Chrigel Maurer has won the Red Bull X-Alps for a record eighth time – and in the fastest time in the race’s 20-year history.
The 40-year-old pilot touched down on the raft in the lake at Zell am See on the afternoon of Saturday 17 June, just six days, six hours and one minute after the 1,223km hike-and-fly adventure race had started in the centre of Kitzbühel the Sunday before.
In between he had flown around the Alps, tagging 15 turnpoints as he went. Always in the leading pack, at times it was not certain that he would win – with new FAI Paragliding World Champion Maxime Pinot putting him under pressure like never before.
In his second X-Alps France’s Damien Lacaze also piled on the pressure, at one point taking the lead after pulling off the longest single flight in X-Alps history. Damien flew 266.57km on 15 June, which helped put him in pole position for a while.
However, in a remarkably tenacious display of mountain flying Chrigel regained his lead over the next 24 hours. He flew through the Italian Alps on a day with strong north wind, conditions which left other pilots reeling. Chrigel however, managed to keep battling on, and made slow but steady progress east until his lead had extended to 20, 30 and then 40km.
Perfect positioning and timing then saw him take the final turnpoints after completing a mandatory via ferrata at speed at first light in the Dolomites, before hiking and flying across the main spine of the Alps towards the Pinzgau Valley and goal at Zell am See.
After arriving at goal in Zell am See Chrigel said: “It’s unbelievable to be here after such a short time and several tough moments. When I crossed the main ridge together with my team, it was incredible.”
Race reporter Gavin McClurg, himself a former four-time X-Alps pilot, said it was Chrigel’s ability to keep a calm and a level head over the final days that saw him pull ahead of Damien Lacaze and Maxime Pinot.
“He proved once again that he just makes the best decisions in the mountains, in the biggest terrain, and he’s the best in the world – period.”
New race director Ferdinand Vogel added that Chrigel was an astoundingly fit mountain athlete with a natural feeling for the best strategic route decisions. “Firstly, I would like to congratulate Maurer on another outstanding performance. It’s an amazing achievement – again! He makes decisions on gut instinct and his instinct is incredibly good because he just has so much experience and he also prepares for every situation.”
Chrigel’s record time surpasses his previous record of six days, 23 hours, and 40 minutes. He set that in the 2013 edition, which was 1,031km long.
Chrigel was the only pilot to finish the race on Saturday, with both Damien Lacaze and Maxime Pinot coming in to goal first thing on Sunday morning after pulling “night passes” which had allowed them to hike through the night.
Damien pulled out all the stops and even hiked down from the final turnpoint to the lakeside, where he then dived in and swam to the raft – a move allowed under the rules. Both Damien and Maxime registered times of 6 days 18 hours.
Sunday then saw a whole gaggle of pilots arrive, including and in order:
Pal Takats: 6d20h
Patrick von Kännel: 6d21h
Simon Oberrauner: 6d 21h
Tim Alongi: 6d 21h
Aaron Durogati: 7d0h
Markus Anders: 7d0h
Tanguy Renaud-Goud: 7d0h
Tommy Friedrich: 7d0h
Sepp Inniger: 7d1h
Paul Guschlbauer: 7d1h
Tom de Dorlodot: 7d1h
Tobias Grossrubatscher: 7d1h
Nicola Donini: 7d2h
Reto Reiser: 7d3h
Max Loidl: 7d 3h
A total of 18 pilots had finished the Red Bull X-Alps 2023 by Sunday evening – a week after setting off.
Behind them, eight pilots remained out on course, including Eli Egger, who will become the first woman to complete the Red Bull X-Alps if she finishes later this week. On Sunday evening she had 200km to go.
The race officially stops at 11:30am local time on Friday 23 June.
