Kilian Jornet and Emelie Forsberg from the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix Saturday after the weather deteriorated. Jornet posted a detailed explanation of what went wrong:
I was making a run to the north face of the Aiguille de Midi, the Frendo spur track, one that I had previously done very light. It was a good time to leave well before the bad weather and we had climbing equipment (ice and rock) necessary. I was short-sighted to think that there would be warmer temperatures and not to take more jackets. In the last rocky ledge we lost a lot of time taking the wrong route. At 50 meters from the summit of the Aiguille de Midi, the weather degenerated quickly and continued to do so, it could haven endangered myself and company. I decided to call the PGHM. It is the PGHM who got us to the top of the Needle, no more worries, we were a little cold.
While Jornet has pioneered a hybrid running and climbing approach to mountaineering and set records in the process, he’s taken heat for his fast-and-light approach. “Mountain practice must be undertaken with adequate equipment so that you can face bad weather. I’m very angry when I see the continued rise of sneakers despite our requests,” Jean-Louis Verdier, the guide and assistant in charge of mountain security,
In a post, Forsberg reiterated Jornet’s account and added that deciding to call for the rescue team was a tough choice, but that she “became so cold and I couldn’t focus my thoughts very will (sic). I was stressed and felt captured.”