Eiger Tour 2025Winter Eiger Tour 2025
Two days before the start of the race, I considered canceling my registration, but then Sebastian Weber called me, we put the team together, and I said, “Let’s go!” It turned out to be the best decision I could have made.
The Winter Eigertour is a unique three-day stage race for pairs in the Swiss Alps, combining ski mountaineering and paragliding. In addition to the race itself, it is also a great opportunity to spend a few days in the great company of other competitors.
Our base this time was in the village of Hospental, surrounded by mountains and with good train connections to the adjacent valleys. This provided ample opportunity to plan daily stages even in the case of difficult weather conditions that accompanied us throughout the race. For the race I decided to take my older Air Design Hero 1 parachute, an "X-pyr veteran", which is a 3-line, but is ultra-light and launches well even in still or tailwind conditions.
Day 1
The first stage took us over the Winterhorn ridge, Andermatt, Oberalppass and Stavel Nual to the finish in Sedrun. The first part in the canton of Uri was quite windy with low cloud base, which made flying impossible (or at least not effective). However, after the Oberalppass the wind weakened, which gave us some chance to fly at least from the last turning point to the finish.
The first two teams were really strong and we were competing with the other team for third and fourth place. We decided to take parachutes for the stage, while the other team didn't, so we tried to keep up with them and focused on the very last part. The conditions were borderline, but luckily for us it was still possible to fly, so we landed in the finish circle in 3rd place (although we didn't enjoy the last run in fresh powder).
Day 2
For the second stage we moved to the Goms area in the canton of Wallis. The expected northerly wind predetermined the route along the southern side of the valley. The start was in Oberwald and the route led over three turning points at altitudes of 1950 – 2300 m above sea level to the finish in the village of Muhlebach, where my friend Kristýna works in a café. Since I had forgotten my toothbrush at home and she brought it there for me, the motivation to complete the stage was even greater.
We discussed various tactical options with Sebi and we wanted to cross at least the last turning point and the finish line by air. The other teams also chose different tactics, which was interesting for the race. I think we did well until the second turning point. From there we wanted to continue to the main ridge, but the wind seemed too strong for us, so we decided to start from the lower snow plateau. We spent about an hour there trying to start in the gusty wind that was constantly spinning, untangling the lines from the bushes and similar pastimes.
We finally managed to take off, but we landed just a bit further down the valley, which meant another 800 meters of altitude to the last turning point and take off - this time with a katabatic wind for a change. Luckily, we took off right away and for a while it even looked like we could fly all the way to the finish line. However, low cloud and a headwind behind the last rib quickly grounded us, so we had to walk the last 2 km on the road. We reached the finish line just 20 minutes before the time limit in 4th place. It was a really tough day! Cake and coffee at Café Hängebrigga were a well-deserved sweet spot.
Day 3 – final “skimo” stage
The last day was incredible and unlike the previous day, luck was on our side. The final stage led from the Oberalppass via Pass Maighels, Gefallenluecke back to Hospental. Due to the route profile and the strong winds at higher altitudes, we decided to go light and, like most teams, leave the parachutes at home. We realized that we were still fighting for a podium finish, so we loaded the planned route into our watch to minimize navigation errors.
The race started as expected - two strong teams in the lead and we were keeping up with our rivals in 3rd and 4th place. We had a great time on the first freeride towards Vermigelhuette in almost perfect snow conditions and then things started to happen. The first team got lost and later had to turn back, losing any hope of a podium finish. The second team took the lead but had to blaze a new trail in deep snow, so we finally arrived at the Gefallenluecke pass in 3rd place, only about 3 minutes behind the leading team. A quick dismount in an incredibly windy spot and we started the final descent towards the finish.
Sebi finally used the potential of his wide and long skis and we had a great race-style descent. We soon overtook our rivals for the overall podium and by the end of the descent we even caught up with the first team. And then the flat decided the matter – Nicola from the leading team had ice on his skis and the friction was too much for him, so we finally overtook him and won the stage with a lead of less than a minute over the second team. It was an incredible finish! I don't think I'll forget that day for a long time.
Thanks to this result, we finished in 3rd place overall.
Congratulations to all the participating teams, I believe we all had a great time together in Hospental. Big thanks also to Mich Witschi, his family and everyone who was involved in the organization and looked after us for three days. And finally, hats off to Sebastian, who pedaled incredibly hard for three days even with heavy skis and was able to form a team with me just two days before the race. I am really grateful that we could enjoy this adventure together!
Photo: Tobias Dimmler https://www.instagram.com/betweensummitandsky/, Tomáš Matera, Sebastian Weber, Michael Witchi
