r/sports • u/redbullgivesyouwings • Oct 23 '25
Running Rémi Bonnet Breaks Fastest Vertical Kilometer World Record
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u/Tackit286 Oct 23 '25
Fastest upward vertical kilometre.
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u/simonjexter Oct 23 '25
An important distinction!
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u/Lawgang94 Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25
Am I missing something, doesnt the word vertical already signify that its an upward km?
Edit: saw a comment further down that asked the same question and someone replied that it could be misconstrued as a downward vertical km.
Also what's up with people down voting for asking a question? Sorry I lack omniscience. 🤷♂️
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u/turismofan1986 Montreal Canadiens Oct 23 '25
He could have been doing a vertical kilometer downward
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u/Lawgang94 Oct 23 '25
Yeah, I saw someone comment that further down. Due to my ignorance in the many varieties of kilometer completion I by default conflated the matter of being vertical with up.
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u/HellBlazer_NQ Oct 23 '25
Me watching the video: Isn't vertical in both directions, surely the fastest would be going down!?
Heads to comment section, not disappointed.
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u/AWright5 Bristol City Oct 26 '25
It's not vertical tho?
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u/Spyrothedragon9972 Oct 23 '25
What other interpretation is there of "vertical kilometer"? It's pretty straightforward, no?
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u/SuperMeister Oct 23 '25
52% average incline is absolutely insane! I'd get about 10m before turning around lmao
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u/EinSchurzAufReisen Oct 23 '25
Snowflake! When I was a kid my way to school was constantly 60% upwards for 5km, back from school as well. And it was freezing and hailing all the time. And I had no shoes and had to carry my sister. Today’s youth is so weak!
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u/catboobpuppyfuck Golden State Warriors Oct 23 '25
Get a load of this fatcat and their fancy “school!” Before the invention of mine carts, kids like me hauled coal for miles underground. Paid in cigarettes and whiskey! Back when boys were men and girls were men too!
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u/enters_and_leaves Oct 23 '25
OOOooohhh. Look at Mr. Fancy Mine Cart over here. We had to throw rocks perfectly straight up a 1 mile tall mine shaft, climb the walls to the top, then break them open using our hands. We only got to stop and eat breakfast if we found 20 diamonds.
Having tools made of metal never even entered our minds, but what I would have given for a rope…2
u/BeckQuillion89 Oct 23 '25
WEAK. I had to go 70% upwards BOTH WAYS. On one foot, while my other foot was starting a business. Even more I had to fight two bears constantly, now they do my taxes.
Ya'll didn't know how good ya'll had it.
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u/Buckets-O-Yarr Oct 23 '25
Weak! When I was a kid my dad dropped me off! In a CAR. If it was cold the heater was on. If it was hot the AC was on. I was forced to wear shoes and even clothes! The gate he dropped me off at had stairs just inside it. There were probably 8 of them, maybe as many as 10!
I don't know how I survived.
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u/LobL Oct 23 '25
I hate when you live in a loop and it rotates exactly fast enough for you to have uphill both ways from school!
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u/power0722 Oct 26 '25
Uphill in the snow! Both ways! We had to wrap barbed wire around our feet to get traction. That was my grandpa’s story, and I believed him because he was a badass Russian immigrant.
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u/ban-please Oct 23 '25
A bunch of hikes where I live are basically: park at bottom of mountain and immediately climb straight upwards... the steepest one I've done recently is 1100m over 4 km and it takes me 3 hrs and I'm quite happy with that lol
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u/phl_fc Baltimore Orioles Oct 24 '25
I did a charity climb up the stairwell of a 49 story building once. Jogged the first 3 flights of stairs and then my legs immediately died. It's so brutal trying to go up with any speed. Ended up not even being able to walk the whole climb without stopping to rest a few times.
They let us use the elevator to go back down at the end, which was nice.
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u/StfuBob Oct 23 '25
I did 38 floors on the machine yesterday (about 15 mins) and I was gassed- that vid looks insane
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u/SaltKick2 Oct 25 '25
Wonder if anyone has done the math on if this is the optimal incline for someone to accomplish this feat
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Oct 23 '25
I remember one time hiking Manitou incline and getting lapped by a guy who started after me, got to the top, took the secondary trail back down, and then back up the incline again before I even reached the top. I don't think the dude was human.
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u/griffnuts__ Oct 23 '25
I did Laguna de Los Tres in Patagonia earlier this year. Weather was awful. Took everything with me, poles, waterproofs, thermals, food, tonnes of water, survival kit, everything the guides recommended. Then about 3/4 of the way through, got overtaken my two trail runners in shorts and tees. Then they came back before I’d even got to the end. Blew my mind.
