KING KILIAN
“It’s full speed, pushing hard all the time like you would in a marathon. But…if you miss a step you die”
After cementing his legacy as arguably the greatest ultra runner of all time – with seven Skyrunning World Championship titles and multiple wins in just about every prestigious ultra marathon – 32-year-old Kilian Jornet proved he’s a dab hand at the art of speed mountaineering. The Catalan, who grew up in a Pyrenean mountain hut at 2,000m altitude, culminated his ‘Summits of My Life’ project – in which he attempted ascent and descent records on some of the world’s most formidable peaks – with a record-breaking climb of Mount Everest (without ropes or bottled oxygen).
We sat down with the king of the mountains – who, by the way, boasts one of the highest VO2 max scores ever recorded – to talk endurance, the environment, and his passion for places on high.
Men’s Fitness: Kilian, your new book, Above the
