An absolute record: 70,000 meters of positive elevation gain… Kilian Jornet climbs all the “4,000” peaks in the Alps in just 19 days
|Kilian Jornet sur la Pierre Menta, célèbre course de ski alpinisme. MAXPPP – Pierre Teyssot
Lancé dans un défi fou dans les Alpes, la légende espagnole du trail Kilian Jornet a annoncé dimanche 1er septembre avoir atteint son 82e sommet de plus 4 000 mètres en 19 jours, une performance inédite réalisée uniquement à pied et en vélo.
“This project was the most challenging I have ever faced, physically, technically and mentally. “You had to be focused for hours and hours to cover this terrain,” Jornet, 36, said in a video sent to AFP.
Started on August 15 in Switzerland with the ascent of the Bernina, this project called Alpine Connections, during which the Catalan will have reached all the peaks over 4,000 meters recorded in the Alps, ended in the Ecrins massif on Sunday.
19 days to cover 1,207 km and 70,000 meters of elevation gain
The figures given by his team are mind-boggling: in 19 days, Kilian Jornet covered just over 1,000 km, on foot and by bike only, for an elevation gain of over 70,000 meters.
He also broke the record for the duration of reaching all of the “4,000” of the Alps, held since 2008 by Italian mountaineers Diego Giovannini and Franco Nicolini, who completed their expedition in 62 days.
“What I remember most are the moments shared with friends on the ridges, the beautiful sunsets”, explained the athlete, a great lover of mountain sports in all its forms (mountaineering, hiking, trail running, ultra-trail running, cycling, etc.). Kilian Jornet had already embarked on a similar project in October 2023: eight days in the Pyrenees to climb 177 peaks over 3,000 meters high, not far from the mountains at the foot of which he grew up.
Last summit with Benjamin Védrines
For his project in the Alps, he was accompanied on many occasions by friends and renowned mountaineers such as the Frenchman Benjamin Védrines, with whom he reached his last summit. “I was moved and honored to be with him on this last summit. It represents a great page in the history of mountaineering. Kilian has done something inspiring with this project”, Védrines, a specialist in alpine-style climbs, told AFP.
“Now is the time to rest and also to assimilate everything that has happened. We experienced some very emotionally intense moments", declared Jornet, four-time winner of the Ultra-trail du Mont-Blanc, the 21st edition of which ended this weekend in Chamonix.
Met in May by AFP, the "ultra-terrestrial" had announced that he wanted to devote himself primarily to "XXXL" adventures off the beaten track. "Mountain projects allow me to seek out deeper limits", he explained.