avalancha team

The 2011 Red Bull X-Alps will be run under the watchful eyes of a new Race Director, 47-year-old Christoph Weber. Besides helping designing paragliders and rescue systems, working as a paragliding instructor and physician, he has decades of flying experience. We find out what his role is and why he is looking forward to working on the race.

The rules for the Red Bull X-Alps 2011 are now online.
Besides minor changes and updates to the route, the biggest change is a new obligatory downtime period. For safety reasons the athletes will not be allowed to move between 23:00 and 04:00.
"If the participants don't rest enough, they become too fatigued and cannot make the right decisions," says Hannes Arch, Mastermind of the Red Bull X-Alps. "We want to keep the Red Bull X-Alps a demanding but safe event."

The 32 teams taking part in the 2011 Red Bull X-Alps were named in October 2010, but who are the faces behind the selection committee and how do they choose who takes part?
Check out our video section to watch behind the scenes as race mastermind Hannes Arch, head of organisation Ulrich Grill, race director Christoph Weber and communications manager Nick Warren decide.