Regulations are subject to change without notice!

1.1    The Red Bull X-Alps is an adventure and paragliding competition for selected international Athletes.

1.2    The challenge is to cross the Alps from East to West and finish in Monaco as quickly as possible travelling only by paraglider or by foot. Teams will start in Salzburg (Eastern Austria) and travel past turnpoints defined by the Race Committee. The Athlete who reaches the landing float in Monaco first is the winner of the race.

1.3    All decisions regarding the organisation and running of the Red Bull X-Alps are made by the Race Committee. The Race Committee consists of:
Hannes Arch (Red Bull X-Alps mastermind and inventor)
Christoph Weber (Race Director)
Ulrich Grill (Organiser), zooom productions

Any questions or queries for the Race Committee before the race start must be made to Klaudia Gründl via info@redbullxalps.com, during the race to Christoph Weber via race@redbullxalps.com.

2.1    Only teams selected by the Red Bull X-Alps Race Committee are allowed to take part in the Red Bull X-Alps 2013.
 
2.2     Participants must register as a team. Teams consist of two to three members – one Athlete and one or two supporters. Single registration is not allowed.

2.3     All Athletes and supporters must be highly qualified and experienced in paragliding and mountaineering to participate in the event.

2.4    Only Athletes with a valid official paragliding license may take part.

2.5    Only supporters with a valid official paragliding license, sufficient skill and equipment in compliance with the legal requirements are allowed to fly.
The equipment and piloting skill will be checked prior to the race.
Gliders are not allowed to be branded.

2.6    Every Athlete and supporter who wants to paraglide during the race must prove third party liability insurance for the paraglider used during this competition. The insurance sum has to be within a limit of at least 1.5 million Euros. Every Athlete and paragliding supporter must prove emergency rescue insurance, including helicopter rescue, to cover the expected rescue costs in the countries (minimum 10,000. - Euro) where the event takes place.

Both insurances can also be obtained directly before the competition at the Race Committee for an amount of 80 Euros (these insurances will only be valid during the event). These insurances do not include accident insurance.

Accident insurance, valid in all countries visited during the race, must be proved by Athletes and supporters. The insurance must cover medical treatment and hospital use.

Insurance documentation must be available in German or English.

Insurances will be checked and confirmed by the race committee.

WITHOUT THESE INSURANCES THE TEAM IS NOT ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE COMPETITION.

2.7    Every member of a team must sign a disclaimer that will be provided by the organisation committee.

3.1    The number of participants is limited to a maximum of 31 teams plus one possible wildcard team (up to 96 total participants).

3.2    The Race Committee determines the selection of Athletes.

4.1    June 30, 2013:  Athlete interviews, photo shoots and filming
All Athletes may be requested to be available during the week leading up to the event.

4.2    July 3, 2013 at 16:00 LT (local time): Latest arrival for teams at the race office
Athletes or supporters who do not arrive by this time at the race office will not be permitted to start the race. In the event of unpredictable circumstances, the race director must be informed immediately.
4.3    July 3, 2013 at 18:00 LT: Official reception and athletes' dinner

4.4    July 7, 2013 at 11:30 LT: Start of Red Bull X-Alps 2013
Salzburg City Centre, Austria

4.5    July 10, 2013 at 06:00 LT
The last team in the Red Bull X-Alps rankings will be eliminated. Thereafter the last team will be cut from the race every 48 hours unless the Athlete has passed the Mt. Blanc turnpoint. This rule applies only for Athletes who haven’t quit the race.

Once the first Athlete has reached the finish there will be no further eliminations.

4.6    Race finish: A team is seen as having completed the race as soon as the Athlete has reached the finish. All the other Athletes then have another 48 hours or at least up to July 19, 2013 at 12:00 LT to finish the race. After these 48 hours, but not before July 19, 2013 at 12:00 LT, the race will officially end and Athletes will be requested to stop racing.

4.7    All teams, including withdrawn Athletes, are expected to attend the prize-giving ceremony and party in Monaco, which will take place within 36 hours of the race finish. If the race ends by midday on the final day, the party will take place that evening. If the race ends after midday, the party will take place the following evening.

4.8    The race can only be cancelled by the Race Committee.

5.1     A team consists of two or three participants, one Athlete and the Athlete's supporters. Each Athlete nominates one or two supporters during online registration. The supporters cannot be replaced during the race or quit unless due to sickness, injury or exceptional circumstances. In this event, the Race Committee must be informed. The Race Committee must approve any change of supporters beforehand.

