This Is Why Kilian Jornet Did Not Return Emails Yesterday

So, while you’re warming a chair, carving the brain-pathway triangle from screen to keyboard to couch ever deeper, Catalan runner/climber/skier/mountain man Kilian Jornet was contemplating this line. I think that’s Jornet in the yellow, and steep skiing guide Vivian Bruchez in the blue, with Seb Montaz behind the lens. They’re taking a meeting somewhere above Chamonix in the French Alps.

Jornet, who, ever the gentleman, was seen flossing his teeth with grass after an ultra run aid station, is in the midst of his Summits Of My Life project, in which he hikes/climbs/skis up seven big mountains and gets down again as quickly as possible. Five down, Elbrus and Everest still to go. The above-documented day on the slopes is not part of this specific peak-bagging, but rather part of finding something to do between breakfast and dinner, as enumerated in the 10 values he espouses on his blog. Number 4 is going to rub Crossfit and FIFA folks the wrong way:

4. It’s not about being faster, stronger or bigger. It’s about being ourselves. Walter Bonatti wanted to know the extent to which extreme difficulties justify extreme measures. Humankind has shown that with technology, we can build whatever we set our minds to. But does it make sense? We have to learn to live with less

Anyhoo, just thought I’d post a sphincter-clutching picture to spur some thought on how we spend our days. And why.