NY Times Article on Kilian Jornet

The NY Times continues its habit of providing surprisingly good quality coverage of climbing and mountaineering for a mainstream news outlet, This time, they have an article on spped climber, ultrarunner, and general aerobic freak Kilian Jornet.

nytimes.com/2013/03/24/maga…

What do you think?

I had never heard of the dude, but after reading at least part of the article, the guy seems superhuman. I can't imagine the mileage he does in the time he does with so little fuel along the way.

I'm pretty sure I saw him in the parking lot of Alfalfa's last summer in Boulder, CO. Maybe it was his doppelganger, but that's not nearly as cool of a story.

Some friends recommended the article to me on facebook the other day. It was pretty interesting. The guy seems to be the lucky recipient of an amalgam endurance enhancing genes. I found it a little annoying that the author of the article seemed to have trouble distinguishing between climbing and running. Most discussions of speed ascents of mountains, even technical terrain, were referred to as runs. I could see how when hanging out with your pals you might refer to a rapid ascent of a route or peak as a "run", as in "Dude, did you see Pete over on that 5.12d? He friggen ran up it!"

But, clearly, the author is not using the word in this way. Example:

"...in which runners measure how long it takes to complete geographic challenges — running up and down the Grand Teton in Wyoming.."

Nobody runs to the top of The Grand. They might scramble really, really fast. They might solo 5.4 really, really, fast but they are not running. They are climbing. For whatever reason these little technical errors in the article made me feel as though the author was kind of denying our sport its own achievements by labeling it as something else entirely (i.e running). And because this article was published in a paper with such large readership (many of whom are ignorant of climbing), I felt like it was all the more important that the distinction be made accurate.

Rant concluded.

As a trail runner and a climber, from my perspective, Kilian and Anton ran to the top of the grand. The Owen spading route isn't exactly known as the most technical alpine climb and those guys essentially speed soloed the parts that hit fifth class terrain. If you summarize their effort lets say 2 % was spent climbing and 98% was spent completing it in a fashion befitting most ultra marathon's (power walk the heavy inclines, jog the steeps, run everything else). There's little question that they took a long distance run and mixed in a touch of climbing. It's not a long climb mixed with a little run...

Watch their video and get some perspective:

Kilian and Anton on the Grand

I'm going to have to agree with Ryan on this one. I had never heard of Kilian until recently:

youtube.com/watch?v=QwusaZX…

I suggest you hold your comments until you have watched his movie Summits of My Life. The guy is not human.

If you dont have the movie you should. If not just to witness the extreme athleticism and skill Kilian has but to really get a look at where the future of alpinism is headed. He is accomplishing things no one has ever done in times that are unbelievable all the while changing what light and fast mean.

+1 on the running to the top of peak.
You wouldn't traditionally hear of someone "running" Mt Blanc but when you see the footage of him running from a church in Italy up the longest ridge to the summit of Mont Blanc and down the Vallee Blanche, you might reconsider. The fact that he's carrying an axe and using crampons (might be yaktrax actually) doesn't change a thing: it's running.
There's a video out there of him doing it, it's insane. He blows by a couple of parties of guys fully clad in hardcore mountaineering gear, sliding down on his ass wearing spandex and running shoes and going Mach12.
The dude is a beast monster.

Alright, just watched some YouTube footage of his ascents. Yup, I'd call the Mont Blanc segment a run for sure. He went downhill so fast. I've never seen a human moving so quickly atop glaciers and mountain summits. Awesome. Guess it would have been nice if the NYT article articulated itself a little better. I was not expecting what I saw. Way cool.

Gandhi said "There is more to life than simply increasing its speed."

But he never met Kilian Jornet, did he?