The rise and rise of Elisa Deutschmann

Before the start of this year’s X-Pyr race Elisa Deutschmann headed to the Pyrenees with her supporter Stefan Berreiter to check out the route and get a sense of how it works. If the goal was to get her head into the game and instil some confidence before the epic crossing, the trip was a resounding failure. 

“Our only practice flight ended after five minutes when we sank out, and many of the valleys were exactly as people had described – kilometres of dense forest without a single safe landing field,” she recalled. “More than once I asked myself, should I even go?”

All winter Elisa had been battling a virus that left her exhausted and unable to train....