Peter Von Känel and Chrigel Maurer embarked on the Xpeaks 82 summits project, becoming the first to link all 82 of the 4,000-meter peaks in the Alps using only their feet and paragliders. Despite weather challenges, they completed the mission in a remarkable 51 days through teamwork, expert skills, and careful resource management, and "embracing uncertainty."

The episode features Benni Bölli, the inventor and designer behind Flare kites, discussing "flaring" or parakiting, a sport combining kitesurfing and paragliding elements. He explains the Flare system's dynamic nature, emphasizing safe handling, training, and the significant differences and benefits between parakites and traditional paragliders for soaring.

Kinga Masztalerz gets after it. She picked up paragliding not too long ago, but has been pretty fierce about chasing it hard from the beginning. She's tackled the Red Bull X-Alps twice, flown all over the world, runs her own hike and fly race in New Zealand, and instructs at home in New Zealand and in places like Bir, India. But her journey has had quite a few scary bumps on the way. We start off with her experience in the X-Alps. She shares her initial excitement and overwhelming feelings during her first race in 2019 and the disappointment of being eliminated and the emotional impact it had on her. Kinga also talks about her injury in 2021 and the challenges she faced in participating in the race. She reflects on the changing dynamics of the Red Bull X-Alps and how her approach to flying has evolved over time...

In this entertaining and thought-provoking podcast with Ari Delashmutt, a big mountain skier, world-record highliner, paraglider, film maker, and pursuer of the absurd we take on what is sometimes the hardest question of all. Why? Why do we pursue activities that can quite easily go wrong and kill us? "Truthfulness is a muscle we have to flex." Let's flex the muscle we often neglect. Enjoy, discuss and send your comments. I think you're going to dig this one.

ER and Critical Care physician and paragliding hound Matt Wilkes returns to the Mayhem to share the takeaways from several large studies he's been involved with since his last talk three years ago on hypoxia and cold; the most comprehensive study done to date on reserves; and an accident analysis study done with the BHPA and Cross Country Magazine.

This week we're doing our first "rerun" as Gavin is in the field deep in remote Nevada on a major SAR effort to find our good friend James "Kiwi" Johnson, who was recently on the show. We will get caught up with new shows on schedule soon. This is our most popular show to date and we've cleaned it up for your listening pleasure. Listen and learn!

On the 2nd of August the summer of records continued when Iranian world cup pilot and instructor Soheil Barikani flew his Gin Boom 11 nearly across the width of Iran 430km, a new Asian free distance record. Imagine getting on a plane to fly to the launch and flying home! This talk covers quite a bit of ground, but mostly it's going to make you want to fly Iran!

On June 19th of this year Wills Wing pilot Owen Morse ticked off something he'd been chasing for six years- a new out and back world record. Owen flew an incredible boomer from Walt's Point in the Owens out off the end of the White's- AND BACK, flying 222 miles. A huge flight in some of the strongest air on Earth gave us plenty to talk about, but Owen also has maybe the most interesting job of anyone I've ever met. He's a professional juggler (where he holds world records for things like juggling chainsaws) AND he hold several world records in the sport of "Joggling".

I am convinced that with a good winch and good tow-technician, launching via tow is much safer than foot launching and gives the free flight world access to incredible flying in conditions when terrain flying would be too risky. If you are currently doing any tow launching, or plan to in the future, give this podcast a listen. Towing has risks, but they can all be mitigated with proper techniques, crew, good piloting, and equipment.

James "Kiwi" Oroc is a journalist, photographer, artist and pilot born in the small South Pacific nation of Aotearoa (New Zealand). Since 1998 he has been pursuing and reporting on the cutting edge of extreme sports in more than 40 countries around the globe and has written three books- the non-fiction cult classic Tryptamine Palace, The New Psychedelic Revolution and the just-published fictional Under the Influence, 20 Tales of Psychedelic Noir and has been flying paragliders since the mid 80's, when gliders had 7 cells!

Stefan Bernhard has only been racing paragliders for a short time and...

Lisa Verzella flew hang gliders for over 20 years (many of those competitively), has been flying paragliders also for over 20 years and is a professional meteorologist based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She competed on the US World's team in 1998 and 2008 in hang gliding. This show is in two parts. The first is our typical audio podcast that goes into Lisa's vast and fascinating history of chasing airtime, and the second is a video tutorial of a deep dive into XCSkies and Lisa's full weather flow (ie all the stuff she uses before she gets to XCSkies to identify good days to go flying).

Yael Margelisch began flying ten years ago at the age of 19. She's an Ozone and Swiss national team pilot, has been on the podium ten times on the world cup, is the first woman to fly over 500 km and owns the current female distance world record of 531 km as well as the current women's FAI record (263 km) and is gunning hard for a 2021 Red Bull X-Alps campaign (she supported Michael Witschi in 2015).