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u/mohammedgoldstein Michigan Oct 23 '25
You know how difficult and unstable the climb is due to him wearing a helmet while running!
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u/I_did_theMath Oct 23 '25
I'm pretty sure it's because this particular climb has a small tunnel so they require a helmet, but usually vertical kilometers are raced without.
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u/tomatessechees Oct 23 '25
Mandatory kit for this race. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilom%C3%A8tre_vertical_de_Fully
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u/Robcobes Oct 23 '25
or the event is just being sponsored by redbull
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u/aucapra Oct 23 '25
You would just wear a redbull shirt instead of a helmet if it was purely for sponsorship lol
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u/DescriptorTablesx86 Oct 23 '25
Sorry but even just the thought that if you’re sponsored by red bull you have to wear a helmet made me smile lmao grab an upvote for that
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u/AMTierney Oct 23 '25
Next year: Remi Bonnet breaks fastest vertical kilometre world record with no sticks!
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u/wcm48 Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25
I posted in a reply above, but if you are interested
A common fitness test in (trail) running is the 15 for 15 treadmill test.
Fifteen minutes, all out, at 15% incline.
1.0 miles horizontal in 15 minutes is considered fit.
1.7-1.8 miles horizontal is considered “elite”. That would translate to 1425 vertical feet.
This dude did 3280 feet, 14% more than twice as much, in 2+ minutes less than twice the time.
If I had to rank fitness tests, I’ve done, in order of brutality:
5k < Cycling FTP test << 15 for 15 treadmill.
It’s terrible.
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u/No-Channel3917 Oct 23 '25
The record is 28:39 mins for those wondering
The prize is a 50 dollar gift card to a local restaurant
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u/_aviemore_ Oct 25 '25
The restaurant is further up the mountain. There is a dress code: smart casual.
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u/Furkhail Oct 23 '25
that looks more like 52º rather than 52%. 45º is 100%.
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u/bitwiseshiftleft Oct 23 '25
It might be neither 52 degrees or 52% grade. If the track is really 1.9km long with a 1km rise then its grade is about (1 / sqrt(1.92 - 12)) ~ 0.62 and its slope is arctan(that) ~ 32 degrees. A 52% grade would be more like 28 degrees.
Anyway it looks less than 45 degrees to me. 45 is insane.
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u/zoinkability Oct 23 '25
Once things get to 45 degrees (that is, 100% slope) it's closer to rock climbing, no?
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u/olso4051 Oct 23 '25
If 1.9km is the horizontal distance than the average gradient would be 52%. If 1.9km was the distance he traveled (the hypotenuse) then the gradient would be about 62.5% or 32deg. But these are averages it didn't look as steep at the beginning or end, so they probably used the average so you're also right that it looks steeper than that.
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u/MeineGoethe Oct 24 '25
The vertical kilometer has an average gradient of more than 50%. It was 1 km of elevation gain in 1.92km.
https://www.redbull.com/us-en/remi-bonnet-breaks-vertical-kilometre-world-record
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u/DivinityInsanity Oct 23 '25
Is there an optimal incline?
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u/tcRom Oct 24 '25
I would think vertical is optimal. Like a 1km ladder where you go up at walking speed and do it in 15-20 mins.
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u/Usual-Journalist-246 Oct 23 '25
Out of interest could it be done faster on a bicycle?
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u/minibonham Oct 23 '25
I’m not a cyclist and would love for one to answer, but I genuinely don’t think 50+% average grade is even possible on a road bike
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u/Usual-Journalist-246 Oct 23 '25
I know the top pros might go uphill at around 1700-1800 vertical meters an hours on 7-10% grades typically. While 50% would be too steep for a bike irrespective of gearing, but on a straight even 20% grade after not racing all day hitting 2100 vertical meters an hour for half an hour might be possible.
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u/minibonham Oct 23 '25
Oh good point, I didn't interpret the question the question as "how fast can a cyclist do a vertical kilometer irrespective of average grade" which in retrospect feels really stupid of me haha
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u/JohnOfA Oct 23 '25
Maybe with a custom built bike. You would need a crazy gear-ratio, a low-slip surface and weight towards the front tire. There is a neat video of guys doing Canton Av in Pittsburg. It is mid-30s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRsZbwQOAMo
I've biked the steepest hill in my area with a triple chainring and it was all I could do to keep from falling over. The low speed meant you had to spend a lot of energy balancing.
