Niviuk pilot Tanguy Renaud-Goud has achieved a new hike and fly world record, accumulating 17,534 meters of positive elevation gain in 24 hours.
The feat took place in Samoëns (France), starting at 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, and ending 23 hours later on Friday at 2 p.m. Throughout the day and hiking the Vertical Kilometre route, he ascended to the take-off point of the Le Criou mountain 22 times, with 800 meters of elevation gain, to then descend by paragliding to the valley.
The athlete, who participated in the Red Bull X-Alps 2023 as a Rookie and finished in tenth position, still can't believe it: "At first, I didn't believe I could do it. The weather conditions forced us to make many last-minute changes: the take-off site, the start time... But I told myself: it will be difficult anyway, don't dwell too much on the details and just keep going uphill after uphill. I started a bit fast, but I was confident in my pace. Between 6,500 and 8,000 meters, I was worried, I couldn't eat properly and had a lot of stomach pain. But I didn't give up and regained my form until the end. In the last 5,000 meters of ascent, the only problem was my legs, which started to hurt severely. But we finally made it!"
"There wasn't enough time to make one last ascent, and it was too difficult to walk in the snow to reach the mountaintop, so we decided to stop at 2 pm, after 23 straight hours. I am fully aware that without my friends this record would have been impossible... I never walked alone! They helped me at take-off, when conditions were at their limit... The whole organization was a success," expresses a very excited Tanguy.
The flying equipment that allowed him to break the record weighed a total of 2.48 kg and was specifically designed for hike and fly. He flew with a size 16 Kode P wing, weighing 1.8 kg, complemented by the Roamer 2 P harness size M (0.205 kg) and the Expe 30 backpack (0.480 kg).
When night fell, he kept the rest of the equipment but switched the wing for our single-surface Skin 3 P size 20 weighing 2 kg, to better take off with backwind. At dawn, as the wind picked up, he switched back to his Kode P 16.
Tim Rochas, Niviuk's R&D designer, friend, and team member who supported Tanguy during the experience, explains how he accompanied him. "I climbed and flew with him on several occasions, but he left me speechless on one of the ascents we made during the night. He already had 8,000 meters in his legs, and I couldn't even keep up with him. It's incredible."
The median he had to follow was 700 meters uphill - and downhill - every hour. For 24 straight hours. By making one hour less, a total of 23 hours, his median was 960 m/h on the ascents. On each lap, he only averaged 13 minutes for the descent flight, manoeuvres, packing, eating, and resting a bit. To achieve the record, he obtained a temporary air permit to fly during the night. He surpassed the previous record by +558 m (16,976 m), set by Andy Symonds in 2022.
We can only express our admiration for this great athlete who already has another hike and fly record. Because this isn't the first world record he has achieved with the Kode P. In 2021, he already broke all the expectations, you can read about it here.
Congratulations!
Check out his tracklog on Strava.
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