Killian Jornet on Everest/ Cho Oyu

Saw that Steve House posted an article that Killian Jornet wrote regarding a trip he and another took to climb Everest and Cho Oyu. What I thought was utterly mind-bending is the training hours he's doing in a year and the methods he's using to push speed in mind-bendingly large mountains. Obviously this meathod isn't feasible for 97% of the mountaineering community, but interesting to ponder nonetheless.

Give it a read and lemme know what you think.

https://www.uphillathlete.com/kilian-jornet-everest/

Read Night Naked about Erhard Loretan. He and Jean Troillet went up and down Everest in 43 hours. Yeah it has been done faster but always by the std routes which are already prepared. They did the Japanese / Horbien Col during the off season. And that was 30 years ago. Way more impressive.

wow, that is quite an impressive schedule.  

next level.

On the way down from the summit at around 8300m I have a black hole in my memory for around 30’. I don’t know why, but I left the ridge and my next memory is down climbing a steep rocky wall. I was not very clear in my mind (I was having small hallucinations but I knew they were hallucinations) but I had a hard time knowing if what I was experiencing was a dream or real. After some more technical sections I realized that I didn’t know where I was (1h after leaving the normal route) and I decided to wait for some light to see where I was. I slept there for 1 hour and then I starting thinking clearly again. Looking at my GPS I realized I was in the middle of the north face, close to Norton Couloir, so I traversed and down-climbed to arrive at the Messner crossing to get to the normal route and I continued down to arrive in ABC on the morning of the 28th.

I very impressive set of accomplishments, but the cost (highlighted above) is pretty severe.   Glad it all worked out ok.

Allen Sanderson wrote:

Read Night Naked about Erhard Loretan. He and Jean Troillet went up and down in 43 hours Everest. Yeah it has been done faster but always by the std routes which are already prepared. They did the Japanese / Horbien Col during the off season. And that was 30 years ago. Way more impressive.

I agree that it's more impressive, especially regarding the equipment those guys were using. Those guys also weren't on Kilian Jornet-style training regimens, which possibly makes those feats even more impressive. But I think it's cool to see where modern training methods will take these athletes who have the fitness and technical skills to really push it in big mountains with high consequences. Ueli Steck popularized it in modern times, and now were seeing traditional endurance athletes branch out into this kind of thing. Who knows, maybe some masochistic modern-day Dr. Doom will re-stir the Kool Aid and try to beat the time Loretan and Troillet set 30 years ago. I certainly think its possible to do in the same style.

Oranges to claw hammers...