‘A very special day’ – near-400km flown in the Alps

An incredible day on Monday 25 May saw a handful of paraglider pilots come tantalisingly close to breaking the mythical 400km barrier in the Alps.

Flying an Enzo 3 and Niviuk Icepeak X-One respectively Antoine Cabiac and Justin Puthod flew an astonishing 393km after launching from Riederalp, Switzerland. The pair launched at 9.20am and landed at 9.18pm, almost exactly 12 hours after setting off.

After launching from Riederalp, Switzerland their route took them east first to Disentis, then west all the way to western edge of the Mt Blanc massif, before turning around and making it back to their starting point. In a social media post on final glide a clearly exhausted but elated Antoine said: “World record, let’s go! Incredible!”

Antoine later told us: “Honestly, I still have a hard time realising it. It was a very special day, with a huge amount of emotion and concentration from start to finish. After so many hours in the air, you go through all kinds of feelings: excitement, doubts, fatigue… and then just the happiness of being up there.”

The flight is almost certainly a new record in the Alps and is classified by XContest as a “closed free triangle” or flat triangle. (The FAI triangle record of 358.6km set by Edouard Potel in August 2025 from the Col de l’Izoard still stands.)

Antoine said 400km was  “possible one day” but that it would take, “a perfect combination of conditions, strategy, and a bit of luck as well. Above all, I’m just grateful to have experienced this flight.”

Justin and Antoine’s flight was among several extraordinary distances flown across the Alps on 25 May. Thirteen pilots including Sebastian Benz, the 2024 XContest winner Ondrej Prochazka and Rémi Bourdelle flew more than 300km after also launching from Riederalp. A further five pilots flew 300km launching from other sites, including Fiesch, Zillertal and Brauneck.

Nicolas Poncelet, who flew 366km with the main group, wrote afterwards on XContest: “It’s a perfect loop! Incredible, unreal, right to the very end! 31(km/h) average on the final leg. Huge congratulations to the courageous, but above all talented, who pushed the limits! Especially to my Cabiac, the new world record holder for a flat triangle! Hats off to the artist! In short, for the statisticians: 11 hours 39 minutes of flight, 366 km, 32.5 average, 8th largest triangle of all time, Zeno × Zian!”