Now, you might be wondering: is this an official race? Do they have start lines and bib numbers? No. It’s not like the Olympics. People just show up, see how fast they can go, and then someone with a clipboard verifies it later.
What to know about climbing Mount Everest | National Geographic
It’s all about the “fastest known time” (FKT). Think of it like a video game speedrun, but with frostbite and avalanches. The stakes are a tiny bit higher than missing a warp zone in Super Mario.
Critics will say it’s dangerous. And they’re right. Climbing Everest is already a gamble with death. Doing it at a sprint? That’s like playing Russian roulette but spinning the chamber twice for fun.
What About Full Round Trips?
We’ve been talking just about the climb up. But what about coming back down? That’s where things get really spicy. The record for the fastest overall round trip (climb up and back down) is held by Kami Rita Sherpa, but the speed demon for the full game is Hans Kammerlander.
No, wait. Let me get the exact hero. The fastest full ascent and descent from Base Camp is actually Kilian Jornet, a Spanish ultra-runner who is basically a mountain goat in human form. In 2017, he did it in 26 hours.
Twenty-six hours! That’s one day and two hours to climb and descend the tallest thing on Earth. He didn’t use bottled oxygen, he didn’t use fixed ropes, and he did it alone. He literally jogged down from the summit. Not even a power-walk. A jog.
Most people spend weeks on that mountain, slowly shuffling in oxygen masks. Kilian just… went for a really, really bad weekend hike.
Andrew Ushakov ascends Mt Everest on record fast time « Enewspolar
