Tag Archives: Race

Behind the scenes- Preparing for the Red Bull X-Alps

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This post is about some of the random but critical things that go into the lead-up to the event. Obviously you fly as much as you can and when you aren’t flying you’re pounding your body. I’m not going to talk about that aspect as that should be pretty obvious, and the physical training I do would be five blog posts just to touch the surface and probably of very little use for 99.9% of pilots so we’ll leave that a mystery. And lets face it, you would have to be pretty twisted to want to do it! What I thought might be interesting is all the side stuff that is so critical when it comes to having a successful campaign.

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The Deep Line- Part I

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The February issue of Hangliding and Paragliding just got delivered with a feature about my X-Alps experience (the first of a two-part series) which is actually an excerpt from a book about the race that has been delivered to my editor and we hope to have published by April of this year. I hope you enjoy it!

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The Redefined Life- Podcast with Gavin McClurg

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I sat down with Aaron Mead recently, who runs the Redefined Life podcast, a show dedicated to “listening to your gut, blazing a trail, and finding fulfillment along the way.” Aaron and I discuss my business, Offshore Odysseys and sailing around the world for 13 years and how it all got started; the National Geographic Adventurer of the year honor with Will Gadd for our groundbreaking flying traverse of the Canadian Rockies; and the recent Red Bull X-Alps Campaign, where I became the first American in the race’s history to reach goal in Monaco, among many other things. It’s a really fun talk and I hope you enjoy it.

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6 Months and Counting to the Red Bull X-Alps

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Niviuk pilot Gavin McClurg is having an amazing year. He is one of the 2015 National Geographic Adventurers of the Year for his ground-breaking vol-biv across the Canadian Rockies with the legend mountain athlete Will Gadd, and he’s been selected to compete in this years edition of the hardest adventure race on Earth, the Red Bull X-Alps. We sat down with Gavin recently to find out how his training is going, here’s what he had to say.

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And so the Training Goes. Countdown to the Red Bull X-Alps

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2015. An absolutely terrifying combination of 4 unique digits. Two reasons. It is a reminder that is bigger than any billboard of how fast time keeps skipping along at an ever faster pace; and it is the year that in just over 6 months time the Red Bull X-Alps will take place. If all goes well between now and then I will be one of 32 international competitors standing at the starting line in Salzburg, heart beating like a snare drum, thrilled and terrified at what is before each of us- quite likely the most grueling adventure race on Earth. My only question now, and my only question at the start will be the same: have I got what it takes?

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Red Bull X-Alps and National Geographic Adventurers of the Year!

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This may line up as one of the most exciting weeks of my life. The world premiere of our film, 500 Miles to Nowhere gets screened at the Banff Mountain Film Festival; Will Gadd and myself have been nominated as the National Geographic Adventurers of the Year for our Rocky Mountain Traverse; and last week the announcement that I’ve been waiting for months to hear finally came out. I’ve been chosen to compete in this year’s Red Bull X-Alps, lauded as the hardest adventure race on Earth.

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