5.2    During the race, the Athlete must fly carrying the mandatory equipment or walk carrying the mandatory equipment. Any other transportation including aid from any third parties is strictly prohibited. Any Athlete contravening this rule will receive a penalty up to disqualification as defined by the Race Committee.

5.3    During rest periods the Athlete is not permitted to move away from his stop position (position where the rest period began) by more than 250m.

5.4    The Athletes have to make an uninterrupted rest stop from 22:30 until 05:00. If an Athlete is still moving after 22:30 or before 05:00, he will be subjected to a minimum penalty of 24 hours.
Every Athlete can ignore the rest period once in the race by using the “Night Pass”. Usage of the Night Pass has to be announced to the race committee by 12:00 LT on the same day the Night Pass will be used.

5.5    The Athlete is responsible for the recharging of his tracking devices.
Loss of tracking due to empty batteries will lead to penalty time.

5.6    The supporter(s) can use any means of transportation but are not permitted to fly alongside their team Athlete or undertake any form of motorized, powered flight or use a glider aircraft.
Team vehicles have to be branded with official Red Bull X-Alps stickers provided by the organization.

5.7    Only the supporter(s) can be responsible for the team’s organisation and Athlete’s requirements. The teams must organise themselves before and during the event. Athletes are not allowed to seek out or accept professional third party help during the event, except hiring local authorised mountain guides for safety reasons, which has to be approved beforehand by the Race Director.

5.8    An authorised UIAGM mountain guide must accompany teams for dangerous hiking and climbing sections on glaciers or extreme alpine conditions.
Teams who decide to appoint a guide must report to the Safety Director before attempting the difficult section. The Safety Director must approve the appointment and give permission for the team and guide to continue. The Race Committee will determine the most obvious of these difficult sections prior to the race start. If a team approaches any other difficult section, the Race Committee can instruct them to be accompanied by a mountain guide before continuing.
If the supporter is a certified mountain guide and guides the Athlete through the sections mentioned above and the second supporter is not available, a third person is permitted to move the team’s vehicle with the prior approval of the Race Director.

5.9       Every team has to have one supporter to be named in advanced as the "communication supporter". The communication supporter has to be available 24/7 to the organization team and for media requests. The communication supporter has to use the provided team mobile phone. If needed she/he has to travel towards the organization for collections (e.g.: memory cards) or help at other handovers.
If a team has a second supporter, she/he has to make her/his private mobile phone number known, and she/he has to be available 24/7 as well. The organization will only use this number in case of safety related issues.

5.10    All teams are obliged to give interviews at any time during the race.

5.11    All Athletes must make daily updates to their personal internet diaries on www.redbullxalps.com. To make these updates they will receive a mobile phone to send images, videos, text and voice messages via MMS or e-mail. Athletes must submit at least one text blog and two photos per day. At least one video blog must be uploaded every day. Teams can be subjected to 6 hours penalty time for each failure to comply with this rule. Teams may use footage from Athlete cameras for their personal needs.

Athletes are also obliged to make weekly diary entries leading up to the race via www.redbullxalps.com from May 1, 2013 onwards.

5.12    All teams must submit video footage (minimum 5 minutes per day) every 48 hours. The communication supporter is obliged to deliver all video footage to the defined meeting points or directly to the Red Bull X-Alps communication crew. Teams will be subjected to 12 hours penalty time for each failure to comply with this rule. Equipment (cameras and SD cards) will be supplied by the Race Committee. Teams must only use the memory cards provided by the Race Committee to record footage. Footage may not be recorded on personal memory cards.

5.13    Each team must be prepared for spot checks by the Race Committee during the race. These spot checks will inspect the teams’ equipment and their method of transportation or movement.  

5.14    The Athlete can at any time during the race, starting with the arrival at the race location on July 3, be obliged to take a doping test. Should the Athlete’s test return a positive or non-negative result, or the Athlete refuses to take the test, he will be immediately disqualified from the race.

The Race Committee will refer to the newest prohibited list published by the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) and available to view on www.wada-ama.org

Tests will be carried out by the Red Bull X-Alps Race Doctor.

5.15    The minimum penalty for any deviation from the Red Bull X-Alps rules is six hours.

5.16    Any Athlete or team can quit the race at any time, after informing the Race Committee.

5.17    The Race Committee has the right to change any rules before and during the race.

5.18    Athletes with penalty times have to prolong their next rest for the duration of their penalty time. Failure to comply with this rule leads to disqualification.
If the Athlete reaches the goal before his next rest time, the outstanding penalty time will be added to his overall time.

