The Catalan ski mountaineer and ultra runner, Kilian Jornet, nicknamed "the alien of the trail", has successfully summited Mount Everest (8,848 m) from the Tibetan side without the use of supplemental oxygen or fixed ropes. He climbed the traditional route up the North Face, from Base Camp to the summit, in 26 hours.
He just set a new reference time for the ascent and descent of the highest peak in the world, in a clean style using a light gear. For more info about his expedition click here
Kilian finished his quest "Summits of my life"
Kilian Jornet reached the summit of Everest at midnight of 21st to 22nd May, in a single climb. This was the final stage of his "Summits of my Life" adventure, a personal project of Kilian, started in 2012, in which he dreamt of setting ascent and descent records for the most important mountains on the planet.
Everest, summits of my life
More info about the challenge on Kilian Jornet's blog Summits of my life and Facebook page
Kilian had already tried to attempted Everest in 2016 by the North-Sino-Tibetan slope, but unfortunately, he had to give up, due to bad weather conditions (the summer monsoon).
Last March he got a new permit to climb the Everest, and this time was the right one.
He departed on Saturday 20th May, at around 10 pm, from the base camp on the north side, located at 5,100 meters above sea level, close to the Rongbuck Monastery, His plan was to climb from base camp to the summit and back.
According to Le Dauphine, Kilian set off his clock at Rongbuk Monastery, with more than 3,800 meters of positive gradients to climb, including 30 kilometers of moraine and 2,300 meters at very high altitudes. So, his itinerary was from the Rongbuk monastery to Everest summit, through the traditional route.
Without oxygen and in alpine style, as in his recent ascent of Cho Oyu (8,201 m), Kilian has reached the summit of Everest on the night of May 21 to 22, before returning to the advanced base camp, at 6500 meters, due to a indisposition, which he reports on his blog: “Until I reached 7,700m I felt good and was going according to my planning, but there I started to feel stomach ache, I guess due to stomach virus. From there I have moved slowly and stopping every few steps to recover. However, I made it to the summit at midnight.”
According to Le Dauphine, because of this indisposition, Kilian choosed to conclude the attempt by stopping at his return, and stay in the Advanced Base Camp and not returning to the Rongbuk as he had originally planned. His partner, the cameraman Sébastien Montaz-Rosset, accompanied him up to 7,500 meters, to film the Everest challenge.
One of the keys of his success was acclimatization at very high altitude, which was unknown to Kilian until last year, on his first attempt on Everest.
Watch below the video: Summits of My Life
