Last week, the American, who now lives in France, set a new benchmark time of 7:25 for her ascent of Mont Blanc.
In June 2018, Sweden's Emelie Forsberg set the first Mont Blanc ascent reference time of 7 hours 53 minutes and 12 seconds via the Grands Mulets. Since then, this record had not been beaten by another female runner. This Saturday, American Hillary Gerardi took up the challenge. This athlete, originally from Vermont in the USA, now lives in the Chamonix valley, close to her passion for trail running and the mountains. An avid skier, climber and mountaineer, she began running in earnest six years ago and turned her passion into a profession last year by becoming a pro athlete. Skyrunning world vice-champion in 2018, three-time winner of the summer Pierra Menta and the Mont Blanc Marathon (90km), Hillary Gerardi has more than enough pedigree to hope to beat Emelie Forsberg's record.
However, the American was unable to follow the same route as the Swede, as it was deemed too dangerous due to global warming. Setting off at 2am from the Chamonix church with a smile on her face, Hillary set off on the first glaciers with Valentine Fabre, her rope-mate for the Chamonix-Zermatt ski-mountaineering record (2021). And it was with South African traileuse Meg Mackenzie that she ran part of her descent. A fine performance for this athlete, who is keen to draw attention to the consequences of climate change on the summits, and in particular on the roof of Europe, and is witnessing these developments at first hand...
Hillary Gerardi was back at the starting point 7 hours and 25 minutes later after a run of 32.67 km and 3877 m of positive ascent. She took the steeper but less serac-prone northern ridge, then caught up with the normal route via the ridge of bumps, which has nevertheless seen a crevasse open up in recent years, making the passage more tricky.
"I'm really happy and amazed to break the record on this variant of the route," she explained at the finish. "We had a lot of wind on the summit, but I got there almost 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The descent was a little slower than expected, because of the snow conditions. I'm also happy because I proved that this alternative route, which requires more equipment and may seem longer, doesn't prevent you from performing well." You can find the GPS track of her achievement at this address.