Kilian Jornet is already one of the world’s most legendary endurance athletes — and how he’s proving it all over again.
The Spanish phenom is more than halfway through his latest project, called “States of Elevation.” He’s aiming to summit every peak in the contiguous U.S. over 14,000 feet, and also using only human power (cycling and running) to connect them.
He’s already summited 56 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks in just over 2 weeks. Then he hopped on a bike and cycled nearly 900 miles across the desert Southwest to reach California, where he started ticking off the highest mountains in that state as well. Along the way to finishing his larger project, Jornet just set another fastest known time (FKT) on Norman’s 13, one of the Sierra Nevada’s most rigorous alpine linkups.
Norman’s 13 links together 13 summits above 14,000 feet along 101 miles of trails. Though the record has yet to be certified, it looks like Jornet has surpassed the previous FKT for the alpine linkup, wrapping it up in an incredible 56 hours, 11 minutes, and 4 seconds.
And he didn’t just surpass it — he absolutely crushed it. The previous FKT for this elite-level linkup was set by Jason Hardrath in 2022. He connected all 13 of the route’s summits in a little over 3 days and 2 hours. That means Jornet has likely shaved a little over 19 hours off the previous record. In the competitive world of endurance sports, that is, to put it mildly, nuts.
States of Elevation Project
Earlier this year, Jornet announced that he plans to start at Longs Peak in Colorado in early September and end at Mount Rainier in Washington. Jornet will attempt to summit all 72 of these 14ers as part of the project as well. There are 58 in Colorado, 12 in California, and two in Washington. Jornet plans to ascend them all as part of States of Elevation.
So that 900-mile bike ride Jornet did before starting on Norman’s 13? Yeah, that was just part of the larger project, and not even related to the FKT he set afterward in California. He rode for five straight days from Colorado to California, averaging 175 miles and 14 hours in the saddle each day.
Then he tackled Norman’s 13, which is California’s answer to Colorado’s Nolan’s 14, a now iconic linkup of 14 of that state’s biggest mountains.
But back to the insanity of Norman’s 13. This linkup in the Sierra Nevada includes 13 summits over 14,000 feet. As Jornet’s team explains on his Instagram post about the FKT, there are two clusters of mountains linked by a stretch of the wild John Muir Trail. There’s also a whole lot of wilderness in between them.
According to FKT, Norman’s 13 is also much more technical than its Colorado cousin.
“Unlike its quasi-namesake — which demands a willingness to bushwhack but no technical climbing skills — the California version entails low-fifth-class scrambling on jutting granite ridges,” according to the FKT route description. In total, the route entails about 100 miles of total distance, about 39,000 feet of elevation gain.
So, will Jornet finish the States of Elevation project as planned? Well, he’s already moved on to the next phase of the project: White Mountain. When it comes to Jornet, we’re not about to bet against him.
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