Hiking & Flying UTMB with Andy Symonds
07 September 2023
SCOTT athlete Andy Symonds takes on a one-of-a-kind challenge as he attempts to follow the iconic UTMB route, hiking and flying along the way. Following his Hike & Fly record attempt in 2022, Andy had the idea to take the discipline of “Hike & Fly” even further. A mix of trail running and paragliding, “Hike & Fly” means literally hiking (or trail running) the ascents, and flying back down. When it comes to alpine journeys, almost none are as iconic as the trails around Mont Blanc, used as the course for the UTMB – the crowning event of ultra distance trail running where Andy has competed four times (most recently in 2022, finishing 11th) - and the perfect terrain for the ultimate Hike & Fly adventure.
On July 20th, at 3:30am, Andy found himself in front of the Saint Michel Church in Chamonix, the iconic starting point of the famous UTMB race. This time however, he was the only runner departing from Chamonix as he took on the challenge of completing a loop around Mt Blanc with an original approach: hiking up all the uphills and paragliding down the downhills. Once again, team mate Iris Pessey from SCOTT’s RC Team showed up to support Andy on his mission, together with Christophe Clerc, his long-time friend. Despite challenging weather conditions, forcing Andy to gain more vertical to find safe take-off points, and even abandon one flight attempt, he put down an amazing performance to achieve his goal. After 107km on foot, 8809m altitude gain, and 47km of flying, Andy made it back to Chamonix in a total of 21 hours moving time.
In Andy’s words, "The idea came after UTMB, when I was running down and thinking how nice it would be to fly down instead. Last year's Hike & Fly project was a numbers challenge, this year it was more of an adventure. The weather window is always going to be tricky, but it worked out and was such an enjoyable way to go around the UTMB course"
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