Red Bull X-Alps warm-up event Kampenwand-Lermoos

Wet weather won’t dampen spirits

May 24th and 25th saw the first ever X-Alps warm-up event. Organised by Flugschule Chiemsee with support of Red Bull, Nova and Skywalk, the event used the turnpoints at Kampenwand /Aschau and Lermoos to test-hike & fly the third leg of this year’s X-Alps route.It was open to all interested pilots in a relaxed non-race-format.

Eight X-Alps athletes showed up for an interesting meet & greet evening at Flugschule Chiemsee: Yvonne Dathe, Manuel Nuebel, Sebastian Huber (all Germany), Gerald Gold, Stefan Gruber and Pascal Purin (Austria) as well as Stanislav Mayer (Czech Republic) and Steve Nash (UK).

On Sunday and Monday these athletes, together with two dozens of hike & fly aficionados, walked up to Kampenwand in miserable conditions (rain and low cloud base) – only to be welcomed with a tail wind. With this being a fun event and serving mainly for route exploration, the pilots were relaxed about it. Some were lucky enough to find a hole in the clouds, while others preferred a hot brew in the hut and walked down again.

In the end it showed that there seems to be two major routes to cross this mountain area, which are off the beaten XC route. Heading west from Kiefersfelden to Ackernalm and on to Achenwald or a bit further north to Bayrischzell and then Tegernsee. Due to the bad weather, nobody made it all the way to Lermoos in only two days. But all enjoyed the positive atmosphere.

The X-Alps 2015 begins on the 5th of July. You can hear how the athletes prepare for the event and get the inside story from a former competitor at our podcast page.