SOURCE supports three athletes hiking and paragliding 1,000 km in distance and roughly 70,000 meters in ascent and descent in the 2013 Red Bull X-Alps adventure race. 

Did you ever wish you had wings, when standing on a mountain-top, looking out at the peaks around you ..? – The contestants in the Red Bull X-Alps adventure race literally have wings to cross from Salzburg in the Austrian Alps to Monaco at the Mediterranean shore.

The hand-picked competing athletes hike and fly by paraglide a distance of 1,000 km – that is 1,000 km if you draw a straight line on the map. Hiking and flying the distance across the Alps, the actual route covered will be a lot longer. Not to mention the ascents and descents that will add up to something incredible like 70’000 m up and down.

 

 

A breathtaking route …

The 2013 route is 200 km longer than the one of X-Alps 2011 and it includes some of the landmark-peaks in the Alps, from the Dachstein Massiv (2,995m) in Austria and the Zugspitze (2,962m) in Germany to the Matterhorn (4,478m) in Switzerland and the Mont-Blanc (4,810m) in the French Alps. In between, the athletes touch down in world-famous holiday-destinations like Interlaken, Switzerland.

 

 

… a very tough race

It takes extreme endurance and expert paragliding skills to complete the course. Every contestant can team up with two supporters that offer him food, logistics – and mental support. Athletes are allowed to race between the hours of 05:00 to 22:30. But in a new twist for 2013 that promises to make the race even more exciting, the athletes can each pull one ‘Night Pass’ that will allow them to push-on through the night on foot.

 

 

Celebrating the 10 year anniversary

32 athletes from 21 nations, each one of them hand-picked by Red Bull X-Alps, will participate from July 7 in the 10 year anniversary edition of the race. Last time, with ‘only’ 900 km to cover, they were on the road (and in the air) for 11 days …

We at SOURCE are proud official supporters of three athletes: Thomas Hofbauer (Austria 3), Lars Budack (Germany 2) and Chrigel Maurer (Switzerland 1, supported by our Distributor in Switzerland, Sportimport Jäggi are going for the race with SOURCE Hydration Systems, SOURCE Sandals and SOURCE Socks. We wish them all the best for their tough race, and we’ll catch up with them as they’re preparing…

 

 

We will follow them closely and report about their mission here in our SOURCE Outdoor Blog and on our SOURCE Outdoor Facebook Page.

Also follow the story on …

• Lars Budack official page: www.pararunner.de
• Thomas Hofbauer official page: www.thomas-hofbauer.at 
• Chrigel Maurer official page
• RedBull X-Alps official page
• In our blog: «I hope I’ll make it to the finish-line…»