Kílian Jornet Burgada


Kílian Jornet Burgada is a Spanish professional sky runner, trail runner, ski mountaineer and long-distance runner.
He is a six-time champion of the long-distance running Skyrunner World Series and has won some of the most prestigious ultramarathons, including the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, Grand Raid, the Western States Endurance Run and the Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run.
Jornet holds the fastest known time for the ascent and descent of Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, Denali and Everest. The Everest performance was disputed in 2019.
In addition, he holds the 24-hour uphill skiing record: 23,864-meters. This achievement was set on 8 February 2019.

Biography

Jornet was born in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain near Barcelona. He grew up in Refugi de Cap de Rec, a mountain hut at 2000 meters in the Pyrenees at the cross-country Lles ski resort in Lles de Cerdanya, where his father was a hut keeper and mountain guide. At the age of three he climbed Tuc de Molières, a three-thousander in the Pyrenees. By the age of five he climbed Aneto, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees, and a year later he climbed his first four-thousander, the Breithorn on the Switzerland - Italy border.
He started ski mountaineering in 1999, and competed for the first time at the La Molina race of the Spanish Cup in 2000. In 2003, he became a junior member of the Spanish national ski mountaineering team, and has raced as a senior since 2007. Jornet studied at the University of Perpignan Via Domitia.
Jornet has been recognised as an elite athlete since 2004 by the Catalan and Spanish sports councils. For his achievements in the "junior" class ski mountaineering team, he won the Catalan sports award in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
In 2005 he set a course record of 2:30:57 for the race to the summit of the Dôme de Neige des Écrins. He was World Champion in the Buff SkyRunner World Series in 2007, 2008 and 2009 becoming the youngest athlete to win this honour.

Personal life

His sister Naila Jornet Burgada and his girlfriend Emelie Forsberg from Sweden also compete in ski mountaineering and skyrunning events.
On 7 September 2013 Jornet and Forsberg had to be rescued by the "Peloton de Gendarmerie de haute montagne" at 3,800 meters of altitude while attempting to climb the north face of the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif, wearing trail running shoes with crampons and a body stocking.
Since February 2016 Jornet and Forsberg are resident in Rauma municipality in Norway.
Jornet and Forsberg have a child, born in March of 2019.

"Summits of My Life" Project

"Summits of My Life" is Kilian Jornet's personal project, in which he is trying to set ascent and descent records for some of the most important mountains on the planet, and culminated with the record attempt on Mount Everest. This project includes:

Mountain running / skyrunning

List of mountains summited: