this gives you a little taste of, what they went through. Enjoy.
I'm Tanguy Renogu and I made the X-Alp 25.
Tanguy, what was the high and the low point of this race? On this race, I think the low point, it was during the second day with the fun wind. It was really, really not cool. It was cool and dangerous and I regret a little bit to flew during this day. And I think the more cool it was during the fourth day, when we finally find a way to catch up the leading group and to flew a little bit in the front. So it was really cool. When we arrived in the 70s, we were really happy. How did this race compare to the 23?
I think it was really more hard already. It was more long. So this one was more hard. Yeah, it was more hard because more long and we work more. And I think I was clearly more tired. With the new rules to use the night pass, not at the last night. It was really difficult to pass two days after this night pass.
What did you do differently this time? Preparation wise, what did you learn from last time that changed this time?
I tried to run more in the flat, but with all the injuries, it was not so easy to improve this. And I think I was less stressed for sure. And yeah, I tried to fly on all the conditions, but it's same. It's difficult to train this. I
know it's very hard for people to put into words what it means to get here, to make goal. But now you've had some time to think about it. Yeah. What does it mean?
Well, it's, I don't know how to say, but after two years of preparation, it's finally the goal, the team goal to arrive. Yeah, it's just very cool. Yeah.
Does it meet
your expectations? Does it beat your expectations? Yeah, finally. But we wanted, I think, all the team wanted to make the best result. And we started to believe because we succeeded to keep the leading group during five days. But yeah, it's so, the level is so high. And yeah, it's some detail. It's very hard to, yeah, it's very, very hard to stay with this leading group. So yeah, finally, we was really, really not happy in Les Deux Alpes. And we success to, yeah, come back and finish nine.
Result wise, are you disappointed or it's okay? It's okay. It's okay because it's finished really good. Yeah, you made it. But yeah, in Les Deux Alpes, I was really not happy.
But yeah, it's a game. It's a competition.
Okay, really hard one. Yeah. Will you want to do it again? Will you do it again?
No, no, no. But I know me, after six months, I will forget already the hard day. The
pain. Yeah,
the pain. And maybe, yeah. Yeah. We'll see.
Who
are you? Oh, I'm Shane Tye. I'm an Australian pilot. I flew in the X-Alps in 2025. And you made it, dude. I did make it. It was, yeah, quite an experience. It's been something I've wanted to do for a while, just to test myself physically and mentally. Yeah, I'm super glad to make it here.
You had a pretty ripper X-Pyr this last year. Yeah. How did this compare?
Oh, they're totally different races. Yeah. I mean, I was pretty casual in that. I never ran, I don't think, besides the last day. First day and last day. But yeah, we were pretty relaxed. You get a lot more sleep there, 11 hours a night, which is more than what I get normally. And then this one, you can't stop. You have to keep moving. Otherwise, you get behind. You get to launch 10 minutes late, and you end up behind everyone. You'll never catch them. So yeah, there's a different pace. This one's definitely, yeah, a lot faster. Yeah.
Tell me a high point and a low point in the race.
I really liked, so we took a different line from Leicester out to Locarno. So there was thunderstorms predicted, and I didn't really want to fly into the thunderstorms in Italy. So we peeled off and went into Switzerland, into the Rhone Valley, and landed before the storms there, and just walked through the night. So the route's 50K longer, but I just walked that out on my night pass. And then took off the next day, and just recrossed the Alps and joined the gaggle on the other side. So it didn't gain anything, really, but it was a cool way to just mix up the race a bit more. And I guess my supporters' idea, and when we were flying, yeah, they just put it out there like, hey, do you want to try something different? I'm like, yeah, well, I'm here for the adventure, so let's do it.
And they sort of gave me a rundown, just fly to Switzerland, and pull your night pass, and then fly back tomorrow, and give it a go. And it was great. Like, the plan worked out perfectly.
We didn't really expect the gaggle that went through Italy to make it as far as they did in the storms, but they did. I'm sure it was pretty gnarly, but yeah, it was a much safer option to go into Switzerland and just walk pretty much straight line all night. Yeah, that was my high point. It was cool just to do something different.
