It’s mid-race in the 2023 Red Bull X-Alps, a 1,200km-plus paragliding adventure around the Alps, and the man they call “Chrigel the Eagle” is about to take off. I’m standing on a Swiss Alpine pass. The wind has been gusting in excess of 30mph and is far stronger than is normally safe to fly. But normal rules don’t apply in this race – or to this athlete. He waits patiently for a lull, then whips up his wing. The force of the energy sweeps him momentarily from his feet and he pulls at his control lines like a mad puppeteer, simultaneously leaping across the rocky-strewn ground to keep it overhead. For a fraction of a second he stands motionless, as if he’s tamed nature itself. Then, with just a few gentle steps, he spreads his wings and launches into the air.
There are only a few athletes whose dominance completely transcends the limits of their peers: Tiger Woods as a young man, Michael Schumacher, Roger Federer, Usain Bolt… Christian Maurer, better known as Chrigel, is another. He hails from the Swiss village of Adelboden, whose mountains inspired Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and is a three-time paragliding world champion. What sets him apart, however, is his reign of dominance at the Red Bull X-Alps – he’s won every edition since 2009. For this race, Maurer trains up to 25 hours a week and flies 280 hours a year. Unlike other pilots he focuses almost entirely on this one fixture.
“He’s in another league,” says fellow pilot Tom de Dorlodot, who has competed against him in the race for 16 years. “People see him as an eagle that has pure instinct – it’s true – but he’s also a master tactician.”
I may dream like a bird. But I think like a human
The Red Bull X-Alps (which begins today with the short Prologue event, followed by the main race from 15 June) originally started in 2003 as a 12-day race from Salzburg to Monaco. Athletes hike, carrying their lightweight fabric wing, and fly the course, carried by that wing – staying aloft by riding invisible currents of warm air like birds of prey. On any given day they might hike 5,000m of ascent and fly 200km. The route follows a loop around the Alps, starting in Kitzbühel and finishing in Zell am See, Austria.
In his first year in 2009 Maurer was so fast that he arrived in Monaco before organisers had finished setting up. “It’s a nice story,” he says. “They were thinking, it’s not possible to fly all the way to the sea [due to the oncoming breeze], he will have to walk for six hours. And I flew from 100km and landed on the beach. It was perfect.”
Maurer’s skills in the air are well documented. But in person he’s something of an enigma. A private man, he says little outside the sport and spends his downtime with his family – who are all pilots. “Normal hobbies like chilling are not my thing,” he says.
It’s a family affair. Maurer was four years old when his father, a plasterer and keen mountaineer, took him flying. Maurer then introduced his younger teenage brother Michael – now also a champion pilot – to the sport, taking him flying with him in a tandem. His two sons are 15 and 17 and they too are flying. “We can fly, all the family together, and it’s really nice,” he tells me. (His mother flew only once, into a tree. “She stopped after that,” he says, succinctly.)
“Paragliding for me is about coming as close to [being] a bird as possible,” he says of the sport’s allure. “A bird is totally free. They can jump from where they want and fly anywhere. It’s this feeling of freedom and liberty that appeals to me.”
I always want to push my limit. I want to see what’s possible
Other pilots talk of his Swiss efficiency. He also has a ruthless streak, once dropping his longtime race support man just days before a competition because the team dynamics were “not working”. Maurer is known also for taking bigger risks than other paragliders. He has a reputation for being more comfortable when the sky is rough and turbulent. His rival, the French athlete Maxime Pinot, says pilots have to disconnect from fear. “Chrigel is the most able,” he says. (No one has died in the race’s history, but there have been some close calls. One year a Swiss pilot landed on a dual carriageway, narrowly missing a car.)
When I interviewed Maurer about the risks he takes, his response, tellingly, is to talk about the danger of not taking a chance. Nor does he allow himself to think of his family while in the air. “I really try not to think about them because I need to be focused on the moment. As soon as I start thinking, I have to be careful for my sons, I have to stop because then I’m not really free and focused on the moment – and then it can be dangerous.”
“I always want to push my limit,” he adds. “I want to see what’s possible with this paraglider. Often pilots say, ‘It’s dangerous’ or, ‘This is not possible.’ And as soon as they say this I want to go forward.” But there are some concessions to safety: “I may dream like a bird. But I stay realistic and think like a human.”
Aged 42, he is aware his time in the sun cannot last for ever. Yet even he is looking forward to that day. “I’m really motivated to see what the other athletes can do.” He laughs. “I’m not the fastest on the ground. I’m not the fastest pilot any more. But my strategy, team and mindset are still good.”
On that windswept launch, I stay and watch as Maurer effortlessly soars the cliffs until he disappears from view, his nearest competitor several hours behind him.
The 2025 Red Bull X-Alps Prologue race is 12 June; the main race runs from 15 to 27 June. Follow the action online via 3D Live Tracking here