Interactive maps from the book are now online

Day 3: Moos to Grosskirchheim

The interactive maps for Jon's book "Hanging In There" are now online. You'll find all the links on the book page, so you can follow Jon's adventures in 2011 step by step as you read. Right now you'll need a modern browser, or Internet Explorer 9+. Support for older browsers should come soon.

Cross Country magazine interviewed Jon today, where he reveals more about just what it takes to compete in this incredible race. The interview is a must-read.

You'll find the book on Amazon, and all the proceeds from the book will help support Team GBR in the 2013 Red Bull X-Alps.

Overwhelmed

I've been overwhelmed by the reception my book has received.  Top of the bestseller list on Amazon in its category and several rave reviews!  It is more than I could have imagined. 

I have also now arranged for a paperback version of the book to be available due to popular demand.  It should be out at the end of this week, but I'll put up a post with the link once it appears.

Thanks to all our teams supporters. 

More news to come soon on team sponsors and lots of other exciting news from team GB!

The book is published!

It has taken me about a year longer than I expected it to, but finally I have published the book I wrote about my experiences in the last X-Alps.  'Hanging in There' is a personal account, charting my experiences and recording the realities of this toughest of races. 

The book charts each day of the race, complete with a map of my track and photos from the race itself.  It is available on the kindle platform - meaning anyone can download and read it via the free kindle app on any PC, tablet or smartphone.  You can find the book on Amazon.com by clicking  here. Or go to your local Amazon site and search for 'Hanging in There'

Any money I make from selling the book will contribute a small amount towards the significant costs of competing in the 2013 race, so by purchasing the book you are supporting team GB.  But most of all I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  The story simply needed to be told!

A talk for the Cumbria Soaring Club

On February 23rd I'll be giving a talk at Kendal in the UK on my experiences in the last X-Alps, preparation for the coming X-Alps and my experiences of top landing Mt Blanc.  The talk is hosted by the Cumbria Soaring Club but is open to all.  For more details see their flyer. 

Meet the team

As we had the chance to get out walking together at the weekend I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to 'Team GB' in the 2013 X-Alps:

On the left is Richard Chambers, my father and supporter in the last X-Alps race. A veteran of multiple endurance races including the Marathon des Sables, the Mont Blanc Ultra Trail and the Jungle Ultra-Marathon (despite being retired at the time he still finished 9th overall in that one!) he certainly knows the hardship and psychology of multi-day endurance events. He also counts 24 years of paragliding experience to his name so certainly knows a thing or two about flying, but does admit to being a 'club pilot' - enjoying somewhat gentler flying than the X-Alps is likely to entail. During the race he will once again be taking on the role of keeping me fuelled, clothed and motivated during the race. He will be in charge of the team vehicle and making sure we have all the supplies and equipment we need at the right time.

On the right is Tom Payne, veteran of the 2009 X-Alps where he competed as an athlete in the race. Also no stranger to endurance racing, he has completed the CCC (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix) ultra-trail among others. One of the top British pilots, Tom is often seen in Paragliding World Cup events and recently represented Britain in the 2012 European Championships. Tom has been flying for 17 years and is one of the best cross country pilots flying in the northern French Alps, having come in the top few of the national XC league (CFD - Coupe Federale Distance) in 2010 and 2011. Tom's chief role on the team will be weather forecasting, race strategy, flight planning and communication - keeping the diary updated with our progress and regularly posting pictures and video.

Between Dad and Tom they will share the tasks of driving the support vehicle and accompanying me on some of the walks in order to carry additional clothing, water and food.

Finally, in the middle is me, Jon Chambers. Funnily enough I'm the athlete in this race. I say that because both my 'supporters' have more endurance racing experience than me, my Dad's been flying longer than me and Tom's flown in higher level competitions than me! Still, I have 22 years of flying experience myself, most of which has been acquired in the Alps. I started competing at National level way back in 1995 but only really found my niche in the 2011 X-Alps - a race that seemed to suit my style and mentality. I finished 5th last time! My role in the race? I just have to fly, walk, sleep and eat. The other two have the hard jobs!

Winter Training - British Style

Firstly, happy New Year to everyone reading this!

