On August 10, Kilian Jornet won Switzerland’s Sierre Zinal race, known as the Race of the Five 4,000’ers, in record time. After finishing, he wasn’t ready to go home yet.
“I’ve decided to…enjoy the good conditions in the Alps,” he said.
His way of enjoying is to summit as many of the 82 4,000m peaks in the Alps as he can, traveling between them solely by human power. Although Jornet avoids speaking about records, so far, he has summited 41 peaks in six days.
His out-of-this-world progress prompted French alpinist Charles Dubouloz to exclaim, “Kilian, you’re going to bend the Alps!”
The Alps are still in place, but Kilian seems to be flying rather than running across 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 as of Aug 23. Map: NNormal blog and Strava
How it began
After a few days to organize, Kilian started off with Piz Bernina (4,048m), the easternmost 4,000m peak in the Alps, located in Switzerland’s Engadine Valley. He ran up and down it with Philipp Brugger, then switched to cycling. He pedaled 210km solo with almost 4,000m of elevation gain through some iconic mountain passes to the next stage: the Bernese Oberland.
A pre-dawn departure on one of the early stages. Photo: Nick Danielson
“Even though the conditions weren’t perfect, I set off for Lauteraarhorn (4,042m) and Schreckhorn (4,078m), two summits linked by a ridge, then pushed to Finsteraarhorn (4274m), the highest peak of the Bernese Alps,” he said.
After a little rest at the Finsteraarhorn Hut, Jornet traversed six 4,000’ers during a 99km-long stage. His 7,890m of elevation gain took in the summits of Gross Grünhorn, Hinter Fiescherhorn, Gross Fiescherhorn, Mönch, Jungfrau, and Aletschhorn.
“The whole push took me 32 hours and 30 minutes,” he said of his day trip. “After a quick 15-minute nap, it was time to hop on the bike for another 40km to the next part of this adventure.”
Matheo Jacquemoud accompanied Jornet on the fourth stage.
“We set off at 3:30 in the morning to summit Lagginhorn (4,010m) by its South Ridge and Weissmies (4,017m) in an eight-hour push that took us for 30 kilometers and 3,381m of elevation gain,” Jornet noted.
The Valais stage
Next, the 4,000’ers of the Valais. The weather was rainy (or snowy, depending on the altitude), but Jornet felt as if he was at home in Norway.
“I managed to summit Dürrenhorn (4,034m), Hohberghorn (4,218m), Stecknadelhorn (4,239m) and Nadelhorn (4,327m). On the way down, I stopped to get some food at the Mischabelhütte and ran down to the valley.
“In total, 23 kilometers and 3,246m of climbing for four more summits and a total of 16 4,000m [peaks] since starting the adventure.”
The second part of the Valais stage took place yesterday at 6:20 am from Saas Fee, again with Jacquemoud. They climbed Lenzspitze (4,294m), Dom (4,545m) and Täschhorn (4,491m).
Then Genis Zapater joined the group, and together, they sped along Alphubel (4,206m), Allalinhorn (4,027m), Rimpfischhorn (4,199m), and finally, Stalhhorn (4,190m). They “ended the long day in the Monte Rosa hut for some well-needed rest,” Jornet said.
“If all goes according to the plan, the next stage should be an interesting one,” he added.
Jornet runs up a snow ridge in ‘Norwegian’ weather conditions, as he described it. Photo: NNormal blog
Spaghetti Tour in one day
Interesting is a very soft way to describe what Jornet did on the following day: Basically, Monte Rosa and the whole group of 18 surrounding 4,000m peaks in a single day. The so-called Spaghetti Tour, which fit-but-still-human climbers do in a week.
Breithorn main (right) and Monterosa in the distance, on the left. Photo: Angela Benavides
The summit list that day was: Nordend, Dufourspitze, Zumsteinspitze, Signalkuppe, Pointe Parrot, Ludswighöhe, Corno Nero, Pyramide Vincent, Punta Giordani, Lyskamm E, Lyskamm W, Castor, Pollux, Roccia Nera, Breithorn (pointe 4106), Breithorn E, Breithorn central and finally Breithorn W. Then all the way down the Zermatt valley to the Hornli Hut, at the base of Matterhorn.
Kilian completed the tour in 17 hours and 45 minutes — slower than expected because of soft snow.
Next on his list is logically the Matterhorn. He will soon post an update:
Guinea pig
Jornet has not mentioned any record around this present challenge. Instead, he is focusing on “testing himself.” Even that is an understatement, coming from the alien-like Kilian Jornet. He constantly checks his vitals and metabolic data, which he intends to share with the scientific community.
“The ongoing energy demands from a caloric deficit and systemic stress, combined with constant physical exertion, are starting to cause frequent changes in sensations and perceptions,” his team noted.
Dr. Jesus Alvarez, a PhD in Biology, has worked with Jornet on several of his projects. He observed that cognitive impairment under these stimulus-induced conditions was similar to that of patients with severe brain damage.
“Analyzing Kilian’s response to this extreme challenge could be revolutionary for science, shedding light on the physiological limits of the human body,” Jornet’s team wrote. “The impact threshold will be key to understanding how systemic stress affects cognitive capacity.”
Kilian Jornet. Photo: Nick Danielson
Jornet also stressed he wants to link as many 4,000’ers “as he can” rather than necessarily summiting all 82 peaks over 4,000m.
Yet his times are not even comparable to previous records. For context, the Swiss Machine, Ueli Steck, set the FKT for all 82 back in 2015. It took Steck 62 days, according to Fastestknowntime.com.
At the moment of writing this story, on August 23 at noon in Central European Time, the athlete’s current mark is below. Science can well use this track since nothing compares to this mind-blowing progress.
Kilian Jornet’s track can be followed live on NNormal website.