Low point, I don't know, the whole thing's a bit of an adventure, so there's no true low points. There's a couple of frustrating moments, like, well, the last day was pretty frustrating. Yeah. I got stuck for basically three hours, like, hiked up. I knew it wasn't going to be good until 11, but Friedrich, who was one mountain back behind me, I was, I don't know, just at 2,000 meters, I was planning to walk to 2,200, not seeing he'd taken off. I was like, well, if he's flying, I should be flying, so I quickly rushed, set up, and took off, and then, yeah, I scratched my way around the corner, and I couldn't really get above 2,000 meters. Which was pretty much where I launched, and so I landed, like, base landed, just to sort of think about what I'm doing. I checked the tracking, and Friedrich had also landed and walked up to the 2,200 launch, which I would plan to walk up originally, so it was an amazing - You could have just stayed put.
I could have just done nothing, and we would have been in the same spot. Anyway, so he walked up - Do you think that some of the... I
was kind of amazed, because I got to float around, and I got to spend the morning with Chrigel and someone. Yeah,
and Simone
and Aaron, their last day on their way into Lermous, and they were so casual. They were so patient, and just hanging and chilling out. You have to be
patient, so - I
was never like that. All four of my... I was always rushing too much, and I paid the price for it a lot.
Well, I think that's probably my biggest learning from this race was timing and patience, so on the good cross country days, basically every day, I'd try to do a hike and glide, and then hike up again and go cross country. But if you missed that cross country window by half an hour, like you launch a little bit later than the other person, you never catch them. So it was shown quite a few times during the race where the people who would walk up, have a casual walk up, and then just wait for the XE conditions to come on would actually get a jump on everyone, because they took off just slightly earlier. And 10 or 20K gliders, they can do that pretty quick when it's thermic. Sure. Yeah. Or walking on the road and walking up too late. Because it's cross country. Yeah.
It's quite
a price to pay. Yeah. For being a bit slow.
Yeah. So that was interesting with Friedrich. So he went up to that high launch, which was a very, very good trigger. And I had top landed. I looked back where he was. He hadn't taken off. So I took off again. I climbed out to 2,300 meters. I went on glide to the next mountain, and when I went on glide, he'd just taken off. And I got stuck, like properly stuck, and I couldn't crack the inversion at 2,000 meters. I needed about 24 to make the impact. It was a valley crossing, and I was there for two hours. I watched him fly over me, watched Ben fly over me, and then just stuck on this mountain not being able to crack the inversion. So I ended up flying back about 4K, 4 or 5K, back to where I'd originally launched, which was a mountain that Friedrich had launched off, the 2,200 meter high mountain.
Got a nice thermal off that to 3.1, and then finally made the crossing. But the whole exercise cost me three hours, and I got to watch everyone else fly over me. So it wasn't really a low point, but - Frustrating. It's totally frustrating, especially, I had 30Ks to go, and I can do this in an hour and a half or two hours. I'm pretty much, the race is over, so I was pretty relaxed going into it. I'm like, I'll be there soon. I didn't take a charge, so my phone was running flat, and yeah, and then there was four hours to do 30Ks. I could have jogged it in. Torture.
Yeah, you could have jogged it in.
So yeah. That was it. That was quite frustrating, and after 10 days of not a whole lot of sleep, quite frustrating to -
Just want to get in and go to bed.
I wanted to get there and - Have a beer. Yeah, just have a bit of a relax, and it was like, oh, this is not as easy as I thought it would be. Yeah, right. And yeah, so that was interesting for sure, but it's all part of the experience, and I'm glad to have made it here, and I think 17th is pretty good. I like to think it's bang in the middle on the perfect average X-Alps pilot. Nice.
Will you do it again?
Probably not. The race is fun, but the risk is quite huge.
I tried not to push my limits, so I walked down from a few launches that I know others didn't, and at the end of the day, I just want to stay safe, and being in a race environment really pushes you to step outside your limits a little bit, and I don't know. Yeah. It's too much. I've done it. I've experienced what it's like, yeah, and honestly, the Alps are amazing, and to race through it and miss out on all the cool stuff is a bit of a disappointment, like, wow, this is beautiful. I wish I could just have five minutes to swim in this beautiful lake or enjoy this area, but you just got to keep moving. Yeah, frantic. I love bivvy-style flying because if the weather isn't that good, you just land and enjoy the area.