Just before Christmas the Red Bull X-Alps website posted an article about winter training.  Whilst some European athletes have travelled to South America or the Himalayas for their winter training, I thought I'd point out that in fact they are missing the best location to really focus on X-Alps skills. As a seasoned X-Alper (well, I've done it once...) I now know that the reality of the race includes a lot of walking in bad weather: cold, windy and wet weather to be precise.  So, where better to train than the wettest place in Europe?  Hence, I was back in Britain over the holidays.  But, I don't like to do things by halves, so I travelled to Cumbria in the North West or England for most of the time, the wettest part of a very wet country.  Luckily for me the weather did play ball and it was cold and wet the whole time I was there, so I as able to train every day in ideal conditions!

Christmas, as it should be, was a great occasion with all the family.  Lots of great gifts, including a Go Pro camera, so hopefully I'll be able to start posting some video footage of training flights and hikes.

Back in the Alps now and the last two days of 2012 offered some fantastic skiing with the family.  Not exactly training, but being out in the mountains is always a pleasure and the blue skies and glorious sunshine certainly helped. We saw the New Year in quietly at home and much of New Year's day has been spent walking in the rain: a 30km hike in just over 4 hours was todays training.  Last time around I spent too much training time running, so I'm building in the long walks earlier into my training regime this time.

In other news, Tom and I booked an SIV course for April, which for non-pilots reading this is where we deliberately try to make our gliders fall out of the sky in order to learn how to recover them properly.  It is done over a lake with a safety boat below us in case it does go wrong and we end up in the water!  Last time I did a course like this was a few years ago and I over-cooked the final manoeuvre, leaving myself without enough height to make the shore, so instead I landed in the small inflatable safety boat which was then motored to the shore whilst I kept the glider flying above my head!  We didn't quite make it all the way, but it was fun!  I booked with the same guys this time, Flyeo in Annecy, as their instruction was excellent.  However, a day after booking on line they called me to say that unfortunately there wasn't an instructor available who had enough experience to teach us on the days we booked, so we've had to find alternative dates! Very impressed at their diligence in ensuring they could run a course at our level.  This course is important preparation for the X-Alps as unlike the test pilots in the competition I am not always pushing my glider to its limits and so to be prepared for the extreme flying conditions I'll likely face in the race this is critical.

That's it for now, the pace of preparation hots up in the coming months so look for much more regular posts as I sort out my equipment for the race and pick up the training plan.

Enjoy 2013.  It's an X-Alps year!

La Course de l'Escalade

In 1602, on a cold December night the Duke of Savoy sent a suprise attack on the city of Geneva, against all odds the city successfully defended itself against the 2000 strong army of the Duke.  The occasion is now a celebrated moment in Genevois history.  Among many other festivities there has been, since 1978, a series of running races to commemerate the event. 

Last weekend was the 35th time this race had been run and it's popularity seems almost to outgrow the city.  With over 30,000 people registered they need to split the event into different categories with races taking place throughout the Saturday.  This year was also a special year - once every 5 years they run a longer 'Course de Duc'. Starting in France it retraces the Duke of Savoy's route into the city.  I ran this race in 2007 - at that time the run took place on the Saturday morning, but this time the challenge of scheduling all the races led them to run the race on the Friday night, starting at 9.15pm.  Well, they claim it was in order to better represent the Duke's march on the city, which took place at night (arriving after midnight).  Whichever it was, some 4500 people (more than twice the Duke's orginal army) took part.  The reason I'm telling you all this was because I ran the race, finishing about 700 and something with a creditable time of 1 hour and 22 minutes for the 18km course.  Tom Payne also ran so we had two thirds of our X-Alps team in the event.  Tom did prove once again that despite lack of training on his part he can still run faster than me with a time of 1hr 19mins!

However, running a relatively short road race is not particularly impressive training for the X-Alps.  In the X-Alps, we'll have to push ourselves day after day.  That is why, rather naively, I managed to let Tom convince me that running in the Course de l'Escalade the next afternoon was a good idea.  And so with heavy aching legs I lined up once again on a starting line in the old town of Geneva to run three undulating laps of its cobblestoned sreets.  Last time I ran this race, prior to the last X-Alps, I completed the 7.2km course in 29mins, but this time, with sore legs, I managed a poor 34mins.  Frankly, I was just happy to get around.

Both my daughters also ran in the childrens races in the morning too, so it was a family day out!  Each finisher gets a gift, and this year it was a tray.  It's all right but I don't think we really needed four of them in our house!  I'm sure the Dukes army didn't all go home with a tea tray!