On August 10, Kilian Jornet won the Swiss Sierre-Zinal race, known as the race of the five 4000m peaks, in record time. After crossing the finish line, he was not ready to go home.
“I decided to enjoy the good conditions in the Alps,” he said.
His way of having fun is to climb as many of the 82 4,000-meter peaks in the Alps as possible, moving from one peak to another using only human power. Although Jornet avoids talking about records, he has so far climbed 41 peaks in six days.
His incredible progress prompted the French mountaineer Charled Dubouloz to exclaim: “Kilian, you will bend the Alps!”
The Alps are still there, but Kilian seems to be flying over them rather than crossing them. You can follow his performance on his Strava account, on the NNormal blog and in a series of episodes on the athlete’s Instagram.
Kilian Jornet’s progress on August 23. Map: NNormal Blog and Strava
How it all began
After a few days of preparation, Kilian started with Piz Bernina (4,048 m), the easternmost 4,000-meter peak in the Alps in the Swiss Engadin. He ran up and down it with Philipp Brugger and then switched to his bike. He cycled alone for 210 km with almost 4,000 meters of elevation over some legendary mountain passes to the next stage: the Bernese Oberland.
A pre-dawn descent on one of the first stages. Photo: Nick Danielson
“Although conditions were not perfect, I set off for the Lauteraarhorn (4,042 m) and the Schreckhorn (4,078 m), two peaks connected by a ridge, and then continued to the Finsteraarhorn (4,274 m), the highest peak in the Bernese Alps,” he said.
After a short rest at the Finsteraarhorn Hut, Jornet crossed six four-thousand-meter peaks on a 99 km long stage. He climbed 7,890 meters in altitude and reached the summits of Gross Grünhorn, Hinter Fiescherhorn, Gross Fiescherhorn, Mönch, Jungfrau and Aletschhorn.
“The entire climb took 32 hours and 30 minutes,” he said of his day trip. “After a quick 15-minute nap, it was time to get on the bike and ride another 40 km to the next part of this adventure.”
Matheo Jacquemoud accompanied Jornet on the fourth stage.
“We set off at 3:30 a.m. to climb the Lagginhorn (4,010 m) via the south ridge and the Weissmies (4,017 m). The climb took eight hours and covered 30 kilometers and an altitude difference of 3,381 m,” noted Jornet.
The Valais stage
Next up were the 4000m peaks of Valais. The weather was rainy (or snowy, depending on the altitude), but Jornet felt like he was at home in Norway.
“I reached the peaks of the Dürrenhorn (4,034 m), the Hohberghorn (4,218 m), the Stecknadelhorn (4,239 m) and the Nadelhorn (4,327 m). On the way down I ate something in the Mischabelhütte and then walked into the valley.
“A total of 23 kilometers and 3,246 meters of altitude for four more peaks and a total of 16 four-thousand-meter peaks since the beginning of the adventure.”
The second part of the Valais stage started yesterday at 6:20 a.m. from Saas Fee, again with Jacquemoud. They climbed Lenzspitze (4294 m), Dom (4545 m) and Täschhorn (4491 m).
Then Genis Zapater joined the group and together they raced past the Alphubel (4,206 m), Allalinhorn (4,027 m), Rimpfischhorn (4,199 m) and finally the Stalhhorn (4,190 m). “They ended the long day at the Monte Rosa hut to enjoy a well-deserved rest,” said Jornet.
“If everything goes according to plan, the next phase should be interesting,” he added.
Jornet runs up a snow ridge in what he described as “Norwegian” weather conditions. Photo: NNormal Blog
Spaghetti tour in one day
Interesting is a very gentle way of describing what Jornet did the next day: Basically Monte Rosa and the quite Group of 18 surrounding 4,000-meter peaks in a single day. The so-called Spaghetti Tour, which fit but still human mountaineers manage in a week.
Breithorn main summit (right) and Monterosa in the distance, left. Photo: Angela Benavides
The summit list for that day was: Nordend, Dufourspitze, Zumsteinspitze, Signalkuppe, Pointe Parrot, Ludwigshöhe, Corno Nero, Pyramide Vincent, Punta Giordani, Lyskamm E, Lyskamm W, Castor, Pollux, Roccia Nera, Breithorn (point 4106), Breithorn E, Breithorn Mitte and finally Breithorn W. Then all the way down the Zermatt valley to the Hörnlihütte at the foot of the Matterhorn.
Kilian completed the tour in 17 hours and 45 minutes – slower than expected due to the soft snow.
Next on his list is, of course, the Matterhorn. He will post an update soon:
Guinea pigs
Jornet hasn’t set any records in connection with this current challenge. Instead, he’s focused on “testing himself.” And even that’s an understatement considering the alien-looking Kilian Jornet says so. He’s constantly checking his vital signs and metabolic data, which he plans to share with the scientific community.
Jornet also emphasized that he wanted to connect “as many 4,000-meter peaks as possible” and did not necessarily want to climb all 82 peaks over 4,000 m.
However, his times are not even comparable to previous records. For comparison: Swiss machine Ueli Steck set the FKT for all 82 in 2015. According to Fastestknowntime.com, Steck needed 62 days to do it.
At the time of writing this story, August 23 at 12 noon Central European Time, the athlete’s current record is below that. Science can put this stretch to good use, because nothing compares to this breathtaking progress.
Kilian Jornet’s route can be followed live on the NNormal website.
