Kilian Jornet climbed Mount Shasta on September 30, the 71st 14,000’er of his States of Altitude project. Since then, he has cycled 788km in three days across California, Oregon, and Washington to the foot of the final two mountains in his quest: Mount Rainier and its subsidiary peak, Liberty Cap.
Snow and wind on Shasta
The final leg of the California stage of his project kept up Jornet’s trademark intensity. On September 28-29, Jornet cycled 626km in just under 30 hours, averaging nearly 320km and 14 to 15 hours on the bike each day.
On September 30, Jornet summited Mount Shasta. According to his team, he faced some snow and a windchill of -20°C, due to what Jornet described as one of the “top three craziest winds I’ve ever had on a mountain.” From someone who has been on as many mountains as Jornet, that’s saying a lot.
71 peaks + 5,000km of cycling
“As soon as the summit was behind him, Kilian was back on the bike and rolling north again, this time pushing for Oregon and Washington,” his team noted.
Jornet’s mind-blowing performance on the 14,000-foot peaks of the Lower 48 has attracted most of the attention, but the cycling sections are equally impressive. In the three weeks since the challenge began, he has pedaled 5,098km.
After summiting Shasta, Jornet jumped on the bike and rode 95km that evening, accompanied by triathlete Ian Murray, “on crushed volcanic gravel through the forest, then a sunset tailwind north,” until the Oregon border and a short rest.
A quick change of shoes between the climbing and cycling stages. Photo: Kilian Jornet/Instagram
“October 1 brought the project’s biggest ride yet: 242 miles (390km) and 14 hours in the saddle,” his team added. The following day, Kilian rode another 302km for nearly 16 hours, until the road ended at the foot of Mount Rainier in Washington.
Hardly human
Such numbers are hardly applicable to a human being — except for Jornet, apparently. If we check the athlete’s biometric data, as collected on his wearable equipment, we should start considering that perhaps Jornet might not actually be a human being.
Douglas Musson, marketing manager at Coros — which makes performance-focused GPS sport watches, bike computers, and heart rate monitors — shared with ExplorersWeb some of the figures collected by Jornet’s watch:
- Since the beginning of the project, he has slept an average of less than 5 hours a night. On many days, he has had no sleep at all.
- His HRV (Heart Rate Variability) has plummeted from an average of 50ms (pre-project) to 31ms, as the cumulative fatigue set in.
- His RHR (Resting Heart Rate) has risen due to the strain of the long days, from a pre-project average of 43 bpm to 52bpm and rising.
“The end of an unprecedented journey across the heights of the American West is just a climb away,” his team has posted today. Just Mount Rainer and Liberty Cap remain to complete all 73 peaks above 14,000 feet in the contiguous United States.
