In the summertime of 2023, Kilian Jornet set off on an eight-day romp throughout the Pyrenees, his dwelling mountain vary alongside the border of Spain and France, climbing 177 peaks over 3,000 meters. He principally self-filmed the hassle, and through the resultant movie, “Into the (Un)Recognized,” viewers get to observe Jornet by the figurative and literal ups and downs of his journey alongside the peaks, and get a glimpse into the headspace of somebody who can solely be thought of one of many best mountain athletes of all time.
The movie could be accessed on the NNormal web site by signing as much as obtain an electronic mail.
Planning the Route
What does it take to plan and execute a visit of this magnitude? What’s his motivation?
To cross the Pyrenees, Jornet adopted an aesthetic line alongside ridges put along with beta from associates, dropping down into the valleys for meals, sleep, resupplying his meals and water, and using a borrowed bike between foot traverses. In hindsight, it may be seen as a prologue, or a check run, for his more moderen and larger Alpine Connections route, the place he set the quickest identified time for climbing all 82 of the 4,000-meter peaks within the Alps in 19 days through the summer season of 2024.
Kilian Jornet throughout his 177-peak traverse of the Pyrenees in Spain and France. All pictures: NNormal/David Ariño
Along with listening to Jornet describe the hassle and his objectives for the journey, the breathtaking surroundings and self-taken video of Jornet scrambling on terrain far out of attain of the common mountain runner supplies a feast for the eyes.
Returning to the Pyrenees
Jornet taking over this mission looks like a pure development in his life. He was born within the Pyrenees and spent his first 12 years dwelling in a mountain hut along with his household. At age 11, his total household accomplished a trek throughout the vary — from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean — in 42 days. But it surely had been a very long time since Jornet had returned to his childhood mountain vary, saying within the movie, “I noticed I couldn’t recall the smells or texture of the rock.”
So, he known as up associates from the world and began planning a route connecting main peaks, with “the great thing about the route being an important.” Jornet goes on to say that planning a visit like this “awakens the creativity; it awakens the search.”
Jornet notes that we reside “in a world the place all the things is understood, the place you could find data … to only go and discover options on the way in which is simply magical.”
Within the movie, after explaining that he did little or no analysis on the precise technicality of the route, he says, “I wished to be shocked, to seek out the flowing tempo, and uncover the mountains, step-by-step.” And that’s exactly what he did, emphasizing that he wished to really feel like he was exploring as a substitute of performing.
Kilian Jornet following a technical ridgeline by the Pyrenees.
Early on within the journey, he contemplates how it might be sooner to drop off one ridge, down into the valley to climb the following peak, however decides to remain excessive as a substitute, saying afterward, “It was sort of an journey itself; getting misplaced, getting pissed off, and following chamois tracks to remain on the ridge.” All through all of it, you get a way that Jornet, age 35 when he undertook this journey, has returned to a seemingly childlike state, with variations of the phrase “Look how cool that is!” uttered often throughout a lot of the self-filmed footage.
Viewers additionally get a glimpse of Jornet when issues don’t go fairly as deliberate. On his fourth time out, on a protracted ridge between the peaks of Lustou and Culfreda, which he didn’t anticipate to be technical and located a rocky ridge as a substitute of what he known as simple “cow summits,” he admits, “I didn’t have a look at the topo[graphic map] for this part, and I believed it was simply going to be simple.” That is adopted by a resigned, “Oh Kilian,” sigh, after which, “Both I’m getting previous, or I began this too drained, or I’m silly. I feel the third one.”
And there are the moments of pure pleasure, the place the 10-time winner of Sierre-Zinal, five-time winner of the Hardrock 100, 11-time winner of the Zegama Marathon, and champion of numerous different races appears fully in his component — excessive within the mountains, shifting deftly over technical terrain.
All through the movie, Jornet takes the time to replicate on returning to his dwelling mountain vary and the modifications he’s seen over his lifetime, returning to locations the place there was snow and ice when he was younger. “I keep in mind these glaciers; I keep in mind these options that don’t exist anymore.”
Núria Burgada, Jornet’s mom, waits for him on his closing summit at dawn, cementing the sense that Jornet, who has traveled the world to run in numerous mountain ranges, has come dwelling for this journey. And as we now know, this was, on some stage, only a gown rehearsal in his dwelling mountains to arrange for one thing even greater and extra bold.
Kilian Jornet rests on the summit of Pico Posets, throughout his 177-peak traverse of the Pyrenees.