Fast conditions at Eigertour 2025
Lars Meerstetter and Romy Sweda triumph on longest course
16 July, 2025, by Tarquin Cooper | Photos: Tobias DimmlerThe Swiss mountains of the Bernese Oberland have played host to a spectacular and successful eighth edition of the Eigertour hike-and-fly race – the longest ever.
With booming conditions and an elite lineup of athletes, race director Michu Witschi extended the course on the eve of the race to 370km adding turnpoints in the Val d’Anniviers and Turtmanntal in the Valais, bringing the total to 25.
Fresh from his second place success at the Red Bull X-Alps, Swiss athlete Lars Meerstetter came first, completing the route in less than two days. Michael Maurer – a name not usually associated with hike-and-fly – came second (beating his older brother Chrigel into fourth). And it was the Welshman and Advance pilot Idris Birch who came third.
Romy Sweda was first female – an extraordinary achievement given she only took up paragliding in 2022. “It’s the first time a woman was up to the men’s level,” Michu said. “Very impressive and I hope inspiring to other women. If she wants and still learns a lot she will be a hike-and-fly superstar.”
A low pressure system moved on just before the race, leaving behind excellent flying conditions and a north-easterly wind that helped progress along the northern slopes of the Oberland on the start of the first day.
Michu adds: “We had a very high pilot level up to mid-ranking. Landing 25 times at high alpine huts is really the king-class of paragliding! We had five women competing in total and I hope there will be more. We also discovered hidden talents like Michi Maurer and Idris Birch, but also Dougie Swanson-Low and Silvan Wüthrich, two Swiss and two Brits who could easily be in the top five of a future X-Alps.”
Dougie, a design engineer for a climbing company, is no stranger to hike-and-fly, having won the 2024 Dragon hike-and-fly race. He placed seventh. Silvan was fifth. On 5 April this year Silvan made the earliest 300km closed triangle, according to xcontest.
After Lars, 13 more pilots made it to the finish in Grindelwald, around 30% of the participants, raising a dilemma for the race director, whether to introduce a shorter course for adventure pilots or keep it one race and shorten the route to make it more accessible.
“I’m very happy about the whole race and yet have to think how to motivate the second half of the ranking, maybe by making the race a bit shorter in future,” adds Michu. “But then the top shots will finish it in one day which is not good either!”