You find something nice, a nice town or whatever, you explore it, and in the race environment, you can do that, but it's not going to get you very far. Right. You'll be way behind pretty quickly. That was the last day. I had two. The morning walk and my walk up to the second launch was just amazing, such a beautiful area. They had sculptures all along the footpaths and kids' playgrounds and a lot of really cool stuff. Yeah. I don't know. Flying and hiking through the Alps is a cool way to see it, so I'd like to take the time a little bit more, and doing it in a race is not really a good way to take it all in. It's too quick.
Well, Shane, congratulations. Thank you. It was a hell of a campaign to you and your team, and congratulations on being the first Aussie to do it.
Yeah. Awesome. It's been fun.
Who are you? I'm Remy Baudel. I'm a French pilot pilot. I fly since I was six months old. I've been flying since 20 years.
20 years? Yeah. A lot of the athletes this year have just been four or five years. It's kind of hard to believe, isn't it?
Yeah. At the beginning, it's not my favorite activity because I love all the outdoor sport. But finally, the hiking fight is very amazing because you need to have a very good physical sensation. Yeah. You need to have a very good feeling in the air. It's very different, but when you migrate the two things, it's unique, actually.
How does it feel here that you made it? How does it feel now? You've had, what, 24 hours to process it?
I think I'm not really the race is finished. For me, I'm focused. Okay, we can go. We need to go. We need to go. And finally, I don't know, maybe it's with the weather or with the team, but we passed very, very quickly. Yeah. Yeah. Eight
days. It's weird being done, isn't it? Yeah. I always found that the hardest part. I always found getting done is the hardest part. Not immediately, but in a few days, it's so nice to have nothing to worry about except this race. The outside world doesn't exist when you're in this race. Yeah.
Honestly, I don't know, no.
When you think back now to the race, do you have a moment that really stands out, maybe a high and a low?
The highest moment when I pass the, I don't know this name, but it's just between Zermatt area. Yeah. And the Modusola area in Italy. And we need to climb very, very high. Yeah. Yeah. But we have the limit with Altea. Yeah. It's 3,800. And the thunderstorm is coming and I need to climb very fast, but I need to check my instrument. Oh, be careful or don't go in the limit. And I go on the little pass and maybe the pass is 4,500 meters. And finally I'll pass just within one or two meters.
That's amazing. And if
I do a mistake, I land on the glacier and the race is finished for me.
Really? Yeah. Because you couldn't have gotten out of there. Yeah. Oh, that's pretty. And how about a low point?
The low point, I think
it's when I arrive to just after the Modusola, when we go to the long area to St. Maurice. Simon passed maybe two hours before me and he has a good climbing and a good cloud for very fast. And finally for me, the cloud base is very low and I have a lot of walls for passing and it's not possible. And I have just... It's very shit because I managed just the one glide on the lake. It's 1,060 meters. Just for the glide, but it's not on the white flag. It's opposite of the white flag.
And when I arrive to the lake, we have a very strong valley breeze. And I jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump. But I'm afraid because the thunderstorm is coming.
Me and I need to find the
good moment for landing just before the thunderstorm. And I don't like it. This one and maybe I think another one is just before the Merano, Merano via Ferrata. Because we have... It's just on the beginning of the... No, not the beginning of the day, but on the north front, it's very strong and we need to land. And for me, it's my limit. So it's maybe 40 kilometers per hour just on the lee side. It's very turbulent and I really don't like it. Have
you flown in conditions similar to what you experienced in this race? Is it beyond anything you've...
No, never. Yeah. Because normally when it's a really shit condition, I land before. Sure. But with the adrenaline, I had another pilot and we need to push because if you don't fly in the strong condition, my focus is to finish the race. And all the time, you need to push. But I think it's very important to find your limits. And for me, I'm very happy because after that, I said on my team, okay, if the wing doesn't go a little bit low, I just walk. And finally, I'm lucky because the wing is a little bit less on the takeoff and I take off again.
