Yes & no. They do not run probably much at all above Base Camp on the way up, that's true. However, the pace is insanely faster than most everyone. Kilian's time from BC was around 5:15. His walking pace to do that is probably 3X faster than most people and more than 2X faster than a fast person. Even Fernanda's much slower time of 9:50 to the summit from BC is way faster than most people.herdbull wrote:Similar to Jornet's record "run" in '14 they don't actually run the whole way to the summit. Their pace is actually quite normal on the upper end of this climb.
Interestingly, Bruno Brunod and Jean Pellessier still have the fastest time from BC to the summit of 3:40 (RT in 4:52) in 2000. I don't know why the more recent people have all gone from the park entrance. To me it doesn't make much sense, as the character of the ascent is completely different above and below BC. Coming from the entrance you just add 30+ miles of "easy" trail running. Above BC it's a steep grunt. I think Brunod & Pellessier's accomplishment is the most impressive so far.
To me climbing Aconcagua from Base Camp seemed about the same distance as, say, Longs Peak via the Keyhole, but with 3500' additional gain and starting at the elevation of Longs' summit.
