Posts Tagged ‘team Canada’

The last couple of days, Penny and I have been talking lots about the upcoming xAlps, starting in a couple of days! We have lots and lots of great memories. What is going on there right now? … everyone is now in Fuschel am See, checking in, going through the safety and race meetings, working on the final touches of their gear, going over the route again and again, meeting fellow pilots, supporters, photographers, runners, and you name it…. It is a huge family!

We feel very privileged to have competed 4 times in the race. The xAlps helped shape us into who we are, how our relationship evolved, and what our family is today.

Yes, we would love to participate again, but we also know how much commitment it takes to be there and we are now at a different chapter of our lives. We created lifelong friendships over the years of racing, and we learned a lot, but it was time to move on, and pursue other goals and adventures in our lives.

Our thoughts are with everyone there, as well as Hannes’s family and friends, being the first race without him. It won’t be the same, and he will be sorely missed.

Penny, the kids and I wish all of the xAlps teams, the competitors and supporters, and everyone involved in the race, all the best, good health, and a lot of fun, in the very unique and personal adventure of the 2017 Redbull X-Alps!!! (www.RedBullxalps.com)

 

The xAlps finished Friday July 19th at noon. This is 12 days after the start and was the minimum time set for the race. Crigel Maurer set a new record and finished the race in just under 7 days and it took more then 2 days longer for the next guys to arrive in goal. From the start, I felt pretty good and was very happy with my pace and performance until I had to do an emergency landing past Innsbruck (by Seefeld) into restricted airspace and I received a 48 hour penalty. I could have done a tree landing (in very rough conditions) on top of a ridge to avoid the penalty, but I decided to land 500 meters lower, and to my disadvantage, safely in a field. The good part was that Christa Vogel and Juergen Kraus (flying friends from the 80’s) lived near by and we could enjoy visiting them and were treated with their amazing hospitality. It got even better as the kids just showed up for a visit and stayed with us for the 2 days. It was fun to invite all the other competitors for a snack or meals while

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they passed us, or landed in a field close by. After 2 days of watching 13 pilots pass us, we had to refocus and get back into race mode. Thanks again for the mental support from Stewart Midwinter to be able to start my own race and adventure from that position. We came from the very back of the pack (only 1 hour ahead of the last person) and fought ourselves into position 23. I was enjoying being in a close pack with such a great group of people/pilots and I was always close to my good friend, Andy Froetscher, who finished 17th. I was hoping to finish the race with him or better. Overall, it was an amazing race with very good flying conditions. We experienced a lot of set backs due the lack of local “area” knowledge. It was very frustrating thinking you know where thermals “should be”, what ridges and terrain would work better than others, only to find myself flushed down from 3500m to the ground and ended up having to hike up very high mountain passes more often than the “locals” The good weather also brought a lot of windy and dangerous conditions as well. We had flights in plus 50 km winds, in rain and thunder storms, but at the same time we had some long flights (one over 150 km) flying over glaciers and very beautiful terrain. We had hikes in areas we never would have gone to and met such a wide variety of people along the way, some who we’re sure were the start of a long friendship. All this would not have possible to do without the support I received. Thanks again to Mik Broschart for all his technical support, and who drove with his “fancy” RV and made it possible that Penny could walk and fly most of the route with me. Penny did an amazing job as a pace setter, along the flats, up the mountains, and because she figured she needed more of a workout, she’d run back down to the valley!! My stats for hiking was, 6 km/hr, 471 km distance and 40 km elevation gain. I would say that Penny did at least 90% of that, plus going down, cooked dinners, cleaned most of the dishes, checked weather, and was up earlier than Mik and I everyday to have breakfast ready, and everything ready and prepared for the day ahead ….. she is more then living up to her name (Powers). I would also like thank everyone who cheered us on and supported us throughout our training and during the race, A photo gallery will follow soon.

I had the pleasure to be in Salzburg at Hangar 7 for the 2013 www.RedBullxAlps.com official route release.

Wow, 1031 km as the crow flies and going across a lot of very high alpine terrain. No doubt that this year will be for sure a big challenge and I am sure a very interesting race.

Start: Salzburg

1. Gaisberg 1,287m

2. Dachstein 2,995m

3. Wildkogel, 2,224m

4. Zugspitze / Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2,962m

5. Ortler / Sulden 1,906m

6. Interlaken 568m

7. Matterhorn 4,478m

8. Mont Blanc 4,810m

9. Saint Hilaire 995m

10. Peille 600m

Finish: Monaco

Thanks again to Hannes and Flo to put on this amazing day.

 

Here is a video from Mik about of Hangar 7 and the DC6 flight.

Red Bull Douglas DC-6B flight from Mik Broschart on Vimeo.

 

 

Max in training with Erik

Photo by Calum Neff

How is training going?

That is what I get asked most of the time from people meeting on the road.

All started very good except when I had a nasty cold which was affecting my lungs resulting of a no training period for about 10 days in January and February.
After the first week in February I could start in the gym and slowly get outside to hike, cross country ski, ski and walk.

Beginning of February we had same melting temperatures which got replaced soon with very cold temperatures dropping as low as -30 C and more snow. This season is a very good snow year here in the Rockies. Even today I was hiking up Mt. Swansea in a blizzard and there is no sign of spring yet.

Most of my hiking was with snow-shoes due either the sheer ice on the bottom of the mountain and the deep snow at the summit. When it got to cold I spend a lot of time in the gym to work on overall core strength.

Based on MovesCount.com I still  logged 62 hours of training in February alone.
Suunto is behind MovesCount.com and has sponsored 10 xAlps athletes with T6d watches, a heart rate monitor, walking pad and biking attachment to log our training.
For February I was training most hours of the athletes who logged their times, this does not mean I was working out the hardest as this is not my goal. My goal is to work out every day and slowly bring it up to a level where I can train hard for 4-6 hours a day at least 5-6 days in a row without feeling any fatigue.

Keep on checking out our xAlps MovesCount Group to see what kind of training everyone is doing. Also make sure to check out my profile often at http://www.movescount.com/members/maxfanderl as I can win 1000 Euro if we get most of the hits/visits until the race.