Above the Clouds: How I Carved My Own Path to the Top of the World

If you’ve only skimmed headlines about Spanish mountain athlete Kilian Jornet, you probably think he’s obsessed with speed. After all, the two-time National Geographic Adventurer of the Year holds the fastest known time for climbing and descending the Matterhorn, Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, Denali, and Everest. He also set a record for skiing nearly eighty thousand feet uphill in twenty-four hours. So, yeah, there’s good reason to think Jornet is single-minded in his pursuits. Yet in his new memoir, Above the Clouds, which revolves around a year on Everest, Jornet says, “I ran fast to live a slow lifestyle.” And, more important than the stoke of setting records, “it is about how a runner or climber sees the mountains.” Endurance athletes will like the book’s insight into training and nutrition, but it’s Jornet’s honest ruminations on the “why” of adventure and the siren song of nature that make this a must-read for any mountain lover.