Sometimes we ask ‘why?’ assuming the answer will reveal a truth we could never intuit ourselves. But Kilian Jornet, perhaps the greatest ultra trail runner of all time, makes the monumental sound almost distressingly simple.
Why climb mountain after mountain, why push your body towards ever-deeper depths of pain and failure, why keep doing all that when, after 37 years, there isn’t a damn thing to prove to anyone?
‘I do it because I’m curious, because I like to explore and keep testing myself’, Jornet says. ‘I realised a long time ago that when I arrive to the peak of a mountain I’ve dreamt of a long time to climb, I look around and there’s always new summits, new lines, new traverses. I think it’s something that I will carry on doing for a long time.’
This September, Jornet will venture to summit and connect the 14,000-foot (4,300 m) peaks of the Lower 48 United States. An extreme undertaking by itself, but Jornet wants to do the entire journey under human power, which means he’ll be connecting those climbs by bike. Rather than resting between efforts, he’ll be pedalling roughly 2,000 miles (3,200 km), a comparable distance to the Tour de France.
He’s calling the project ‘States of Elevation’, and he’ll be well-equipped and supported for the task. Trek is outfitting Jornet with two custom-painted bikes: a Madone for the long, arid roads, and a Checkpoint to clear the famous gravel trails of the American West, both built with SRAM components.
Jornet is well-versed in extreme efforts, you may be relieved to know given the enormity of the task. The man once summited Mount Everest twice in the same week without supplemental oxygen and has set the fastest known times up fearsome peaks like Denali, Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. Similarly to States of Elevation, he summited all 177 peaks in the Pyrenees above 3,000 m in just eight days in 2023 and all 82 peaks above 4,000 m in the Alps in 19 days (smashing a record) last summer, also connecting those climbs by bike.
Kilian Jornet’s States of Elevation
Year/Año: 2023
Photographer/Fotógrafo: David Ariño
Caption/Leyenda: Kilian summiting Pica d’Estats, the last summit of his project to connect all 3,000 m peaks of the Pyrenees
That doesn’t mean that completing States of Elevation will be easy, and in fact that’s the point. How will Jornet handle the conditions? He doesn’t yet know. At various points, he could experience both searing heat and snowstorms. There’s also the matter of the raw accumulated distance and the stress that puts on the body, not to mention the dark places the mind wanders when it’s forced to contemplate existence after feasting on nothing but suffering.
Most people would understandably approach such a journey with at least a modicum of anxiety. But Jornet is taking it on with a calm and genuine sense of wonder.
‘After all these years, I’ve learned you can’t control everything, but you need to be prepared to adapt’, Jornet says. ‘That’s the essence of these adventures – not avoiding problems, but being ready to face them. I try to divide the whole project into different sections and stages so it’s easier to accomplish milestones and not feel its enormity from the beginning. Then, I will also try to be as much ready as I can for both the heat and the cold, and whatever happens, I’m sure it will be a great adventure.’
Jornet doesn’t have a major cycling background, so whiling away the hours in the saddle might prove to be the most difficult aspect of this undertaking. Jornet will at least have some company. At times throughout the journey, he’ll be joined by family members and famous well-wishers in the ultra-endurance community.
And of course, Jornet will have the landscape to keep him occupied, too. Jornet’s inspiration for the journey is the American West itself. He has competed three times at the famed Western States Endurance Run, which snakes 100 miles (160 km) through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, winning once in 2011. After this year’s race, he reached out to his vast community of followers for suggestions of how he could explore the area further. He got a lot of great responses, so he decided, why not do them all?
Year/Año: 2022
Photographer/Fotógrafo: Nick Danielson
Caption/Leyenda: Kilian Jornet corriendo la Hardrock 100/Kilian Jornet running Hardrock 100
‘The landscapes here combine raw wilderness with culture, history and community’, Jornet says. ‘This vast wilderness is something difficult to find in Europe and I was drawn to learn more about it and get to know it better. Also, I think the combination of different terrains going from high peaks to deserts is something new for me and I’m looking forward to discovering it. It sort of makes you feel part of something bigger.’
Jornet is taking on States of Elevation in part to satiate his own curiosity, but he’s doing it for us, too. For him, extreme efforts are fun. They’re life. Adventure is his sustenance. In his world, there’s no question why he would do something like this or why he’ll no doubt take on even more mind-melting adventures in the future. He needs a challenge like the rest of us need oxygen. It’s his everyday existence.
But Jornet is also aware of the effect he has on people. They keep asking him ‘why?’, but he doesn’t have any easy answers to give. Life-changing revelations aren’t easily digestible. Jornet has only ever found his answers in the messy, immutable wild, and he’s certain you will, too.
‘I believe these adventures can inspire people to see nature differently, to value it more’, Jornet says. ‘If someone watches this and thinks, “I want to go outside, to explore, to care for these places”, then I think my job is done.’
Photos courtesy of Nick Danielson, Julen Raison and David Ariño.