There are few mountain runners who so seamlessly combine the racing aspect of the sport with big mountain adventures like Spain’s Kilian Jornet. Fresh off his third-place finish at the 2025 Western States 100 in June, Jornet will line up for his next adventure in early September, this one linking up the 14,000-foot peaks across the U.S. by foot and bike. He’s calling this mountain tour States of Elevation.
He plans to start at Longs Peak in Colorado and end at Mount Rainier in Washington. While not yet confirmed, it’s fair to speculate that Jornet will attempt all 72 of the 14,000-foot peaks in the lower U.S. as part of the project. There are 58 in Colorado, 12 in California, and two in Washington. The project is a big departure from the net-downhill speedfest of Western States but a natural progression from Jornet’s other recent mountain ventures.
Kilian Jornet, one of the greatest mountain athletes of all time, is back at it with a new mountain project in the U.S., called States of Elevation. Photo: Julien Rason
This isn’t Jornet’s first human-powered mountain linkup. Last summer, he linked all 82 of the 4,000-meter peaks in the Alps by foot and by bike, a 1,207-kilometer (750 miles) adventure he called Alpine Connections and said it “was, without any doubt, the most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life, mentally, physically, and technically, but also maybe the most beautiful.”
He also completed an eight-day traverse of the Pyrenees in 2023, climbing 177 peaks over 3,000 meters, where he said that in the planning, it was “the beauty of the route being the most important.”
Jornet is also well-known for his Summits of My Life project, where he climbed the highest peak on each continent, including summiting Mount Everest twice in the span of a week.
Jornet’s skillset includes moving light and fast in technical mountain terrain. Photo: David Arino
He says of this new projects, “What I experienced in the Pyrenees and the Alps motivated me to keep exploring this dimension of long traverses with a strong physical, cognitive, and creative component. It’s definitely a continuation in that sense. With the excuse of linking the 14ers, it’s also about exploring the American West — the vastness of the terrain and the cultures that have lived and continue to live there, as well as a nature that is often wild and incredibly diverse, ranging from alpine areas to dense forests and deserts.”
Jornet is no stranger to big mountain adventures. Photo: Matti Bernitz
In addition to all of his mountain adventures, Jornet is probably best known in the running world for winning UTMB four times, the Hardrock 100 five times, Western States 100 in 2011, and the Zegama Marathon 11 times, amongst a host of other results.
Jornet’s unique human-powered approach to these types of trips is designed to forge a deeper connection with the area, its culture, and its wilderness. Jornet has long been a proponent of sustainability in the sport of running, and this approach seems an extension of trying to minimize his impact on an area that he moves through.
Jornet’s 2024 Alpine Connections project was another of his human-powered mountain adventures. Photo: Nick Danielson
Call for Comments
- Have you followed along with any of Kilian Jornet’s previous big mountain link-ups?
- Are there any other mountain running athletes doing similar projects you are following?
