[kellyhound]

Most people hike up a mountain, take a picture, eat a sandwich and call it a day. Aaron Durogati hiked up, launched into the sky, flew down, landed... and did it again. And again. And again. 18 times. For almost 24 hours.

By the time the clock stopped, Durogati had racked up enough vertical climbing to equal nearly two Mount Everests – in a single day – setting a new 24-hour Hike and Fly world record with 19,424m of total positive elevation gain.

The mark surpassed the previous record of 17,534m, set by French athlete Tanguy Renaud-Goud in 2024. That record was already elite-level, which shows just how serious Durogati’s new benchmark is.

19,424m – total positive elevation gain
23:42:32 – time taken to complete the challenge
18 ascents – number of climbs
1,080m – average vertical gain per ascent

To understand how big that is: Mount Everest is 8,849m high. Durogati climbed more than double that height in total, not in one straight line, but by repeatedly hiking up a mountain, flying down with a paraglider, landing, then starting again.

Durogati chose Slogen Mountain in Skylstad, Norway, for his record attempt. The mountain is 1,564m high and rises sharply above the surrounding landscape, making it a strong location for repeated climbs and flights.

But a mountain like Slogen is not a treadmill. It is real terrain, with changing weather, wind, rough ground, and requires big physical effort every time up. Each ascent meant Durogati had to climb more than 1,000 vertical metres on average. Each descent meant he had to safely launch, control the paraglider, and land, before doing it all again.

"I tried to divide the ascent in little pieces and be really precise, efficient and fast during flying - in a way just ‘run’," Durogati said. "But of course at night, when it gets darker, also with some rain showers, it was tough, but I had really good support which kept me motivated throughout.”

Over the full attempt, he completed 18 ascents and covered 103km including the flights. During the descents, he reached a maximum speed of 86kph on his paraglider.

During the attempt, he had an average heart rate of 118bpm, meaning he stayed mostly in a steady endurance zone, often called Zone 2. For many people, Zone 2 feels like an easy run or bike ride: steady, not too fast and something you can hold for a long time.

His maximum heart rate reached 158bpm, and he burned around 10,094 calories. For context, that is several days’ worth of food for many people, burned in one challenge. His suggested recovery time after the effort was 119 hours, which is almost five full days.