Kílian Jornet Burgada

Kílian Jornet (born 27 October 1987) is a Spanish professional long-distance trail runner and ski mountaineer.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest trail runners of all time, he has won some of the most prestigious ultramarathons, including the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc multiple times, Grand Raid, Western States and Hardrock.

Jornet holds the fastest known time speed record for the ascent and descent of major mountains including the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc.

In addition, he holds the 24-hour uphill skiing record: 23,864-meters (78,274 ft).

Jornet was born in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain near Barcelona.

He started ski mountaineering in 1999, and competed for the first time at the La Molina race of the Spanish Cup in 2000.

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 3404 m, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees, and a year later he climbed his first four-thousander, the Breithorn (4164 m) on the Switzerland - Italy border.

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 (Consell Català de l’Esport and Consejo Superior de Deportes).

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 4015 m 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.

His sister Naila Jornet Burgada and his wife 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" (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 and a body stocking.

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

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

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

List of mountains summited: