"It's crazy," said Hans Troyer, a 25-year-old American athlete who recently became the U.S. champion in the 50-mile race, a roughly 80-kilometer mountain climb. A few weeks ago, Troyer and Chris Myers, two athletes who specialize in summit climbing, greeted Kilian Jornet at the foot of Pikes Peak, a 4,300-meter peak in the Colorado Rockies. The Catalan arrived by bicycle after pedaling for hours. He had just climbed another peak of over 4,200 meters. He arrived, drank water, greeted the two athletes with a laugh, and told them they could get going. Two hours later, they had reached the summit and were on their way down. Afterward, Jornet took a 30-minute nap, woke up, climbed back on his bike, and headed for the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. "It doesn't make any sense to see how he was climbing, at such a high pace, after so many kilometers on the bike. After so many days without resting," Troyer said. At that point, Kilian Jornet wasn't even halfway through his States of Elevation challenge, in which he has climbed all the peaks over 14,000 feet (about 4,000 meters) in the United States, excluding Hawaii and Alaska. The 72 summits were crowned by Jornet in 31 days.

Kilian Jornet has done it again. In one month, the Catalan athlete climbed 72 peaks over 4,200 meters in the United States. A journey dubbed States of Elevation in which he has covered more than 5,145 kilometers entirely on foot and by bicycle, with hardly any rest, surprising the American athletes who accompanied him on his latest adventure. His team had hoped that the Catalan could finish his challenge this Monday or, with luck, on Sunday. But Jornet finished the job two days ahead of schedule with the last of the summits.