5.19     The Race Committee reserves the right to give penalties whenever an Athlete acts irresponsibly towards their own safety, towards others or towards the sport, the event organisation or related sponsors.
The Race Committee has the right to disqualify a team at any time if the Race Committee feels that the team’s safe participation in the event is at risk.

6.1    Athletes are not allowed to fly between 21:00 and 06:00.

6.2    All Athletes are obliged to respect VFR (Visual Flight Rules) regulations. Any Athlete violating VFR rules takes full responsibility of the legal consequences.

Any Athlete flying into forbidden zones defined by the Red Bull X-Alps organization will be subjected to at least 48 hours penalty time or to immediate disqualification. An Athlete's altitude is verified by the GPS height recorded by live tracking. If a backup track (IGC) is used to verify a violation, then this GPS height will be used as evidence.

The route flown will be tracked by the GPS logger. The exact notification of the forbidden zones will take place at the briefing before the race start. The Race Committee will supply all teams with printed maps of the forbidden zones.

6.3    Launching is to be done without any assistance. Holding the paraglider or the Athlete is allowed only for safety reasons on structural parts belonging to the normal flight equipment and must only be held by hand, i.e. no type of winch towing is allowed. Any Athlete contravening this rule will be disqualified.

7.1    The Red Bull X-Alps is a paragliding cross country event, therefore the use of paragliders with 16m² (laid out surface) or less, or of a surface loading exceeding 6kg/m² (so called speedgliders), are prohibited.

All flying equipment has to be certified and fulfill the latest edition of the following certification standards:
Paraglider: EN 926-2 and 926-1 or LTF 91/09
Harness: EN 1651 or LTF 91/09
Rescue system: EN 12491 or LTF 91/09
Helmet: EN 966
Athletes and the supporters who plan to paraglide must provide documentation that the equipment fulfills the requested standards at the equipment check. The certification of the used paraglider and harness has to be published by the certification institute latest at the equipment check.
A complete list of the equipment that will be used in the race has to be provided by June 1, 2013.

7.2    The Athlete must always carry or fly with their mandatory equipment.
The Red Bull X-Alps mandatory equipment consists of one paraglider, one harness, one emergency parachute, one helmet, one mobile phone, one GPS tracking device, one Pieps Globalfinder emergency device and one distress flare.
The mobile phone, the GPS tracking device, the Pieps Globalfinder emergency device and the flares will be provided by the Race Committee.
For difficult climbing stages, which include a via ferrata, every Athlete has to bring and use one climbing harness and one via ferrata set, which both have to be CE certified.
We highly recommend Athletes take the following equipment on all trails or flights that lead into high alpine areas and away from official roads:  
One waterproof jacket and pants, one warm top, one pair of warm pants or leg warmers, one pair of gloves and one warm hat.

7.3    In addition to the GPS tracking device, every Athlete is advised to carry a backup GPS logger. Each team is responsible for its own track log.

Any GPS logger can be used if it meets the following requirements:
•    The IGC File must contain barometric or satellite altitude.
•    The IGC File must contain a Security Record (G Record).
•    All models must have an interface cable for downloads.

7.4    Any Athlete caught by the Race Committee during a spot check not carrying their Red Bull X-Alps mandatory equipment will be immediately disqualified from the race.

7.5    No item on the Red Bull X-Alps mandatory equipment list can be exchanged during the race. The only exception is if the equipment is damaged or stolen, in which case the Race Committee must be informed immediately. Teams will be subjected to 24 hours penalty time for each failure to comply with this rule.

7.6    All teams must have their equipment, including rescue systems, checked and approved by the Race Director before the race start. Overloading of the used rescue systems is not allowed (takeoff weight has to be within the certified maximum loading of the used rescue system).

8.1    Athletes must wear official Red Bull X-Alps branded products during all official photo and film shoots as well as during official media interviews and appearances. Failure to do so can result in a penalty time.

