A biography of Kilian Jornet

A biography of Kilian Jornet

Read a biography of mountain runner Kilian Jornet, who climbed Everest in a day, to practise and improve your reading skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

Reading text

When you picture mountain climbers scaling Mount Everest, what probably comes to mind are teams of climbers with Sherpa guides leading them to the summit, equipped with oxygen masks, supplies and tents. And in most cases you'd be right, as 97 per cent of climbers use oxygen to ascend to Everest's summit at 8,850 metres above sea level. The thin air at high altitudes makes most people breathless at 3,500 metres, and the vast majority of climbers use oxygen past 7,000 metres. A typical climbing group will have 8–15 people in it, with an almost equal number of guides, and they'll spend weeks to get to the top after reaching Base Camp.

But ultra-distance and mountain runner Kilian Jornet Burgada ascended the mountain in May 2017 alone, without an oxygen mask or fixed ropes for climbing.

Oh, and he did it in 26 hours.

With food poisoning.

And then, five days later, he did it again, this time in only 17 hours.

Born in 1987, Kilian has been training for Everest his whole life. And that really does mean his whole life, as he grew up 2,000 metres above sea level in the Pyrenees in the ski resort of Lles de Cerdanya in Catalonia, north-eastern Spain. While other children his age were learning to walk, Kilian was on skis. At one and a half years old he did a five-hour hike with his mother, entirely under his own steam. He left his peers even further behind when he climbed his first mountain and competed in his first cross-country ski race at age three. By age seven, he had scaled a 4,000er and, at ten, he did a 42-day crossing of the Pyrenees.

He was 13 when he says he started to take it 'seriously' and trained with the Ski Mountaineering Technical Centre (CTEMC) in Catalonia, entering competitions and working with a coach. At 18, he took over his own ski-mountaineering and trail-running training, with a schedule that only allows a couple of weeks of rest a year. He does as many as 1,140 hours of endurance training a year, plus strength training and technical workouts as well as specific training in the week before a race. For his record-breaking ascent and descent of the Matterhorn, he prepared by climbing the mountain ten times until he knew every detail of it, even including where the sun would be shining at every part of the day.

Sleeping only seven hours a night, Kilian Jornet seems almost superhuman. His resting heartbeat is extremely low at 33 beats per minute, compared with the average man's 60 per minute or an athlete's 40 per minute. He breathes more efficiently than average people too, taking in more oxygen per breath, and he has a much faster recovery time after exercise as his body quickly breaks down lactic acid – the acid in muscles that causes pain after exercise.

All this is thanks to his childhood in the mountains and to genetics, but it is his mental strength that sets him apart. He often sets himself challenges to see how long he can endure difficult conditions in order to truly understand what his body and mind can cope with. For example, he almost gave himself kidney failure after only drinking 3.5 litres of water on a 100km run in temperatures of around 40°C.

It would take a book to list all the races and awards he's won and the mountains he's climbed. And even here, Kilian’s achievements exceed the average person as, somehow, he finds time to record his career on his blog and has written three books, Run or Die, The Invisible Border and Summits of My Life.

Task 1

Task 2

Discussion

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Average: 4.5 (39 votes)

Submitted by Linh Stark on Tue, 01/11/2022 - 00:41

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i really like intensive sports. i usually play football, badminton and swimming. I try to do it everyweek to keep in shape. i play more different sports which help me strengthen different parts on my body. Example, playing football help my leg become more stronger, playing badminton give me a strong wrist, swimming help me developt both leg and hand.

Submitted by tamer_bilir on Sun, 11/09/2022 - 20:53

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In my opinion, as remarked in this text, everything depends so much on exercise. That is why to reach her level we can study every day if we want to achieve this level. Only with a wish, does it not happen. We must leave our comfort zone. Unless leaving your comfort zone, the achievement will not come.

Submitted by Brian O'Donnell on Mon, 22/08/2022 - 15:10

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As for me, I detest extreme sports and so do climbing mountains.

Submitted by AlyonaKrutova on Thu, 18/08/2022 - 07:26

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As for me I`m really proud of people who have achievements in sport! But unfortunately i can`t say the same about myself.
Concerning physical challenges I wanted to practise and increase endurance to get a kind of result. Like I wish be in fit and have slim fit body.
But my problem is that I always find an excuse
I hope one day I `ll be able to find enough strengths to overcome physical challenge and get some achievements !

Submitted by johneliseo on Wed, 15/06/2022 - 13:01

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I really want to strengthen my core muscles so I can perform well in sports that I play. Now that I have just moved to a new country, I am limited to rope skipping as I don't have yet the equipment to perform exercises that can help me achieve my fitness goal.

You don't have to have the equipment to make the core muscles stronger. All you need is a floor and a few chairs (it'd be great to have pull ups bar). But anyways, there are a lot of challenging exercises you can try on your own. Find out more about calisthenics and also you may do a few gymnastic elements.

Just a reminder that there are plenty of bodyweight exercises that you can try to help you achieve your fitness goal. You can definitely strengthen your core muscles without equipment.

Submitted by wafiaaaa on Sun, 12/06/2022 - 20:35

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I would like to workout everyday and be commited to that but I always choose easy exercises and never challenge myself for harder ones and that frustrates me I think I should challenge myself to endure more and to workout harder

Submitted by estefaniec_ on Thu, 28/04/2022 - 01:48

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Honestly, I don't really train physically, but, if I were to train, I'd probably start tu run, and do more exercise, I've always seen those shows where a set of people competes to see who's stronger, so I would like to compete in that type of show someday; so i'd train for that.