Kilian Jornet Fights Mountain Race Overcrowding

- The rapid expansion of mountain running has seen participation grow by 231% in the last decade, leading to larger-scale events in sensitive environments. - Jornet's "Green Trail Concept" is a European initiative co-financed by the European Union's Erasmus+ program. It aims to create a sustainability certification for races based on environmental, social, and economic impacts. - The certification tool for the "Green Trail Concept" will be an interactive platform for organizers to input data on their event's performance across the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic. - Scientific studies have quantified the environmental damage from trail races; one study in a Hong Kong protected area found that a single race caused significant initial trail degradation, and while some aspects recovered within six months, negative effects like soil coarsening persisted or worsened. - Research shows that foot traffic on race day can significantly amplify ecological damage, with one study measuring a trail widening from 40.7 cm to 50 cm and the trail's depth increasing from 2.8 cm to 4.6 cm after a single event. - The Kilian Jornet Foundation, which leads the certification initiative, also partners with organizations like the World Glacier Mountaineering Service to study the retreat of glaciers and supports direct action projects like "Restore the Trails." - Jornet's athletic footwear and apparel brand, NNormal, was created in partnership with the footwear company Camper and contributes 1% of its annual revenue to environmental causes through the "1% for the Planet" organization. - The sustainability certification developed through the "Green Trail Concept" will provide race organizers with personalized guidelines to improve their environmental and social impact, regardless of the score they initially receive.