He has been called the greatest trail runner of his generation but each summit Kilian Jornet climbs is a lesson on respect and humility, writes Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan
Kilian Jornet Burgada may have scaled mountains we have only seen on postcards, but there is nothing mighty or imposing about his presence.
Shy, with a gentle demeanor that belies his superhuman achievements, the champion ski mountaineer and trail runner is the epitome of humility in person.
He doesn’t speak about conquering summits or breaking records. Instead, he talks about the emotional fulfilment of a climb and the peacefulness and freedom one can only feel at the top of a mountain.
“The mountain is a comfortable place for me.... just me and the spectacular view,” he says.
Often cited as the greatest trail runner of his generation, Jornet, 27, was named last year’s Adventurer Of The Year by National Geographic. The Catalonian still holds the speed record for Mount Kilimanjaro (Africa’s highest peak at 5,900m), 37km in 5 hours 23 minutes, in 2010.
When he was 20, he broke the world record in the Ultra Trail du Montblanc, one of the most prestigious races in the field.
Last year, he bagged a hattrick, Skyrunning World Cup, Ultra-Running and Vertical Kilometre. He is unbeatable at a distance up to 322km.
Jornet and his affinity for mountains go back to his childhood in Cap de Rec. His family lived in a mountain hut, at 2,000m above sea level. His father was a hut keeper and mountain guide.
When he was 3, he climbed Tuc de Molieres in the Pyrenees and two years later, Aneto, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees.
“I grew up in the mountains, so it was a natural activity for us. You get out the door, there are mountains and you climb them. During school holidays, that’s what I did,” he says.
By the time Jornet was 13, he started mountain skiing and in 2003, he became a junior member of the Spanish national ski mountaineering team.
In 2004, he was recognised as an elite athlete and from 2005, he won countless mountain running championships and has broken many time records.
HUMBLING ADVENTURE
Casually dressed in a blue shirt and grey wool sweater with indigo straight-cut jeans, Jornet tells me that the more mountains he climbs, the more lessons about humility he learns.
Just this summer, he says, he was climbing in the Alps. Ice was melting along the way and there was a rock avalanche, with some boulders as big as houses.
“You cannot control nature. You have to respect it and when you do, it will look after you,” he says.
He gets philosophical about his runs, almost meditative. He talks about mountains like they are the love of his life, an unshakable emotional and physical connection that he cannot live without.
One gets that skyrunning or vertical race isn’t a sport for this champion endurance racer. It’s his lifeline and blood.
Once, he tried to do “what normal people do” and, with his girlfriend, ski mountaineer Emelie Forsberg, headed for the beach in sunny Mauritius during a two-week break from his running calendar.
“We told ourselves that maybe we should go someplace different. But by the second day, we decided to go somewhere we could ski,” he says.
“Some people are at home on the beach, others in the forest. I belong in the mountains.”
There is a photo on his Facebook page that contrasted heavy traffic in London, and him smiling on a snowcapped summit hours later that captures the happiness he feels in the wilderness.
“I am just not a city person,” he says. “I don’t get lost in the mountains, but I can easily lose my way in a mall.”
FEAR, FACTORED
A typical day for Jornet starts early morning with a two to six-hour run, followed by an hour of training in the afternoon. He is used to subsist on berries and drink from streams while completing long distances.
He completes 1,200 hours of running yearly, running a race almost every week. “I don’t segregate training and racing. Any race is a training for the next one,” he says, adding that fear is a big factor in his journey. In the beginning, he fears for himself: “Will I be able to hold on to a rock, how do I watch my step?”
But as his expertise and humility for the outdoors grow, the element of fear changed.
“The fear now is more about navigating the mountains, the avalanches, the weather, the state of the snow. You have to be really humble and you have to know what you can and cannot do,” he says.
“Fear allows you some sense of respect for yourself and for the mountains. You need to know when to stop or call for help.”
He has seen the effects of global warming. The glaciers near his house have reduced at an unprecedented rate. “I see the same in Nepal too,” he says.
“I can feel that it’s getting warmer and the climate is less stable than before.”
But the conditions are not unpredictable, he says. “You need to spend time and study the weather system and get all the information that you can get. You cannot think that you know too much,” he says.
Jornet is also a six-time champion of the Mount Kinabalu Climbathon, the last being in 2012. But he doesn’t participate in the event anymore. The route has been changed and is less challenging, so Jornet admits that he and other elite athletes are skipping this for tougher ones.
“But that is one of the most beautiful races I have run. You start in the jungle and you reach the rocks and then you get to the summit. It’s really breathtaking,” he says.
Wherever he travels, he says, the mountains always call him back. He belongs there.
“I will run in the mountains until I cannot run anymore. When I cannot run, then I will walk. When I cannot walk, then I will look,” he says.