At 34 years old, Kilian Jornet has a rich career in the world of trail running where he has made history in the world's biggest race, the UTMB, while setting records on a multitude of trails around the world.
François D'Haene may well be the king of the UTMB, with a fourth victory last year on the trails of the Alps, but Kilian Jornet remains the undisputed trail figure and the discipline's most emblematic runner. The Spaniard (three-time UTMB winner) won most of the races he took part in during the early part of his career. The 2007-2012 period being the most successful, with numerous victories at the Skyrunner World Series, the UTMB and the Diagonale des fous. It was after all these victories on the world's greatest races that the Spaniard set out in search of records on the discipline's iconic trails. Here's a look back at the most legendary of them all.
GR20
When he was only 22 years old in 2009, Kilian Jornet was already a reference in the world of trail running with a victory the year before in the UTMB. On June 16, 2009, the Spaniard tackled the GR20 in Corsica. On the program, 190 km and 12,800 m of ascent to try to finish this course in a record time. Finally, Jornet will take 32h54mn to reach the end of this journey and beat the record held until then by the local Pierrot Santucci. This reference of Jornet will be beaten in June 2021 by Lambert Santelli in 30h25.
Kilimanjaro
In September 2010, Kilian Jornet tackled the highest peak in Africa. With an altitude of 5,895 m, the latter can be climbed to its summit without too many technical difficulties. In 7 hours and 14 minutes, the Spaniard set a new benchmark and beat the record set by local climber Mweka Gate, who also assisted him in his feat. Three years later, the Swiss-Ecuadorian Karl Egloff did better in 6h42.
Mount Blanc
On July 11, 2013, accompanied by Frenchman Mathéo Jacquemoud, Kilian Jornet left Chamonix for a round trip to Mont Blanc (about 28 km and 3,773 meters of elevation gain). If the French traileur stops in the descent because of an injury, the Spaniard continues his effort until the end and manages in 4h57 to realize a new record of the ascent in round trip.
Matterhorn
It is probably one of his most emblematic records. That of the Matterhorn in Switzerland on this world famous mountain. On August 21, 2013, Jornet took only 2 hours and 52 minutes to complete the round trip between Cervinia and the Swiss summit (located at 4,478 m altitude). Bruno Brunod's record is broken after an ascent of 2,471m of D+.
Aconcagua
In 2014, as part of "Summits of my life" (a four-year project during which the Spaniard set out to break records for climbing mythical peaks around the world), Kilian Jornet set a new benchmark on Aconcagua, America's highest peak (6962m), in 12 hours and 49 minutes. Karl Egloff will also beat the Spaniard's time of 11:52 a few weeks later.
Everest
On May 21 and 22, 2017, Jornet set a new round-trip record on the roof of the world. The latest challenge in his "Summits of my Life" project, begun in 2012, took him to an altitude of 8,848 m via the North Face after 26 hours of effort, accompanied up to 7,600 m by Seb Montaz. Starting at 5,100 m from the Rongbuk monastery, he made the round trip without sleeping at any of the intermediate altitude camps. He even climbed Everest twice in less than a week.