Our first athlete · Paragliding
Jean de Biolley
Professional paraglider, specialised in hike and fly. Climbing mountains on foot, taking off from the summit. This summer he took on XPYR, a race across the entire Pyrenees. We spent a week with him.
The Athlete
Where adventure meets the sky.
Hike and fly is exactly what it sounds like. You climb a mountain on your own two feet, with your wing on your back, and when you reach the top you launch and fly. No lift, no engine. Just legs, air, and the line you choose to take.
Jean has made that his craft. Long days on steep ground, reading the weather and the terrain, then trusting a canopy of fabric to carry him off the summit. It asks for endurance, patience, and nerve in equal measure.
He is the first athlete to officially wear Maverick, and we could not have picked a better one to start with.
The Race
What is XPYR?
XPYR is a hike and fly race across the whole Pyrenees, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Athletes cross the mountain range the hard way, on foot and under a wing, passing a set of mandatory turnpoints high in the peaks along the route.
There is no support crew doing the work for you. You navigate, you manage your own food and rest, and you make the daily call on when it is safe to fly and when you walk. Weather can pin you to the ground for hours or open a window that lets you cover huge distance in a single glide.
It is one of the purest and most demanding tests in the sport, and it is exactly the kind of adventure Maverick exists to back.
[~500]
Kilometres, coast to coast
[X]
Mandatory turnpoints
[X] days
Time on the mountain
[Xth]
Jean's finishing place
The Film
A week in the Pyrenees.
We followed Jean through the race. The early starts, the long climbs, and the moment the ground drops away. This is what that week looked like.
The Week
Legs, air, and a lot of patience.
The race is as much a mental game as a physical one. Days start before light and finish long after the flying does. Every decision, when to push over a col or wait out the wind, shapes the next hundred kilometres.
Jean [finished / placed Xth / reached the Mediterranean after X days]. Whatever the result on paper, the week was everything hike and fly is meant to be. Hard, honest, and unforgettable.
From the Pyrenees
The week in pictures.
Why Maverick
Fuelled for the long day.
A week of climbing peaks and flying between them is a serious test of hydration. When you sweat that much for that long, water alone does not cut it.
That is where Maverick comes in. Jean carried our Daily Electrolytes through the race, topping up the minerals he lost on every climb so his body could keep performing when it mattered most.
Ordinary people doing extraordinary things at their own scale. That is what Maverick is about.
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