But I'm really happy with that because it's a very... My limit, it's full. And I say that it's okay.
I know this is an impossible question, but have you thought about the next one? It's
too early.
Too early.
But... But not no. Yeah. Not no for sure, but not yet. We'll see. Yeah. We'll see.
Have you, in the other hike and fly races you've done or anything else in your life, have you ever done anything that was this emotional, this big, this overwhelming?
Can you repeat? Is this the biggest thing you've done in your life? In terms of just... Oh,
yeah. Everything? All of it? Oh, yeah. For me, it's unique. It's not comparable with another I Can Fly competition. It's very big and with all the media and people to follow you, it's just amazing.
Who
are you?
My name is Jean Viollet. 29 years old. And just finished the Red Bull X-House.
How does it feel?
Somehow I feel relieved and just, yeah, really, really happy of how everything went. Even though we had some setbacks, the team was amazing and I think that, yeah, my goal was to have a great experience with a lot of learnings and that's what I got, so I'm very happy. You
supported Tom in the last one. How important is that to support someone before you do it?
I think it puts the attention on, yeah, details that actually are really important. I remember that at that time I was, yeah, very tired, so very big factor is sleep. And then, yeah, trying to... Yeah. No, I learned a lot of things and discovered how, yeah, I can use those things to apply them to my team. Even though I have, I think, a pretty different approach than Tom to the team and to the organization. Yeah, I learned a lot.
What are some highlights of the different approach?
Tom is, like, really always in a really adventurous mindset. He likes to have, like, a small, nimble team and I want to have things a bit more, like, organized, I think. I remember, I think it was the second day of the race with Tom, he was hiking and we were shopping underwear for him because he didn't have enough underwear.
And, for example, with my supporter, Antoine, which is really organized and focused, this would be, like, unimaginable. And he has counted all my underwear and all my socks before the beginning of the race. And we even went to buy more, but in advance.
That's funny. When you look back now and there's, you'll be processing this for months, but what's a highlight? What's a low light? What's the one that really stands out that was magic and what was the worst?
Well, definitely the worst. I had, like, I think the... Yeah, my crash and then also another very bad flight from Les Deux Alpes where I got, like, in really turbulent air and went to, yeah, a stall with a twist and, yeah, could have ended with a rescue. And it's the first big thing I had like this in paragliding.
First real combat situation. Yeah, I mean,
real extreme like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But at the same time, every time I managed it. I mean, except from the crash. And then, so that was probably the worst. But then we bounced back and, yeah, I remember one amazing moment at the end of the day flying from Descentis. I found above it was Andermatt, like, crazy convergence at like 8.30 and kept on going up. In the morning? No, no, in the evening. Oh. And it was, yeah, crazy.
Oh, man. Were you able to utilize it or did you have to spiral down to the ground?
No, no, no. I could really push it to the end. Oh, cool. And, yeah, no, it was so smooth. And, yeah, we, it was understandable how it could happen, but it was pure luck that we got into it. Pure surprise.
Yeah. I was completely
in the middle of the valley and there was another athlete in front of me and he couldn't catch me. He couldn't catch any lift on the, on the slope. So, yeah, we were, yeah, it was just pure luck, but amazing. Those, those moments you only have in hike and fly races. Yeah. Amazing.
I know it's very early to ask this question, but I always thought about it about now and in my races, will you do it again?
Yeah. It was in one of my objectives, like to want to do it again because when I signed up for this one, I was always already looking forward to it. Looking at the next one, um, building experience to be better. So yes, for sure.
Cool. What would be something, anything you would do differently?
Um,
maybe like, yeah, something Tom said about like the fifth day or something. And also after my crash, like you see a lot of athletes hurting themselves or having to DNF. And at some point it, it. It really becomes about like getting to the end and surviving. So maybe that mindset I will hold, uh, earlier in the race, just
more margin.
