177 peaks over 3,000m in eight days: Kilian Jornet determined to experience XXL ultra-trail adventures

Kilian Kornet continues to reach summits and sets himself new goals. KEYSTONE – VALENTIN FLAURAUD

With experience, the 36-year-old Catalan says he is looking for sensations. Where are the limits of this man ?

"Projects in the mountains allow me to seek deeper limits" : after winning the most prestigious nature races in the world, trail superstar Kilian Jornet wants to devote himself to "XXXL" even further off the beaten track.

On Sunday, the 36-year-old Catalan won for the 11th time – in 12 participations since 2007 – the formidable Zegama-Aizkorri, a short trail of 42 kilometers and 2,700 m of elevation gain in the Basque Country. "It's nice to see that, 17 years later, I'm able to to have better feelings than when I started", confides Kilian Jornet, passing through Paris on Monday the day after his victory.

New challenges

The first time he won this race on the Basque trails, Kilian Jornet was not yet 20 years old and was not yet the star with multiple ski mountaineering world championship titles, victories on the most prestigious ultra-trails and records for ascents of legendary peaks that it is today.

Over the years, my motivation is more oriented towards the search for sensations

But at 36, while the first white hairs appear on his scalp, the athlete, still as slender as when he started, admits that his & quot;motivation has evolved". "At the start of a career we look for results, times, victories", he lists. "But over the years, my motivation is more oriented towards the search for sensations, towards an exploration of the limits outside of competitions, in other projects in the mountains."

Eight days in the Pyrenees

Troubled last summer by a pelvis injury which forced him to give up the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), a legendary 170km race around Mont Blanc that Having already won four times, Kilian Jornet embarked on a very different project in October: eight days in the Pyrenees to climb 177 peaks over 3000 meters above sea level, no far from the mountains at the foot of which he grew up.

It’was the hardest experience of my life

"It’was the hardest experience of my life, with 20 hours of mountains per day on complicated routes  quot;, he says."I was in pain everywhere, I was tired and I was having hallucinations." "In competition, we learn to know ourselves, we know how to train, whereas in this type of project in the mountains we look for things that we don't yet know. It brings me more emotions, he continues.

This summer, Kilian Jornet only ticked off two short trails on his program, the Zegama which he won on Sunday, and Sierre-Zinal in Switzerland in August. "It’s a nice excuse to practice well", he smiled. But the big objective will be elsewhere: in a new "long personal project" from September, the outlines of which he refuses for the moment to reveal.

L’UTMB ? "I’would like to do it again

"Projects in the mountains allow me to seek limits that are deeper than in competition", he slips."The effort will be a bit similar to an ultra-trail, I will explore the ultra in XXXL." – L’UTMB ? "I’would like to do it again"

At the start of the year, the trail runner had indicated that he would skip the UTMB, which brings together thousands every end of summer in Chamonix runners and tens of thousands of spectators. Critical of the direction taken by the UTMB group since the launch in 2022 of a competition circuit in partnership with Ironman, Kilian Jornet and the American trail runner Zach Miller had sent an email to others athletes by asking them to choose another benchmark race this year.

Opposed to the unlimited development of a sport

"There were problems with environmental impact, sponsorship, race acquisition", he quotes pell-mell to explain his rise to the niche. Before tempering directly: "It remains a test that I love and even if we differ on certain points, we still have a lot in common (with the & rsquo;UTMB). This is a race that I would like to do again in the future".

There are always contradictions

Opposed to the limitless development of a sport whose popularity has exploded in recent years, Kilian Jornet is one of the athletes keen to reduce the environmental impact of their sporting practice. For several years, he has limited international races to favor competitions in Norway, where he is based, and in Sweden.

"There are always contradictions", he admits. "Individually I'm trying to create a (shopping) calendar that doesn't make me travel a lot but I& rsquo;also tries to work on how we can influence those involved in trail running to be more consistent with the values ​​of the sport and the preservation of the environment in which we practice it."