Race To The Top

Mountain Climber Kílian Jornet Is On A Mission To Scale The World’s Highest Peaks Faster Than Any Man Alive. There’s Just One Problem, So Is Karl Egloff.

- Gordy Megroz

THE COMPETITION IS TRYING TO GET Kílian Jornet drunk. It’s the second week of July, and Jornet, 27, has travelled from his home in Chamonix, France, to Colorado, America, a speck of an old mining town, population about 600, to take on the Hard rock 100, a 160-kilometres footrace through the surrounding San Juan Mountains. A few minutes ago, a runner wearing a hat that read “LIVING THE FUCKING DREAM” told him there would be tequila available at one of the aid stations during tomorrow’s event. Now a couple of runners are proposing a mid afternoon spirit at the local saloon. “Want to go do a shot?” one asks. “Ha!” Jornet says. “Yeah?” “Yes! It’s my friend’s birthday tomorrow and we need to celebrate.”

It’s a decent strategy to try to slow down Jornet, the Hard rock’s defending champ, but it’s not working. “I actually don’t like to drink,” he tells me. Besides, even a hangover might not stymie the man some consider the greatest endurance athlete of all time.

Jornet has, in just 10 years, won nearly 100 ultra running events, which are defined as races longer than 50 kilometres. Six of the past seven years, he has claimed the Sky runner World Series title, the most prestigious award in mountain running. In the winter, instead of hanging up his sneakers and taking a sauna, he competes in ski mountaineering races, in which athletes climb several thousand metres up snowy peaks, ski down, and then do it again for hours. In that sport, Jornet has four overall World Cup titles. And he doesn’t just win races; he annihilates course records.