Tom Peghiny's lifelong passion for flying, beginning with hang gliders at age 13, progressed the sport significantly. A key figure in early hang gliding, he competed in the first US Nationals and World Championships, advocating for safety and design innovation. Now into paragliding, Tom's enduring enthusiasm has been central to his life's work, influencing the community and fueling a continuous pursuit of flight, highlighted in an interview that reflects on his impactful career and the sport's evolution.

Charles Cazeaux began flying when he was 15 years old. Shortly after that he became the first person to enter the French juniors program that was created to build exceptional pilots who would represent the country on the world stage. Needless to say the program worked very well indeed for Charles! He's been on the French team every year since 1998, he won the Superfinal in 2009, won the world championships in 2011, holds multiple world records and instructs SIV and cross country with Seiko Fukuoka for the Airlinks Academy.

In 2008 Chrigel was heading into his first Red Bull X-Alps Campaign, and mountain guide and base jumper Thomas Theurillat was completing a degree in psychology. Thomas was passionate about figuring out how to help people not just change for the better in sport, business, or life; but transform into something better and stay that way. Chrigel wanted to win, but he didn't really have a plan to make it happen. The two met, Thomas put his wizardry into motion and Chrigel became the best hike and fly competitor and mountain pilot the world has ever seen.

Charlie Baughman has been flying hang gliders since 1973. That's 47 years...and he's still going strong. In 2011 at the age of 64 Charlie broke the Oregon state record (which still holds) when he flew 218 miles into Idaho, and then did a very styly self retrieve.  We have it on good authority that Charlie was the first person in North American to figure out how to thermal, and possibly the world. Charlie started sky diving in the 60's at the age of 22, then began hang gliding on Lookout Mountain in Colorado when the very first hang gliders were built.

Honza Rejmanek competed in the Red Bull X-Alps 5 times. His last was in 2015 but apparently nutty runs in the family and he and his son Martin have been doing incredible 8 day tandem vol-biv adventures for the past three years in the Alps. Their style is pure- no mechanical support is allowed (ie they fly or they walk), food is collected or carried, where they start and end is fixed so if they don't make it one year they just come back the next! Honza says compared to the X-Alps they move at about one quarter of the speed but with four times the weight and no support crew!

This is an emergency episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem that everyone needs to hear. I sat down with two people on the front lines of Covid-19, my sister Lesley McClurg who is a Health and Science reporter for KQED in San Francisco, who has covered the pandemic since early January, when only 6 people had died; and Terry O'Connor, an ER doctor in Ketchum, Idaho- one of the most affected towns in the country (on par per capita with New York, San Francisco, and Seattle). We are in the largest public health crisis of our times. Covid-19 is being compared to the Spanish Influenza in 1918, which killed 50 million people. No one alive has ever seen anything like this before.

In this episode we learn about how Manu approaches building autonomy with his students; the importance of the mental side of the sport; finding the equilibrium between motivation and safety; chasing the aesthetic over personal bests and kilometer counting; how to get pilots in a positive state of mind; teaching people to avoid making stupid mistakes; the extreme risk of social media and external motivation and flying; how to free the unconscious mind; the three things that lead to accidents; switching to "autopilot"; where "happiness" lies in flying and a TON, TON more.

In this episode with Nuno we dive into how the Portugal team changed their mental game and mindset after getting coaching in sports psychology; the dynamics of Flow and how to enter it; building mental tools; the importance of visualizing; how to relax before launch; how to let instinct and intuition rule in flight; how flying affects our lives and how life affects our flying; how to fly convergence and flatlands tips; the Red Bull X-Alps; the importance of self-assessment and a lot more.

Steph Davis is a professional climber and base jumper who lives in Moab, Utah. Steph grew up on the east coast and originally pursued music and literature. Then she moved out to Colorado to get her Masters and briefly pursued a career as a lawyer before climbing pulled her onto a totally different life path. She's been a professional athlete and has made a living through climbing since 1996 and later skydiving and base jumping.

Sebastien Ospina "Seb" has been chasing all things paragliding for years now. Seb works the tandem scene in Interlaken year round; has been chasing the world record in the Sertau in Brazil the past few years; is a regular on the podium at very high level competitions; is frequently at the top of the XContest every year; and has been an XC instructor with Pal Takats and Mike and Stu Belbas with Verbier Summits.

Accidents are ubiquitous in free flight but recently there's been a huge spike in fatalities in our sport and in this podcast with Jeff Shapiro and Will Gadd we aim to take on the subject of risk and where we get it wrong sometimes- and why.

The US competition scene is thriving, led by women like National Champion Galen Kirkpatrick. Gavin McClurg interviews the leading US Women's team members (Alexia, Violeta, Jenny and Galen), discussing their impact and inclusive approach in paragliding. They share insights on competitions, advice for newcomers, and the importance of visibility and support for female pilots' success.