Yeah. It's not, I don't, it's also related to margin, but also just the mindset that you, you have to last for 10 days and it means for pushing, for sleep, for risk, for everything. But just keeping that in mind. Yeah. You've it's, it's a long run. So, yeah. And, and in the beginning you're so excited and I'm, I was in a great position in the beginning. So you're really excited to continue pushing and stuff and you have to remind yourself that you still have to go on for 10 days and long
way to go. Yeah. One step in front of the other. Thanks, Sean. Congratulations. Thank you very much.
Who are you? I'm Jared Scheid, Team USA for the Red Bull X-Alps 2025.
Uh. In not too many words. How was the experience? Uh, I mean, it was everything I expected. It was. Really? And, and more. Yeah. I mean, I knew that I would be flying all the conditions from the good to the bad. Uh, yeah, there are some, like, I think there might've been one classic flying day in there in the mix and the rest was not, not all the way to survival flying. But it was just. You're flying in all the, all the. It's just weird. It doesn't work the way that you think it's working or it's supposed to work. And you just gotta be flexible and fly the day.
High point and low point.
Uh, I'll start with the low point. I think it was flying.
Uh, I mean, I think I might change, it reminds me, I might change my answer. I was going to say the low point kind of emotionally was. Yeah.
I was
just, there was a like day three. I just felt like I wasn't connecting with the day. I was like trying to chase other pilots and like, they just, they were flying their flight and I was trying to fly there. This was after Murano? This is after Murano. Okay. Yeah. And I was just chasing them down. I was just like a little bit lower and I just, nothing was working. Like I'd watched them fly into a Ridge and ping out and I'd, I was groveling there for half an hour and like, I, I just didn't know, like, didn't feel like I could fly like the, fly the Alps. I just felt like I didn't belong. And then everyone went off on their line and I just was like, well, they're going this way. I'm just going to take the shortcut and go straight through. And then like flew my flight. This was the same Ritz. Yeah. The same Ritz. Yeah. You dusted me that day. That pissed me off.
I was like, he was one of my adventure guys a couple of years ago in Utah and he just totally dusted me.
Uh, yeah. So I just, that, that was like emotionally I, but I, I, you know, I picked it back up and I got into St. Ritz and, and kept going, but, well, then from St. Ritz too, it was again, like back low because everybody launched this one spot, but I was a little late and it was Lee side and it came over the back and then I, I, and then John, I had a hard landing and like, and I was just like, I don't know if I want to do this. It was windy. Like, what do I do? Do I just start walking 20 kilometers and, but like, you know, just continue forward. Yeah. But yeah, that's the emotional low point. But yeah. Yeah. And then the high point, ah, there are so many good moments, like, that's why I did this race. Cause like, it's hard to pick one, but like every day there was always like something beautiful, some beautiful mountain range, some, something like just, but I think the high point might've been when I like really fell into my, my element on the second to last day in my race on day 10 and, uh, just flew just my own flight.
This was when you went from 21st to 12th. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I had no idea. Is that where you came
in too?
Uh, well, I, I tagged their moose that day and then I landed 30 kilometers short of goal and then ran. But you
ended up in 12th, right? Yeah.
I ended up, I, I, I bumped into 11th for a bit, but then Marcus passed me. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Uh,
cause you were at that whole chase gaggle kind of, yeah. 11th to 21st, 22nd. Yeah. Cause you were at that whole chase gaggle. Cause the, yeah, the night before you were at the back of that gaggle and then you came in. Yeah,
it was
a long road
day and, and, and I was, I was going slow and they got ahead of me and, and so I just, I had to use strategy and. That was quite cool too. I
mean that morning, pretty much everybody else did some kind of little hiking glide. You slept in and were in, you were in position to start the day right when it turned on. Right. And then just flew to the front and stayed there. Right. Yeah. And then kind of how that went down.
Yeah.
And, and again, I, I flew my flight and that's, I think that's a really important takeaway from this race is, or in paragliding in general is fly your flight. Don't fall, like do what other people are doing, like make it your own and like, and it's just going to be that much more special when it works. Yeah,
totally style. I think is what that means doing the style.
Uh, no, one's really been able to answer this, but I keep asking it, will you do it again?