8.2    The bib (speedarm) must always be worn as the outermost layer of clothing during the flights. Failure to do so will result in a time penalty. Athletes may place one personal sponsor logo (communicated to the organisation in advance) on one sleeve of the speedarm. The exact placement of the logo will be defined by the organisation. However no other personal sponsors are allowed on official Red Bull X-Alps clothing. The personal sponsor logo must be supplied to the Race Committee in vector format by April 15, 2013. Failure to provide the logo in the correct format by the given date will result in the personal sponsor logo not being printed onto the speedarms. Cost of the printing of the personal logo onto the bibs will be paid by the Athlete (approximately €50).

8.3    The Glider: Red Bull X-Alps logos and official sponsor logos will appear on every Athlete's gliders in the following locations (see Appendix A for details):
•    on the stabilizers (right and left sides, and top and bottom of the canopy, 60x60cm);
•    in the centre (top or bottom to be specified by Race Committee of the canopy 300x120cm);
•    to either side (left or right of the centre logo, inside and outside of the glider 130x55cm).

All logo positions have a buffer zone around them where no personal sponsor logos are permitted. The zone is approximately 25% the size of the logo and applies either side of every official logo position. Personal sponsor spots may contain more than one logo. These must be within the available space of 300x120cm for your main sponsor spot and 130x55cm for your secondary sponsor spots. See Appendix A for details.


The glider canopy must have one continuous plain white area that covers a minimum of 75% of the top and bottom surface areas. Red Bull X-Alps logos and official sponsor logos have to be placed on plain white background.

8.4    Stickers for branding gliders will be supplied to all Athletes prior to the event and must be applied according to Red Bull X-Alps guidelines, which will be distributed with the stickers.

Athletes must supply a photo of the branded glider or a 100% design copy to the Race Committee within two weeks after receiving the stickers. If the Race Committee deems that the stickers have not been applied in the correct positions, the Athletes must re-brand the glider and will bear the costs of doing so.  

Personal sponsors and logo placements are allowed but have to be approved by the Race Committee and must not conflict or be in competition with the official event title sponsor, Red Bull or other Red Bull X-Alps sponsors.

8.5.     Helmet: One Red Bull X-Alps sponsor logo will appear on every Athlete’s helmet. Athletes must keep 10x10 cm of the frontal area on their helmet free for a sticker provided by the organisers. There is also a buffer zone around this sticker in which no other stickers may be placed. The buffer zone extends 5cm to the top, and left and right sides of the sticker, and between the bottom of the sticker and the rim of the helmet. The remainder of the helmet is free for Athletes’ personal sponsors. See Appendix A.

8.6.    Car: Two Red Bull X-Alps stickers for Athlete support cars must appear on the right and left side of the front doors. The organisers will provide the Athletes with these stickers. Athletes must keep the front doors free of any other personal sponsor logos.

10.1    The GPS tracking device sends information to the website, where the Athletes’ current position will be displayed. The online data serves as a route confirmation for the Athletes and the Race Committee.

10.2    The Race Committee reserves the right to inspect any team's backup track log (See also rule 11.1).
 
10.3    The backup track log must display a tracking interval of 1sec.

10.4    The Race Committee understands “a complete and clean track log” as follows:

•    Each time the track log is started anew, the Athlete must be within 250m of his last recorded position.
•    The track log must not have missing track points for more than 5 minutes.
•    On the ground, a speed of more than 5 m/s must not appear for more than 10 minutes.
•    In flight, a speed of more than 20 m/s must not appear for more than 20 minutes.
•    The flight track log has to show that no airspace violations were made. Any track logs with missing log points close to forbidden zones and with suspected airspace violations will result in a 48 hours penalty or even disqualification if the backup track log cannot clearly show that the airspace was not violated.

11.1    Every Athlete must be able to present a complete track log.

11.2    The routes will be evaluated on a daily basis. The Race Committee will analyse each Athlete’s route every day, based on the online track log. In case a track log is found to have infringed any of the Red Bull X-Alps rules, the Athlete has to deliver his backup track log within six hours of the Race Committee’s request.

11.3 In case of any abnormality in the online track of an Athlete, a special icon will appear on the website.

12.1    A final results table will be put together as soon as the race is over.
Participants are judged according to the time it took them to reach Monaco via all turnpoints.
Athletes with more correctly passed turnpoints are ranked better.
All Athletes with the same amount of turnpoints are ranked according to the remaining distance to the goal. This is measured in straight line from their final position through all remaining turnpoints to the goal.

12.2    The total prize money of 28,500 Euros will be divided among the Athletes according to their final position in the race field.

The breakdown in prize money is as follows:

1    €10,000
2    €5,000
3    €3,000
4 -10    each €1,500