Deniz Burnham is an Alaskan resident who just happens to RUN an oil rig. Not work on an oil rig, she runs the show. She's the only female on the rig and has worked in some of the most remote places on Earth, which would be more than enough to fill an entire podcast on its own, but this is a free-flight podcast so we reached out to Deniz to talk about her rather adventurous relationship with free flight and her passion for flying just about everything that flies. Deniz pilots seaplanes, helicopters, paramotors, hang gliders, paragliders, sailplanes and from time to time- jumps out of them (or walks on them!)!

We've had a LOT of amazing talks on the Mayhem over the past bunch of years but this one is in a category of its own. Last summer Larry Bunner and three other very experienced Hang Gliding pilots (Glen Volk, Robin Hamilton, and Pete Lehmann) flew from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border in a series of tow and mountain launch flights over 21 days (1884 miles) and 11 States. This is their story...and a LOT more.

This is another Ask Me Anything show that we typically release as bonus content but we got so many great questions that cover such a wide range of topics we've decided to release it as a regular show and for this one I went out to the experts to get the answers. Max Jeanpierre, Bruce Goldsmith, and Reavis Sutphin-Gray take on a wide range of questions, and their answers are gold. Enjoy!

Tyler G is on the board of the Canadian Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association and he's taken on trying to solve a tough problem in our sport right now: To create a syllabus and model for learning to speed fly safely. Speed flying, especially in North America is still totally cowboy and there's a vacuum for information. And it's taking its toll. Accidents, often serious are plentiful and the YouTube culture is driving the desire for the thrill but pilots are skipping the necessary steps.

Maxime Bellemin is a name all veteran competition pilots know well. Not just because of his decades of experience and multiple wins at the national and international level but because of his performance coaching with the French team and his two incredible books dedicated to flying "Performance Paragliding."

Hang On. That's what Chris Gursky had to do for the longest 2 minutes and 14 seconds of his life on his first even Hang Gliding flight. In what has been dubbed the "Swiss Mishap", this American got a little more adventure than he was looking for in Interlaken when his pilot forgot to clip him in. This is his truly amazing story. Enjoy!

Laurent Borella began flying in 2001 and very quickly afterwards changed his entire life to accomodate more free flight into his world. Eleven years ago his passion for cross country and hike and fly lead him to create the VercoFly, an annual 4 day hike and fly race/adventure in the Wallis region of Switzerland that is simply brilliant. Using 8 mountain huts around Laurent's home town of Vercorin the athletes hike and fly without a supporter and stay in the huts at night.

Primoz Susa is the pilot you will see year after year at the top of the rankings on XContest. He's been sending huge, huge lines for years, competed in the 2009 Red Bull X-Alps, flies tandems commercially, guides, flies a LOT of competitions, and on most Hammertag days in the Alps the guy you'll see (along with Alex Robe, who we listened to in episode 98) right at the top of the XContest top scores.

Jean Baptiste Chandelier makes films that transport millions and millions of viewers into an aerial world of fantasy and fun. In this episode we learn about JB's creative process and how he turns his dreams and ideas into films that connect to audiences regardless of their interest in flying.

This is a special episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem to give all of the fans of the race a little insight into the greatest game on Earth directly from the perspective of the athletes. In this second of three installments we hear from Tom De Dorlodot (BEL 1), Patrick Von Kanel (SUI 2), Chrigel Maurer (SUI 1), and Cody Mittanck (USA 3), and Eduardo Garza (MEX 1).

Galen Kirkpatrick rose from a beginner to the 2023 US National Paragliding Champion in seven years, becoming the first female champion. Her journey from fear of flying to the pinnacle of the sport involved intensive training, overcoming a significant fear, and a shift in mindset to prioritize fun and creativity. Her success has been a mix of personal bests and learning to apply flying lessons to life, marking a seminal moment for women in the sport and inspiring camaraderie and emotional safety among pilots.

There is the most information-dense podcast than possibly any previous show we've done. Alex Robé and one of his main flying partners Primoz Susa are nearly always the two guys right at the top of XContest on the big days. Alex won the XContest in 2015 and 2017 and is currently in 3rd this season (his lowest value flight is over a 260KM FAI, and the two pilots ahead of him both went to Brazil last fall!). But Alex is extremely limited with his time and how much he can fly. In a typical year he'll only fly 10-15 times! So for those of you who are restricted with time, prepare to be inspired!

This is a special episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem to give all of the fans of the race a little insight into the greatest game on Earth directly from the perspective of the athletes. In this first of three installments we hear from Nick Neynens (NZ 1), Kinga Masztalerz (NZ 2), Aaron Durogati (ITA 1), and Gaspard Petiot (FRA 2).

