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Rewriting What’s Possible in the Mountains

Kilian Jornet wanted to summit 72 of the tallest peaks in the contiguous United States. He gave himself a month to do it.

By Scott Cacciola and K.K. Rebecca Lai

Oct. 21, 2025

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The Beginning

Kilian Jornet was drenched and tired.

Mr. Jornet, 37, was just a few days into an ambitious odyssey, a self-designed project he had named “States of Elevation.” His goal was to link, by foot and by bike, the tallest peaks in the contiguous United States — a series of 70-plus publicly accessible mountains in Colorado, California and Washington known as the “14ers” because they are all 14,000 feet or higher (symbolized on the map as ). He estimated it would take him around a month.

But now, in early September, Mr. Jornet wondered whether he could continue.

It is not often that Mr. Jornet, one of the most accomplished endurance athletes on the planet, seems susceptible to human frailties. In 2017, he reached the summit of Mount Everest twice in one week, without support or supplemental oxygen. In 2023, he climbed the 177 tallest peaks in the Pyrenees in eight days. Last year, he needed just 19 days to tackle the 82 tallest peaks in the Alps.