Karl Egloff Smashes Denali Speed Record
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Move over Kilian Jornet, there’s a new fastest man on Denali. Karl Egloff, the 38-year-old Swiss-Ecuadorian who has been taking down Jornet’s speed records on the Seven Summits one by one, has done it once more. On Thursday, June 20, Egloff climbed Denali in 11 hours 44 minutes roundtrip, base camp (7,200 feet) to base camp, taking 7 hours 40 minutes to reach the summit (20,310 feet) and another 4 hours 4 minutes to get back down.
Egloff smashed Jornet’s previous ascent record, shaving 2 hours 5 minutes off of the Spaniard’s previous record of 9 hours 45 minutes from base camp to summit that he set in 2014. Egloff’s roundtrip time was also faster than Jornet’s (11:45) by a single minute, despite the fact that Jornet descended on skis while Egloff completed the entire climb—up and down—on foot.
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A press release about his new record gives further details: “Karl Egloff chose to ascend through the West Buttress route with a distance of 26.55 km (16.5 miles) and 4060 m of positive elevation gain, and descended through the same route, therefore, setting a completely new record. Egloff left from the base camp located at 2194.5 m (7200 ft) at 7:00am local time. This is his fourth world record achieved within his Seven Summits project.”
Egloff’s other already-established speed records on the Seven Summits are as follows:
Kilimanjaro (5,895 meters) — 6 hours 42 minutes; set in 2014
Aconcagua (6,926 meters) — 11 hours 52 minutes; set in 2015
Mount Elbrus (5,642 meters) — 4 hours 20 minutes, in 2017