Christian Ciech has been flying Hang Gliders for over 30 years. He remembers watching his Dad fly when he was just four years old. He has an arsenal of trophies that showcase his legendary competition skills, including 3 World Championship wins. Christian became a test pilot and designer for Icaro in 1991, a position he still holds. In this episode we discuss competition strategies and the art of winning, how to read the sky and flying the conditions you find...[more]

Willi Canell will represent the US in the 2019 Red Bull X-Alps, the 5th US athlete in the history of the race to call Sun Valley, Idaho home of the 10 US athletes who have competed. He'll be lined up with me in Salzburg June 16th in the greatest game on Earth as a rookie. He's my neighbor, flying partner and consistently surprises me with the way he thinks about this crazy sport we all find so compelling. I invited Willi onto the Mayhem because he recently shared his private journal with me and I found his thoughts and ideas about paragliding, risk, training, fitness, and the ultimate question- why we all do what we do not only fascinating but informative and thought-provoking

Patrick Von Kanel is only 25 years old but in a few days he'll be one of the athletes to really watch in the Red Bull X-Alps. His mentors include Michael and Chrigel Maurer, he's a test pilot for Advance, he's big, he's strong, he's of course Swiss (no non-Swiss pilot has ever won the X-Alps), he's solid in acro and he came in second in his last two hike and fly races- to the Eagle himself, Chrigel Maurer.

Wolfi Siess has been chasing it hard for the past 19 years. He watched his Dad fly from the time he began to walk- the flying blood runs thick in this family! As soon as it was legal (and his mom gave him the ok!) Wolfi took to the skies and hasn't looked back since. He's big on the comp scene, flies tandems all summer, speed flies, makes films- basically does whatever he can to keep the dream alive. Four years ago Wolfi tumbled low on a perfect day in Elsinore and a delayed fear injury set in that took over three years to come back from.

On October 25th, 2018 Marcella Uchoa flew into the record books by flying 411 km across the Sertao, Brazil. She broke Seiko Fukuoka's record of 402 km in Australia set in December of 2015. Marcella was in good company, team flying with Rafael Saldini, Frank Brown, Samuel Nascimento, Marcelo Prieto (the same group who flew 564 km to break the world distance record a few years back) as well as Sebastien Ospina, an ace pilot from Colombia.

Let's face it- sometimes things go wrong. And sometimes you get lucky. This is one of those stories and there is a LOT here we can all learn from. Rick Heatley was having a lovely day in the sky on a near-perfect day at a new site on the rugged and wild Vancouver Island, British Colombia when suddenly things went proper pear shaped. Moments later he was on a super steep slope, his wing was in a tree and he was in knee deep snow. It was going to be a very long, cold night...

TEM is a simple system that helps pilots identify threats so they don't lead to errors which if they multiply could lead to an "undesirable aircraft state." It's simply an awareness protocol laid out through a series of checklists and procedures that become built-in threat mitigation.  Threats in all forms of flight are ubiquitous- internal and external threats are everywhere. So how can we use this remarkably successful program in free flight to reduce risk?

Travis Burke is an athlete, professional photographer and content creator for some of the largest adventure and action-sports brands in the outdoor industry. This is a remarkable story told by a very driven and interesting guy who spends as much time as possible slacklining, dropping crazy drops skateboarding, surfing, freediving and recently paragliding who has figured out how to make a living from his hobbies and passions.

South African pilot and adventurer Pierre Carter has been at this game for a very long time, and he hasn't wasted any time chasing thin air dreams. Pierre has been knocking off the world's seven summits for nearly 20 years (some of them several times), and has flown off all but Denali (because it's illegal) and has only Antarcticas Mt Vinson remaining. In between his efforts to summit and fly off the worlds highest peaks Pierre competed in the Red Bull X-Alps three times, organized the X-Berg hike and fly race in South Africa and most recently had a bit of an epic in Pakistan. Come along for an amazing ride with a very special gentleman.

This conversation covers a lot of ground- we discuss risk management; the importance of working on the fundamentals no matter where you are in your progression as a pilot; where the sport typically bites and how you can beat the odds; how you can and should develop mental checklists; how to build a thriving flying community; how to support those who support you; the difference in SIV and the real world and a ton more.

Paul Guschlbauer and his wife Magdalena have just completed a proper awesome adventure- flying his supercub two-seater bush plane from the northern tip of Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina, across thirteen countries. The journey took six months and took them slowly and usually at very low altitudes over the mountain ranges of north and south America all the way to Patagonia. "Project Overland" was the ultimate flying adventure – in search of mountaineering, paragliding and wild traveling experiences along the way.

In this wide-ranging episode we discuss women in the sport, the importance of getting solid foundational skills, gear and why people choose the wrong equipment for their skill level, how to get into comps and how to be an efficient pilot, why learning slowly is so important, and why flying a more reasonable glider well is about the most rewarding thing you can do. We recorded this episode live in Colombia- enjoy!