Eiger Tour Summer Ed. 9 Race Report

Author/Athlete: Cesar Arevalo

The Eiger Tour takes you through some truly incredible places, with landscapes that are hard to compare to anything else. Flying and moving through the Swiss Alps makes the race an unforgettable experience, but it’s definitely not an easy one.

One of the most important things to understand is that this is a completely unsupported race. You need to be self-sufficient throughout the entire competition and constantly think ahead: how to optimize the food you carry, where you can resupply, and especially where you are going to sleep. Not every mountain hut is open or available, so having a good plan — and being ready to adapt to it — is essential.

From the flying side, I would also say that you should already have a high level of confidence and experience with top landings. The race requires several of them, sometimes in complex mountain terrain and conditions where you need to make good decisions quickly.

It’s an amazing race, but one that rewards preparation, independence, solid mountain skills, and the ability to adapt along the way.

This was my first hike & fly race, and I definitely found it demanding, especially during the periods when the conditions were not flyable. In those moments, you simply have to keep moving and find a way to make progress on foot.

I also realized how important it is to be very precise with food and supplements, because you want to carry as little weight as possible while still having enough energy for the whole race.

Once we were able to fly, my mindset was basically to take calculated risks and try to move forward as much as possible. One of the biggest things I learned is how important top landing is in this kind of race. The faster and more confidently you can top land, the easier it is to keep your rhythm in the air. And if you stay on schedule, you also have a better chance of catching the best cycles of the day.

How was the weather?

The first day was very rainy, and I also made a few mistakes that resulted in a lot of walking.

After that, the final three days had really good weather, so we were able to fly as much as possible. That completely changed the rhythm of the race and made everything much more efficient.

What did you do to prepare?

I focused a lot on doing hike & fly with my mini-wing, trying to get used to hiking with weight and spending many hours moving in the mountains.

For the cross-country part, I have been competing for the last three years, and that experience helped me understand a lot about flying more efficiently, making faster decisions, and reading the conditions better.

How did you finish the race physically?

I actually finished feeling like I still had enough energy for another full day.

By the end of the race, I was starting to understand the rhythm much better, and my body was also adapting to the effort. I was walking less during the last part of the race as well, so the final day felt easier than some of the previous days where I had spent much more time hiking.

It was interesting because I felt like I was still learning how to race properly while I was already racing.

What were the biggest challenges?

One of the biggest challenges for me was knowing exactly when to take off, especially from lower launches.

If you take off in the wrong cycle and cannot climb out, you might end up landing low and having to hike all the way back up again. That can cost you a huge amount of valuable flying time.

So sometimes the hardest decision is not whether you can take off, but whether it is actually the right moment to do it.

Anything else you learned from the experience?

I learned that hike & fly racing is much more than just being physically strong or flying well. You constantly have to think about the whole picture: your energy, the weather, food, where you are going to sleep, when to fly, when to walk, and how much risk is worth taking.

It was my first experience in this kind of race, so I made mistakes, but I also learned a lot very quickly. By the end, I already felt much more comfortable with the rhythm and the strategy of the race, and that makes me really excited to do more hike & fly competitions in the future.

Photo credit: Airphoria_paragliding

Add your comment