Well, I mean, I miss laying out on the float, so I guess I have to go to a, another race so I can land on it.
Yeah. This, I mean, the last edition in this edition with so many people getting in, I feel like it's tweaked people's expectations, you know what I mean? Now this will change it with the numbers this year, but historically it's got an 11 % finish rate. You know what I mean? Two of the ones I was in one of them, one person made it another one, two people made it. Yeah. This is kind of outrageous that so many people are getting in with good weather. Yeah.
Like good flying days, like really every day. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, in 2017, you just, you didn't even fly the first day, walked up Salzburg was where the Geisberg walked down, walked for 80 K. It was a miserable way to start a
race. Nope. Your body is just wrecked for the rest of the time. Yeah. Thankfully we got to fly a lot. Yeah.
And spectacular terrain. I mean, some of the stuff, some of the videos that you've seen are incredible. So yes, is the answer. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, Jared, congratulations. Well done to you and your team, which I think was the smallest team. It was just Isaac and Karl. Yup. Three of us. What were you calling it? Something and mean. Slim and mean. Lean and mean. Lean and mean. Yeah. You guys were lean and mean. Congratulations.
Yeah. Thank you.
Who are you?
I'm a small guy from a small country to the east. And my name is Juraj Koreň. Yeah. Tell me, how
was your experience overall?
Overall. In a few words. Overall of Ixalps. Yes. We spoke about.
I don't know if it's the English word, but galley, you know, where the slaves. Yeah. Like, yeah.
But yeah, something really strong. But also really breathtaking. I don't know if it's a state king or to heaven state king. Because I see a lot of places from really high altitude and all of the regions of the Alps. It connects to my mind somehow. Like, OK, here it's like this because there's a long valley heading to the sea. And that's why it's so stable here. And, you know, kind of this region differences was visible to me. which opens me a new horizons in knowledge of flying here how
Did this experience compare to 2019? Absolutely.
100, 200, better, really. Yeah, why in 2019, it was my worst part of life ever. I mean, I had really strong depression. I lost 10 kilos even before the race. I was like homeless, no money, and I had suicidal tendencies, kind of really not trying to kill myself, but my feeling was like, I don't want to live anymore. That was my before the race set up, because I, in that time, I think I lost the love of my life and this bullshit stuff, you know? And it really destroyed me. Three, three months before I, I almost stopped eating, I almost stopped sleeping.
I slept like one hour in two days, eat like once per... God, how did you even come to the race? And it's a lifetime opportunity. Yeah, you still had to do it, but wow, man, it was, it was a lot. Really, really, really hard that time. And of course, my mental set, uh, possibilities was super low because of not sleeping, you know? You fly and there is like darkness, yeah? Like, what I'm doing, I don't know, it's just there, you know? So... It was pretty hard, and of course, my my experience with the with the Alps, flying flying in the Alps with the veloins film and stuff like this was very very little. So even if I will be in a better mental or physical shape, I will be not uh able to fly as good as later, or I
mean, a lot of flights I did was with the luck, you know, not that I know what's going
on, but I know what's going on.
Right, right, right, right. I just had the luck and like stubborn head in front, yeah.
It's you, and I flew quite a few times together in this one, and I was—I call you the Slovakian Stoic. You know, you're so stoic about things, but you're still—you were having a lot of fun. I mean, every time we were flying, you were just hooping and hollering and loving it. It's hard to imagine the 2019 you versus now, yeah.
Yeah, I cannot say. You had a really good time, I felt
like, on this time. Yeah, because
I know what. Going on, and I believe in my... I was believing in my possibilities, you know? Like, I know what I can kind of do, uh, that I could fly in lee side and know what's going on. It's really hard to describe in... in foreign language, which is not mine. It's even super hard to explain my own language, but my biggest fear from the beginning of flying was like, I fly and I don't know what's going on, like why I'm sinking. You know, when you know what's ahead of you, there will be a lee side and I could expect collapses. You are ready, you know? Okay, now I hit the wind and it's because it's going from the back side, so staying here there's two options and, you know, yeah, you know what's fucking going on?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when you don't know, you're... I feel kind of, uh, not useless but not harmless, confused and not... not confident, like You, you're losing the control of the situation. You cannot affect the the situation. You're
not controlling your destiny, you don't
know what's going on? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, how to prevent the bad things? What was the high point of the race and the low point of the race? The lowest point definitely was the time in the second day when I landed in Merano very badly and destroyed my glider and partially dislocated my arm, which gets back again, but I mean, the glider was like, "Shit, I cannot continue because my glider, it's done." It was 96 centimeter hole, wow, with some internal destruction. How did you fix it? Uh, I called my friend Mike Kramer from Mayrhofen from Zillertal. "Man, this is a lifetime chance to help me.
