SAFA Skysailor Magazine

6 SKY SAILOR September | October 2024 The 2024 edition of the famous adventure race started without its most famous participant – four-times winner Chrigel Maurer was not on the start line. This left twice runner-up Maxime Pinot and last time rookies Pierre Remy (3rd in 2022) and Simon Oberrauner (4th in 2022) as the hot favourites. In the days leading up to the start, eight athletes withdrew, including Pal Takats, leaving a field of 40 participants. The course was originally just short of 600km, with seven turnpoints (TP). Pierre Remy was given a home advantage, the third TP was located in front of his house in the Val d’Azun. From there, the athletes would have to cross the main spine of the ridge and go south-east to the TP at Boi Taull, on the edge of the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. From there the route went back west, to the edge of Ordesa National Park, then north-east across the main ridge to the Pic des Trois Seigneurs in France. At TP 6, the athletes had to land to sign in at the monastery of Vall de Núria, located in a hanging valley inac- cessible by road, only by walking or via a rack and pin railway. The last TP is always at Santa Helena de Rodes, looming above the goal at El Port de la Selva. The organisation instigated a new rule which reserved the right to change the route of the race in case of bad weather. Given the forecast for the week, meet director Íñigo Redín, used this rule to announce late on Saturday that the cylinders around TPs 3 and 4 would be signifi- cantly increased and TP 5 would be completely removed. As a consequence, the race was approximately 100km shorter, the athletes would have to negotiate the airspace around X-Pyr 2024 – Shane Tighe, what a star! by Judith Mole