Direttissima Switzerland

In July Thomas Ulrich crossed Switzerland at its widest part from west to east as a Hike&Fly project. As an additional requirement the direct track covered had to remain within a 1 kilometer wide corridor. To negotiate this “Direttissima” route the famous adventurer and photographer surmounted a total of 45,000 up and down metres, and conquered rugged rock faces, steep ravines, glaciers and raging torrents. His light All-Mountain PI 2 wing was often put to good use. We asked Thomas about the challenges of his tour.

ADVANCE: First of all congratulations on your successful Direttissima, Thomas!

Merci!

ADVANCE: Normally you lead your expeditions to the remotest and most inhospitable places on earth. What was your greatest challenge on your straight route through a well-developed Switzerland? Was it as psychologically and physically demanding as your other expeditions?

No. I’d arranged something of a luxury trip because my wife came along as well on the bus. Many times in the evening, after ten or twelve hours footslogging, I’d come across some sort of mountain road and there would be my dinner waiting for me.

Compared with my arctic expeditions, where I had to make time to cook and prepare everything, this was total luxury. Certainly that was also the idea behind it. It was not supposed to be a journey like many of my others, which had more to do with austerity, and only performance and physical as well as mental pressure. This project was intended to be a bit of homage to all the previous experience, a look back at the other tours I’d already made.

ADVANCE: Along with the paddleboard a paraglider came into the action. How often could you use the PI 2 16 to fly from mountains?

I used it a lot. After the initial flatland section I used it straight away on the first mountain by Gruyère. It was more of a short flight to the valley where I could land on the other side, pack up and set off up again. I’d use the PI 2 up to three, maybe four times in a day. Admittedly I found out that the unpacking, laying out, landing and packing up again didn’t really make me faster – but it saved energy. And naturally it made it more fun!

ADVANCE: What were the flying challenges?

The biggest difficulty for me was not to fly out of the corridor! Even at the start I had to be careful with the walking, but the flying was even more difficult.

ADVANCE: Among other things you presumeably mostly made top to bottom flights. What was your furthest flight?

The longest was probably in Graubünden from the Teurihorn above Sufers over the Rofla ravine as far as the opposite mountainside. Because of convergence it was lifting really well. I certainly could have flown further, but I did not have the map available and didn’t want to risk going out of the corridor. This distance came out as 12 kilometers.

ADVANCE: What was the biggest surprise of your tour?

Of course we all say that Switzerland is overpopulated; everywhere this applies to the roads and their access. But I had to follow the corridor, and was surprised how few people I met, and how little civilisation I came across. How wild and unspoiled Switzerland is, even so ...

ADVANCE: On this repeat of the 1983 tour you were excited to see how Switzerland had changed over all these years. What changes did you notice?

The striking difference is certainly climate warming. The glaciers have retreated a lot. I took along the maps used by the originators of the project 34 years ago. In many places they had to walk over small glaciers, that are just not there any more. And they also talked a lot about how they could side down the snowfields from the peaks. I did not come across many snowfields where I could slide down! In one place in Tessin they reported that the high slopes were no longer farmed; no one wanted to do it. And now when I passed these same places they are being farmed again. So there are other differences.

ADVANCE: Do you have other projects this year, or expeditions planned for 2018?

Naturally there will be my commercial trips to the North Pole and across Greenland. But I also have a project with Stefan Glowacz. We will soon release the details.

ADVANCE: We’re already excited about this and wish you a successful expedition! Many thanks for the interview.