The original version of this story was published on iRunFar.
Kilian Jornet has won every big ultramarathon there is. Now the prolific runner has his sights set on a new goal: Connecting all of the lower United States’ 14,000-foot peaks by foot and bike.
Jornet, 37, is best-known for winning the UTMB four times, the Hardrock 100 five times, Western States 100 in 2011, and the Zegama Marathon 11 times. In recent years, he’s also turned to ambitious alpine objectives outside of racing. With his newest project, which he’s calling States of Elevation, he’ll link all 72 of the 14,000-foot peaks across the lower U.S.
The Goal
On Instagram, Jornet announced that he plans to start at Longs Peak in Colorado in early September and end at Mount Rainier in Washington. While not yet confirmed, it’s fair to speculate that Jornet will attempt to summit all 72 of these 14ers as part of the project as well. There are 58 in Colorado, 12 in California, and two in Washington.
The project is a big departure from endurance runners’ typical pursuit of Fastest Known Times (FKTs). Jornet holds several FKTs for routes across Europe and the U.S. Mountain West.
In a press release, he explained, “What I experienced in the Pyrenees and the Alps motivated me to keep exploring this dimension of long traverses with a strong physical, cognitive, and creative component. It’s definitely a continuation in that sense.
“With the excuse of linking the 14ers, it’s also about exploring the American West — the vastness of the terrain and the cultures that have lived and continue to live there, as well as a nature that is often wild and incredibly diverse, ranging from alpine areas to dense forests and deserts.”
Jornet’s human-powered approach to these types of trips is designed to forge a deeper connection with the area, its culture, and its wilderness. Jornet has long been a proponent of sustainability in the sport of running, and his foundation focuses on preserving mountain environments.
Jornet’s Alpine Adventures
This isn’t Jornet’s first human-powered alpine itinerary. Last summer, he linked all 82 of the 4,000m peaks in the Alps by foot and by bike, a 1,207km (750-mile) adventure he called Alpine Connections. He 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 also completed an 8-day traverse of the Pyrenees in 2023, climbing 177 peaks over 3,000 m, where he said that in the planning, it was “the beauty of the route being the most important.”
Jornet is also well-known for his Summits of My Life project, where he climbed the highest peak on each continent, including summiting Mount Everest twice in the span of a week.
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