Kílian Jornet Burgada

Cap de Rec mountain hut where Jornet grew up.

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.[3] At the age of three he climbed Tuc de Molières, a three-thousander in the Pyrenees. By the age of five he climbed Aneto 3,404 m (11,168 ft), the highest mountain in the Pyrenees, and a year later he climbed his first four-thousander, the Breithorn (4,164 m (13,661 ft)) on the Switzerland - Italy border.[8]

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.[9]

Jornet has been recognised as an elite athlete since 2004[10] by the Catalan and Spanish sports councils (Consell Català de l’Esport and Consejo Superior de Deportes).[11] For his achievements in the "junior" class ski mountaineering team, he won the Catalan sports award (Premi d’honor d’esport català) in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

In 2005 he set a course record of 2:30:57 for the race to the 4,015-metre (13,173 ft) summit of the Dôme de Neige des Écrins.[12] He was World Champion in the Buff SkyRunner World Series in 2007,[10] 2008 and 2009[13] becoming the youngest athlete to win this honour.[10]

His sister Naila Jornet Burgada and his wife Emelie Forsberg from Sweden also compete in ski mountaineering and skyrunning events.[14]

On 7 September 2013 Jornet and Forsberg had to be rescued by the "Peloton de Gendarmerie de haute montagne" (PGHM, alpine rescue squad) at 3,800 meters of altitude (ésperon Frendo) while attempting to climb the north face of the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif, wearing trail running shoes with crampons[15] and a body stocking.

Since February 2016 Jornet and Forsberg have been living in Rauma, Norway.[16]

Jornet and Forsberg have two children, born in March 2019 and April 2021.[17]

Jornet climbed Everest twice in 2017 without the use of supplemental oxgen.

Summits of My Life was a project, trying to set ascent and descent records for some of the world's major mountains:

• Kilimanjaro 5,895 m (19,341 ft). On 29 September 2010, Jornet ascended and descended Kilimanjaro in a record time of 7 hours, 14 minutes. This record was broken on 13 August 2014, when the Ecuadorian mountain guide Karl Egloff ran up and down in 6 hours and 42 minutes.[18]
• Mont Blanc traverse, 4,810 m (15,780 ft). In September 2012, Jornet completed the Innominata, a route linking Courmayeur and Chamonix, in 8 hours and 42 minutes.[19] A previous attempt at ski crossing the Mont Blanc massif from Les Contamines to Champex in June 2012 resulted in the death of the French mountaineer Stéphane Brosse when a snow cornice collapsed under him.[20][21][22]
• Mont Blanc. In July 2013, Jornet achieved the fastest known time for the ascent and descent from Chamonix in 4 hours and 57 minutes.[23][24]
• Matterhorn, 4,478 m (14,692 ft). In August 2013, Jornet achieved the fastest known time for the ascent and descent from Breuil-Cervinia in 2 hours and 52 minutes.[25] He improved the previous fastest known time set by Bruno Brunod in 1995 by more than 20 minutes. He started climbing up the 4,478 m (14,692 ft) peak during mid-afternoon local time, reaching the summit in 1 hour 56 minutes via the Lion Ridge from the Italian side.[26]
• Denali, 6,168 m (20,236 ft). In June 2014 Jornet completed the fastest known time for the ascent and descent with a time of 11 hours and 48 minutes using both skis and crampons, breaking the previous record by 5 hours and 6 minutes.[27][28] Karl Eggloff broke this record by running up and down Denali in 11 hours 44 minutes, on 20 June 2019. Eggloff did not use skis during the descent.
• Aconcagua, 6,960 m (22,830 ft). In December 2014 Jornet set a record for climbing and descending Aconcagua from Horcones (the nearest road, at Puente del Inca) and back, in 12 hours and 49 minutes. Jornet's record was broken in February 2015, again by Karl Egloff, who completed the route in 11 hours and 52 minutes.[29]
• Elbrus, 5,642 m (18,510 ft). Jornet made an attempt in 2013 to set the fastest known time for the ascent and descent from Azau but was forced to turn back by bad weather.[30] The fastest known time for the ascent is 3:23:37 set in 2010 by Andrzej Bargiel, while the record time for ascent and descent is 4:20:45, set on 7 May 2017 by Karl Egloff.[31][32][33]
• Mount Everest, 8,848 m (29,029 ft). Jornet summited Mount Everest at midnight (local time) on 22 May 2017. Climbing without supplemental oxygen,[34] he reached the top in 26 hours from base camp. On 27 May he reached the summit again from advanced base camp in 17 hours, about 15–20 minutes slower than the records from this camp set by Hans Kammerlander and Christian Stangl in 1996 and 2006, respectively.[35] There is controversy about both of Jornet's Everest summit-claims and record-claims.[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]

The Matterhorn

List of mountains summited:

• Mont Blanc, 2012[19]
• Matterhorn, August 2013[25]
• Denali, 2014[28]
• Aconcagua, December 2014[29]
• Cho Oyu, 2017[63]
• Mount Everest (twice), 2017[64]

• Summits of my life – A Fine Line (2012) was presented in the Palau de la Música Catalana de Barcelona and shows Jornet accompanied by his mother, sister, his first trainer, and his friends, like Stéphane Brosse, Mireia Miró Varela, Vivian Bruchez, Mattéo Jacquemoud, Jordi Tosas and Anna Frost.[65]
• Summits of my life - Déjame Vivir (2014) was released online in 2014. It shows Jornets activities during 2013, the Mont Blanc running record in July, his speed record on the Matterhorn in August and his run on Mount Elbrus in mid-September.[66]
• Summits of my life - Langtang (2015)
• Summits of my life - Path to Everest (2018)

• Jornet, Kílian (2011). Run or Die. Velo Press. ISBN 978-1937715090.
• Jornet, Kílian (2013). The invisible border.

• Official website
• Kilian Jornet at Skimountaineering.org