The word superhuman is probably overused in the world of sport. However, where Kilian Jornet is concerned, it’s very much merited. He’s won the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) four times. This is a race very much considered to be the world championships of trail running. Yet, to label him simply as a runner does him a disservice. His exploits in the mountains surely make him one of the greatest mountaineers of the 21st century. However, calling him a mountaineer doesn’t quite cut it either. He seemingly defies categorization. And we haven’t even mentioned his skiing yet…
Jornet defines himself as a ‘lover of mountains’. He’s an individual who takes his incredible physical ability and applies it to whatever project he likes, whether that’s setting speed records on some of the world’s iconic peaks or pulling off an astonishing traverse of all 4,000-meter peaks in the Alps in just 19 days.
We asked one of our mountaineering and trail running experts to take a look at Jornet’s life and his varied accomplishments to date.
Early life
Mountains played a huge role in Jornet’s upbringing. He was born in 1987 in an alpine hut, Refugi Cap del Rec in the Pyrenees, where his father was a warden and mountain guide. By the age of five, he’d been up Aneto, the highest peak in the Pyrenees, and at the age of six, he summited his first alpine 4,000er, the Breithorn above Zermatt in the Swiss Alps.
He grew to be an accomplished skier, joining the Mountain Ski Technique Centre when he was 13 and going on to compete in Spanish, European and World Championships. This introduction to competition also sparked his love of trail running, initially as a way to keep fit during the warmer months.
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Dominating competition
Growing up, Jornet developed a list of races that he wanted to compete in. Even he couldn’t have guessed at how many of them he’d win. He absolutely dominated skyrunning between 2007 and 2009, winning three Buff SkyRunner World Series championships in a row. His first UTMB win came in 2008, despite being the youngest participant. This was swiftly followed by further successes in 2009 and 2011, making him a bona fide trail running sensation. He'd win UTMB once more in 2022, setting a course record while he was at it – though this was beaten the year after by America's Jim Walmsley.
In the US, he’s been victorious at the Western States 100 in 2011; the Pikes Peak Marathon in 2012 and 2019; the Mount Marathon Race in 2015; and the Hardrock 100 on no less than five occasions, in 2014, 2015, 2016 (tied), 2017 and 2022. Meanwhile, utter domination is the only way to describe his efforts at Spain’s Zagama-Aizkorri and Switzerland’s Sierre-Zinal races, which he’s won 11 and 10 times respectively. They might as well name the races after him. Unsurprisingly, he holds the course records for both.
He holds, or has held, multiple other course records on some of the world’s most iconic skyraces, including the Glen Coe Skyline, and for a while he held the UTMB and Hardrock 100 records. As if that wasn’t enough, he was also broke Billy Bland’s longstanding record time on the legendary Bob Graham Round in the English Lake District, a record that had stood for 36 years until Jornet rocked up in 2018. However, this has since been bettered by American ultra runner Jack Kuenzle in 2022.
As a ski mountaineer, he won many European and Spanish Championship races between 2002 and 2008 and has since competed in the coveted Pierra Menta, Patrouille des Glaciers and Mezzalama Trophy ski mountaineering competitions, with several triumphs across the three events.
Summits of My Life
Away from the spotlight of competition, one of Jornet’s highest profile projects was Summits of My Life. Now that he’d competed in all the races he’d dreamed of as a child, he set his sights on putting up new fastest known times on six of the world’s most iconic mountains.
Growing up, Jornet had a picture of the Matterhorn on the wall of his bedroom. He described “desiring it and fearing it all at the same time” in his book about the Summits of My Life project. The Matterhorn had been the seed for this ambitious project and it would be one of the named summits he'd attempt, along with Mont Blanc, Elbrus, Denali, Aconcagua and Everest.
The first part of the project was a traverse of the Mont Blanc range, from Les Contamines in the west to Champex in the east, on June 16-17 2012. Kilian was joined by his ski mountaineering idol and mentor Stéphane Brosse. Towards the end of the second day, tragedy struck on the Aiguille d’Argentière. An enormous cornice collapsed, sweeping Brosse off the mountain to his death. Jornet later said: “Sometimes an instant is all that separates happiness from pain… We’ll keep doing it for you, Steph. You’ll always be with us. We carry you in our hearts.”
