JULY 23, DACHSTEIN, AUSTRIA

Switzerland's Martin Muller (SUI3) is currently leading a field of thirty athletes taking part in the Red Bull X-Alps on an epic adventure race 850 km across the hostile peaks of the European Alps that will be watched by fans throughout the world on the web.

Setting off from Krippenstein (Dachstein Glacier) in Austria, the athletes are flying with paragliders to round the turnpoints of Italy's Marmolada, the fearsome Eiger in Switzerland, and Europe's highest mountain, Mt Blanc, France, before heading south to the finish line in Monaco.

The race goes on day and night, come sun or snow: if they can't fly, they have to hike, carrying their flying equipment at all times. Any form of motorized assistance is banned, but each athlete has a ground supporter to help supply food and navigational assistance.

The gun fired at 9:30, and athletes hiked up from Krippenstein to the summit of the Dachstein glacier. Toma Coconea (ROM) was the first to summit. Athletes were greeted with a strong wind and all opted to hike down the slope before launching their paragliders. Some, like Gerard Ameseder (AUT2) were pinned by the wind perilously close to the cliffs, but eventually all safely pushed south-west towards the Pinzgau Valley.

At the time of writing, 16:19, July 23, Muller is still flying 70 km out, a clear 20 km ahead of his nearest rival, Aidan Toase (GBR1), who has landed and is hiking.

After traversing the Pinzgau Valley, athletes will then have to turn south and break the very backbone of the European Alps. They'll have to cross an impenetrable range of mountains, the snow-clad Alpenhaubtkamm, that rise to over 3000 m chain of peaks, to try and reach their next turnpoint, the Marmolada peak in the Italian Dolomites.