TRAVERSE 109
Above the Air
High on the upper reaches of the Andes, where colour drains from the landscape and sound seems to disappear into the thin air, Jiri Zak rode a motorcycle into territory normally reserved for mountaineers and survivalists. The machine beneath him, a Stark Varg EX, hummed rather than roared as it clawed its way toward the sky, climbing higher than any motorcycle had before. It was an ascent measured not just in metres, but in shifting perceptions of what electric motorcycles are capable of when the environment strips everything back to the bare essentials of power, traction and human resolve.
Los Ojos del Salado is not simply a mountain, but a proving ground. Rising to almost 6,900 metres on the border of Chile and Argentina, it is the highest active volcano on the planet, a vast cone of volcanic rock, ice and sand that feels more lunar than earthly. There is little life at these elevations, and even less forgiveness. Winds can arrive without warning, temperatures plunge far below freezing, and the air becomes so thin that every breath feels incomplete. For riders and machines alike, it is a place where preparation is everything and luck is never guaranteed.
For decades, altitude records have been the domain of highly modified combustion-powered motorcycles, their engines painstakingly tuned to compensate for the lack of oxygen. Even then, performance inevitably degrades the higher they climb. Fuel mixtures struggle, power outputs collapse and reliability becomes increasingly fragile. Zak’ s ride turned that long-established logic on its head. The Stark Varg EX does not depend on oxygen to create power, and at altitude, that simple fact becomes revolutionary. As the air thinned and conditions worsened, the bike’ s electric motor continued to deliver consistent,
TRAVERSE 109