I really, really, really need your help to make it happen." It was in the time when I was, uh, uh, climbing via ferrata with my arm, which was like this through the call, I was screaming like, you know, like bear or whoever, or you know, like it was really painful, but uh, yeah, pain is temporary and glory is forever, so I
just pushed myself let
Me manage it. The guy came, Mike came, and he did it in in the night when I was hiking my uh second glider, which is even much more heavier and even even much more bigger, I mean one size bigger and two kilos heavier, but uh fairly allows it to me because I was not really flying with it. I was just hiking through Merano and he managed it in the night, and in the morning I was like, taking off the shit, I hope he did good, but I believe it because, you know, internal structure damage and just rip. Yeah, from outside it's totally different. It's a hard repair. Yeah, yeah, he was really like a long uh long work. It was a really long work for him, but he managed. So that was my low, and of course the the hand, but for example, to grabbing the bees was like, "Oh god, dude," or like
really really
With pain, now it's better, but still, like the rest of the race, it was really bothering you. Yeah, yeah, it was bothering, but you know, there is nothing impossible for those who try.
I mean the pain, no.
question ever? Thank you. Yeah, no question of ever quitting or something? No, it's just like, ah, uh, what about the high point? I know there's a lot that's—that's a lot of I
would say
the last thermal I got before Smith really, ah, you're gonna make it. Yeah, like that's a good feeling. I took off in—we call it, or I call it, strudel. It's this horizontal lee side. It's hard to... I wasn't kind of sharp. Reach the wind was from the back, and in front or on the side was the thermal. So the wind was like this, but immediately turns, and I took over, really grabs me. There was a high power lines next in front of me, like 50 meters, you know? And I forget to unclip my cocoon because I was hiking with the with the glider to be ready immediately to fly. So I was like grabbing like four meter really nasty bam bam bam bam thermal, but I was, I will, I got it.
Yeah, that's a nice—it's nice to fly in and you just see it in front of you like, yeah, I got you. Nice. Um, this is too early to ask this, but I ask it anyway because I think it's interesting: will you do it again, uh?
My supporter said it's the last time the beginning of the race, but you know what was yesterday with the, uh, with the slivovica evening? What was the topic of the discussion? Shall we go again? And we postponed it, this decision for later. First of all, uh, if I will have the same team, plus I mean one guy who was just a short time with us, two days at the beginning, Andre, if he will be with the part of actual team for a whole time, I think I will go because we have experience, we have the internal humor, and we know each other, what's going on and stuff like this.
Then I, I will, this I, I will apply, but if I will need to take a different people without experience, probably will be not, not a good idea. Yeah, the only thing which I was so concerning is like, you know, represented specifically amount of money and time invested in this, what I can do by myself. I mean, I'm a bit of introvert guy, solo, alone in the mountains. You know, we speak a lot about this and without a lot of money invested in yourselves, I could be on three expeditions, really hardcore, three months, you know? Yeah, but, uh, at the end, I feel really good
spirit here compared to 2019 because I was totally in different mental shape, of course, but maybe different organizers, whatever you know, but I feel really like in family here and I feel that I'm kind of able to, to fight in the midfield, so it's like 60, yes, 40, no, for now, but let's possibly postpone it for later. Also, the support for all the sponsors is important, you know, from for us, because if we can train like really aim and do not try just five days before the race as a team, but like go for a month and like really, you know, like high level, uh, preparation, then total different music, kind of metal one, thanks.
Buddy, congratulations! Thank you, thank you so much. If you
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