Kilian Jornet summits all 82 Alpine 4000m peaks in just 19 days
- Tuesday 3rd September 2024
Spanish endurance athlete Kilian Jornet has just climbed all 82 of the 4000m peaks in the Alps in an astonishing time of 19 days.
Internationally renowned for his ultra-running, Kilian Jornet is also a very capable ski-mountainer and climber. Remarkably, Jornet completed his traverse in the Alps moving between the different mountains on either foot or by bicycle!
Commenting on his success Kilian said: “This was, without any doubt, the most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life, mentally, physically, and technically, but also maybe the most beautiful. It’s difficult to process all my emotions just now, but this is a journey that I will never forget. I want to thank again all the people who supported me or climbed with me throughout this project. It’s time to rest for a bit now!"
Kilian Jornet began his traverse of the alpine 4000m peaks just days after winning the Serre-Zinal race for an amazing 10th time. Jornet started in mid-August with Piz Bernina; just 19 days later he completed the traverse by climbing Barre des Écrins.
The previous fastest known time for a complete self-powered traverse was achieved in 2015 by renowned “speed” climber Ueli Steck. Steck’s time was 62 days for the traverse; at that time it was hailed as an amazing achievement.
Climbing the peaks either on his own or with companions, Jornet’s typical day involved moving continuously for 20 hours; sleeping was limited to 4 or 5 hours per day in between peaks. Unlike Steck who flew down off some of the peaks using a paraglider during his 2015 traverse, Jornet remained on foot for the whole traverse.
Jornet’s Instagram page has the details of his various days; arguably Stage 14, which involved Mont Blanc, makes for remarkable reading…
“We started the day at 4:45 with @matheo_jacquemoud and @noa_barrau on the Diable Ridge, one of the most beautiful rock climbs I’ve ever done, both very technical and aesthetic. This took us through Corne du Diable, Pointe Chaubert, Pointe Médiane, Pointe Carmen and L’Isolée.
We pushed on towards Mont Blanc with the summits of Mont Blanc du Tacul, Mont Maudit, Mont Blanc, Dôme du Goûter and Aiguille de Bionassay, where Matheo and Noa left. I continued on solo, went back on the summit of Mont Blanc a second time on my way back, then down on the Brouillard ridge (Monte Bianco de Courmayeur, Picco Luigi Amadeo, Mont Brouillard and Punta Baretti) with an amazing sunset in the background, a moment that I will remember forever.
This took me around 20 hours in total. I stopped at the bivouac Eccles for around 4 hours, waiting for better conditions, before climbing some technical sections at Grand Pilier d’Angle and Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey. One very big day in the books, with 16 new 4000 metre summits, almost 41 kilometres with 5000 metres of climb, in 29 hours and 25 minutes (not including the 4 hours sleeping at Eccles).
In the afternoon, I arrived at Camping La Sorgente, owned by @matteopellin who has been helping me a lot with his knowledge of the area and preparing great food for us. This now brings the total to 79 summits climbed in the Alpine Connections project. Let’s see what the next few days will bring!”
The statistics for Jornet’s complete traverse show how utterly remarkable his achievement has been: 1207km, 267:45:16 hours of activity, 75,344 metres of elevation gain and, on average, 5:17 hours of sleep.