States of Elevation

On the topographical map of endurance athletes, one human stands alone on the top isopleth.

It’s difficult to enter the realm of hyperbole when discussing the achievements of Kilian Jornet.

Literally born to the peaks, Jornet grew up in a mountain hut his parents oversaw in the Spanish Pyrenees, near the triple point of Andorra, France, and Catalonia. He and his sister excelled in climbing and skiing, thanks to the surrounding landscape and the tutelage of mountain-guide mom and dad. By age three, Jornet had scaled a 9,879-foot (3,011-meter) crag, called Tuc de Molières; at five, he summited the High Point of the Pyrenees, 11,168-foot (3,404-meter) Aneto.

In the mountains, Jornet’s heart seemed to hum. At 13, he began attending the Center for Mountain Skiing of Catalonia, an elite academy for skiers. He was two years too young to be admitted, but the school decided to accept him in part because they realized the precocious teenager would have trained on his own in the perilous range had they deferred. He lived 25 miles from the center. He biked or ran this distance every day, both directions, before and after the training regimen at the school.

Few were surprised when he started winning prestigious races and setting records in the mountains.

At 17, he set the fastest known time on a peak in the French Alps. By the age of 20, he had become the youngest person to win the Buff SkyRunner World Series, which he achieved three times consecutively between 2007 and 2009.

From there, he redefined success in endurance athletics. He dominated skimo and mountainous ultramarathon, racking up wins at all the major world events.

The list borders on absurdity.

He won the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, perhaps the world’s foremost trail race, four times. He triumphed at Zegama-Aizkorri 11 times and Sierre-Zinal 10. The Hardrock 100 Endurance Run, a gauntlet through some of the gnarliest portions of the Colorado Rockies, went to Jornet five times.

Lest you believe his “small” number of gold medals at UTMB and Hardrock, compared to the others, means he faultered or faced a significant rival, he only entered UTMB and Hardrock on five occasions (more on the one UTMB loss later). Of course, he didn’t win every race he entered, including a famous third-place finish at Western States in 2010. He didn’t bring water for that 100-mile race, relying on stream crossings and aid stations for hydration. On the spectrum of speed-to-climbing, Western States skews toward the faster runners, which is not necessarily Jornet’s strongest suit. Regardless, he returned a year later and won the race anyway. Peek at his UTMB results page: the frequency of 1s is astounding.

As good and competitive as he is, Jornet seems to love being in the mountains more than winning, so he spends a lot of time climbing outside the confines of racing.

On nearly any beastly peak you can imagine, Jornet has stood.

And he likely got there in record time.

In 2012, he began an ambitious project he titled “Summits of My Life.” The goal was to set records for ascent and descent on many of the world’s baddest mountains.

Between 2010 and 2017, he broke the fastest known times on:

An attempt on the record at Elbrus, the High Point of Europe, was abandoned due to the weather. In 2017, Jornet wrapped up the project by assualting Everest. Though he ultimately did not bag the speed record, he climbed to the pinnacle of the planet by himself without supplemental oxygen. Twice. In one week.

Just two weeks after Everest, he won a road half-marathon in Norway that featured an 8% grade and 5,500 feet of elevation gain. He did so by running 6:30 miles. Just three months after Everest, he had won Hardrock, a marathon at Mont Blanc, Sierre-Zinal, and the Glen Coe Skyline trail race, before finally proving he was mortal at UTMB. He finished second. Most elite trail runners pick one of these on which to focus in a season. After all, these courses, exceeding 100 miles, take a toll on the body. Kilian nearly won them all that year, after two jaunts up the world’s highest peak without oxygen.

At some point, he seemed to tire of tackling individual mountains.

In 2023, he climbed every peak in the Pyrenees over 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) in one push. In eight days, on 177 mountains, he covered 382 miles and gained over 130,000 feet in elevation.

A year later, he expanded the scope of a range-wide link-up with Alpine Connections. Jornet spent 19 days climbing all 82 peaks over 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) in the Alps. Unlike the Pyrenees, this project required more travel. He upped the difficulty by making all his travel human-powered, so he was on foot or bicycle the whole time. Apline Connections spanned 750 miles and ascended nearly 250,000 feet.

If visiting the tallest peaks of Europe’s two major chains in singular pushes wasn’t ambitious enough, in 2025, at age 37, Kilian Jornet embarked upon States of Elevation, a task with a scope that dwarfs the Pyrenees and the Alps.

Seventy-two peaks over 14,000 feet dot the contiguous United States. The bulk – 58 – lies in Colorado, but California has a dozen and Washington a pair. That’s 12 fewer tall mountains than the Alps, but they are relatively concentrated in one section of Europe. The American West is gargantuan; the distances between Colorado’s Rockies, the Sierra Nevada in California, and the Cascades in Washington are immense.

Any single peak on the list of 72 would be a big accomplishment for the average human. Some of them are big accomplishments for mountain lovers, such as Rainier/Tahoma and Whitney. Completing the entire list might be a lifelong project for a seasoned mountaineer.

For Kilian Jornet, this might be a big month.

And, once again, he’s using only the power of his body to get to all the mountains. Climbing by foot, traveling between them by bike.

On September 3, 2025, at Longs Peak in northern Colorado, Jornet began States of Elevation.

In the first two weeks, he methodically blitzed south through the Rocky Mountain State, covering over 1,000 miles, topping 42 14ers, all while gaining 200,000 feet.

With just 10 peaks left in Colorado, he’ll soon move to a huge bicycling portion, pedaling to California. By the time he’s done, he’ll have climbed 600 miles of trails and biked 2,400 miles. That total will be four times as long as the Alpine Connection.

It’s mind-warping to consider that, as these words are typed, a person is somewhere in the mountains of the American West, linking up all the highest peaks in the contiguous states in one go, all by his own power. It’s difficult to enter the realm of hyperbole when discussing Jornet’s achievements, but this one might be the craziest yet.

You can follow Jornet’s progress by visiting his official social media channels, which are linked below.