Launched into a crazy challenge in the Alps, Spanish trail legend Kilian Jornet announced on Sunday that he had reached his 82nd summit of over 4,000 metres in 19 days, an unprecedented feat achieved solely on foot and by bike.
«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 these terrains.”Jornet, 36, said in a video sent to AFP.
Begun on August 15 in Switzerland with the ascent of the Bernina, this project entitled Alpine Connections, during which the Catalan reached all the peaks over 4,000 meters recorded in the Alps, ended in the Ecrins massif on Sunday.
The figures given by his team are staggering: in 19 days, Kilian Jornet covered just over 1,000 km, on foot and by bike only, with an elevation gain of over 70,000 metres.
At the same time, he smashed the record for the duration of reaching all the “4,000” peaks in the Alps, held since 2008 by Italian climbers 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, ultra-trail, 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.
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.
“Now is the time to rest and also to assimilate everything that has happened. We have lived through very strong emotional moments.”said 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 deeper limits,” he explained.
Related News :