After his second X-Alps victory Chrigel has piled ever more kudos on his legendary fame as king of the skies, and has once again become a centre of media attention. Team SUI1’s impressive performance in the 2011 Red Bull X-Alps is especially recognised because, not only did Chrigel win by two whole days over silver-placed Toma Coconea, but that he did this including a 24 hr penalty compulsory rest day. Here is a video interview from Cross Country Magazine shortly after his victory in Monaco:

Meticulous preparation and perfectly tuned equipment enabled Chrigel to achieve this remarkable X-Alps performance. He flew more than 1300 km with his OMEGA 3-liner proto and a LIGHTNESS harness.

Total straight line distance.............................................864 km
Actual distance covered..............................................1'807 km
Time taken.................................................................11.5 days
Flying/walking as %................................................73 % / 27 %
Flying/walking as km.....................................1321 km / 486 km
Longest non-stop flight..................................................220 km
Total vertical metres climbed on foot...........................38'000 m

Chrigel has been a member of the ADVANCE development and test team since 2001. He is the creator of the successful IMPRESS series and has developed the LIGHTNESS concept, together with our harness designer Marcel Lamprecht. The third IMPRESS generation has now emerged from this work. For the Red Bull X-Alps 2011 Chrigel set out with a refined version of the successful 2009 prototypes:

Glider.............................................OMEGA Proto, 3.7 kg
Harness.................................LIGHTNESS Proto, 1.1 kg
Rucksack...............................LIGHTPACK Proto, 0.4 kg

As well as Chrigel, other RedBull X-Alps participants set out with the minimalist ADVANCE LIGHTNESS. They were Martin Müller, Heli Eichholzer, Steve Nash, Andy Frötscher, Ivar Sansta, Pawel, Faron, Nuno Virgilio and Evgenii Griaznov.

S3 strategy for Team SUI 1
Team SUI 1 wins again!