Kilian Jornet took his first day off since starting his attempt to scale all the 4,000m peaks in the Alps while cycling between them. It was the weather and not fatigue that forced Jornet to rest after an astonishing 51 peaks in 8 days. Before the break, he added the Matterhorn, the Weisshorn, and the Grand Combines traverse, among others, to his list.
Our previous story left Jornet resting for a few hours at the Hornli Hut, at the foot of the Matterhorn. That was indeed his next goal. After completing the iconic peak by the normal route, he continued up the Dent d’Hérens and Dent Blanche in an 18-hour day.
With only two hours of rest at the Schönbielhütte, he set off again at 5:30 am up the Weisshorn, one of the most aesthetic peaks in the Alps, according to Jornet (and this writer). It is also technical and demanding. The day included the summits of Gabelhorn (4,064m), Zinalrothorn (4,221m), Weisshorn (4,506m), and Bishorn (4,151m) in another 18-hour push.
Sunset on the Weisshorn
“Catching the sunset on Weisshorn…was really special to me and maybe one of the best moments of my life,” Jornet wrote about that moment. “The tiredness was gone and I was feeling perfectly in the moment.”
The day ended at Zinal. On the following morning, Jornet cycled 110km on winding mountain roads to Bourg Saint-Pierre.
“It took me most of the morning,” Jornet noted. Then he joined old friend and guide Alan Tissieres to traverse the points of the Grand Combine massif. Jornet had no sleep that night.
“We started with Combin de Valsorey at sunset and climbed through the night on the glacier to Grand Combin and Combin de la Tsessette, the 49th, 50th, and 51st summits of my Alpine Connections project,” he said.
A dangerous mountain
“Grand Combins was actually more technical than I expected,” Jornet added. “It was a very nice climb, but it’s a dangerous mountain because there’s a lot of rockfall and it’s not always easy to navigate, so I was glad not to be solo.”
Kilian returned to Bourg Saint-Pierre at 2 am, slept for four hours and set off again for an easy day of only 30km of cycling to Val Ferret.
“The weather was bad, so I took the first full rest day of the project,” he said.
That was yesterday. Today, Jornet is on the go again. Follow his progress on Strava and NNormal blog.