That same September, Jornet was back on Mont Blanc. This time, the goal was to cross the mountain from south to north, starting in Courmayeur on the Italian side, ascending to the summit via the technically challenging Innominata Ridge, and finishing in Chamonix on the French side. Jornet completed this journey in an incredible 8 hours and 42 minutes. Then, in 2013, Jornet completed the final Mont Blanc mission of the project, setting a new record of 4 hours and 57 minutes for a direct ascent to the summit from Chamonix.
In August 2013, Jornet turned his attention to the mountain that inspired him so much as a child: the Matterhorn. He chose the Lion Ridge on the Italian side for what would be an audacious run up to the summit and back down to the village of Cervinia. He set off at 3pm to avoid running into traffic on the mountain and, astonishingly, was at the summit before 5pm. His descent was even more impressive, taking him only 56 minutes, helping him to set a blistering record of 2 hours and 52 minutes.
In September 2013, Jornet was defeated by the intense cold on Elbrus, the 5,642-meter giant of the Caucasus, stopping around 1,700 feet from the summit. In June 2014, he then set his sights on the highest mountain in North America, Denali, and Ed Warren’s previous record of 16 hours and 46 minutes. Using ski mountaineering techniques and battling extreme cold and high winds, Jornet reached the summit and was back at base camp after 11 hours and 48 minutes.
The last stop before Everest was South America’s highest peak: Aconcagua, in December 2014. Equipped with poles and wearing Salomon Snowcross trail running shoes, Jornet managed to make it up to the summit and back to Horcones in 12 hours and 49 minutes, though his record would be broken just months later by Ecuadorian athlete Karl Egloff.
Everest
The culmination of Summits of My Life project was Everest, the highest mountain on the planet, at 8849 meters. Jornet travelled to Nepal in 2015 but the bid was put on hold when the region was devastated by a huge earthquake. He stayed to help with the recovery, raising money for the relief effort at the same time.
He returned in 2017 to fulfil the dream of a lifetime, summiting Everest twice, first on May 21 and again on May 27. His first ascent, which began at the Rongbuck Monastery, was achieved in 26 hours, while the second, from advanced base camp, took just 17 hours. On the descent during the second attempt, Jornet became lost in an intense snowstorm and was forced into an impromptu bivouac. He awoke to find himself in the middle of the enormous North Face and had to make a daring traverse to rejoin the main route.
There has been controversy around whether or not Jornet truly made it to the summit on both occasions due to the lack of evidence. Jornet took no photos, nor did he get in touch with anyone to confirm his arrival. His GPS tracker was also shown to stop short of the summit.
Personal and professional life
Jornet’s long term partner is Swedish trail running legend Emelie Forsberg and the pair have two children. They live in Rauma, Norway, where they enjoy the dramatic peaks of the Åndalsnes region, the nation’s mountaineering capital.
Between 2003 and 2021, Jornet was a Salomon athlete and he once described the brand as “family”. He was instrumental in raising Salomon’s profile and skyrunning in general at a time of a great boom in the popularity of trail running. He left Salomon to focus on NNormal, a sustainable, technical apparel company that he co-founded with Camper, a family-owned footwear company.
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Alpine Connections
In August and September 2024, Jornet smashed the record for climbing all 82 4,000-meter peaks in the Alps without using motorized transport. It was described by sponsor NNormal as a “hybrid combination of trail running, mountaineering, climbing and cycling”, bringing Kilian’s many talents to bear to achieve the remarkable. It took him just 19 days; the previous best had been 62 days, set by the late Swiss legend Ueli Steck in 2015. During Jornet’s incredible endeavor, he covered 750 miles and gained a whopping 75,344 meters in elevation. That’s equivalent to 8-and-a-half Everests from sea level.
In a post on Instagram, Jornet said it 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”. He finished with: “It's time to rest for a bit now!”