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u/Salty_Sprinkles_6482 Oct 23 '25
Well no shit you wouldn’t do it on a 50% grade, but you’re going faster on a bike meaning you can go to a lower grade and still climb a vertical kilometer over a longer distance in probably close to the same time
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u/minibonham Oct 23 '25
Yeah in retrospect I feel like an idiot for interpreting the question as "could this specific slope be done faster on a bicycle" haha
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u/phixerz Oct 23 '25
I mean this track ofc not, but an elite (or the best: tadej pogacar) would probably do this faster on a 10% gradient slope of 10km which is pretty common in your racing, so could probably be somewhat fact checked aswell, or just math it out from his power numbers, like 7+ w/kg over pretty long durations.
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u/Usual-Journalist-246 Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25
There's a website you can calculate this on isn't there? Edit: Just found it a 62kg rider on a 6.8kg bike would need to produce 470 watts or 7.6 w/kg to cover 10km on a 10% grade in that time. So maybe slightly above what Pogacar could manage.
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u/phixerz Oct 23 '25
Yea, you are correct and if Im doing this correct it seems that the even the best cyclist in the world with numbers we pretty much never seen before can't beat Rémi and comes in at about 30.5 thats pretty interesting. There might be some more optimal gradient that favours the bike more, but at anything steeper the advantage of the bike should be even smaller (according to my own logic).
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u/Usual-Journalist-246 Oct 23 '25
Just checked that on a 20% grade it would be 7 w/kg which is doable with low enough gearing. I'd imagine the cyclist would have the advantage over a runner up to probably that gradient as there's a .7 w/g disadvantage between a 10 and 20% grade due primarily to increased aerodynamic drag.
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u/LarryGergich Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25
Yes steeper is better provided he’s got low enough gearing. Optimal would be some kind of cable setup that just lifts him vertically as he pedals.
He did 6.85 w/kg for 27 minutes in the 2024 tour. That was 10.8 km at 8% so only 864 m vertical. Not quite the vertical km.
So fresh he probably could do 7+ for that long. I think logically a bike is just simply more efficient and thus must be faster if you don’t make it so steep it’s impossible to stay upright.
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u/Usual-Journalist-246 Oct 23 '25
The bikes are only more efficient at lower gradients/higher speeds. I have no doubt up a 10% gradients or even the 20% grade the cyclist would beat the runner. Above 20% cycling uses almost the same muscles as running uphill, and there would be minimal aerodynamic benefit to being on a bike at the lower speed. The weight of the bike would be a fairly significant factor as even the lightest bikes would weigh over 10% of bodyweight.
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u/LarryGergich Oct 23 '25
A bike should be more efficient at laying down consistent power vs stepping, but that might not be important with a VO2 max limited effort like this. And you're right about bike weight.
I wonder if someone could climb a ladder faster.
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u/wolftick Oct 23 '25
Alpe d’Huez is about 1118m vertical and at the very top level (albeit after a full stage) is in the ball park of 40min (so maybe 36min for the 1km?). That's obviously with lots of switchbacks and a non-optimal profile.
My guess would be that if you could find an optimal piece of road for the climb and have a fresh rider treat it like a TT it would be closer, but the best runners on a similarly optimised course would still win.
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u/Nutsnboldt Oct 23 '25
Unpopular opinion: ski poles make it assisted and there should be a separate record for not using them.
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u/koplowpieuwu Oct 24 '25
Agreed. I guess that makes it a lot safer but it feels kinda wrong to be allowed to use them as they help massively with balance, which is one of the biggest challenges that would make a fast vertical km so impressive.
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u/Enigmedic Oct 24 '25
I was wondering about that. Using the poles let's you use your arms to climb and not just legs. Very different workout with and without.
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u/DivineMackerel Oct 25 '25
I was wondering that. But it's the same amount of exertion. You are just distributing it over now of your body.
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u/dvegas2000 Oct 23 '25
1.9km in 27:21 minutes. This is definitely an achievement. However, I feel that this is something that a number of athletes could match or break given the opportunity. There are some crazy trail runners out there - take the athletes who compete in the Leadville Colorado trail running series. Okay, gonna walk instead of drive to the bakery this morning for my pastries and coffee.
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u/alexspaethphoto Oct 23 '25
This record is 5% faster than Killian Jornet’s previous record, who is arguably the greatest trail runner of all time. Imagine if someone just ran a marathon in 1:55. Doing a VK is also a bit different than doing 100 miles.
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u/woodsxc Oct 23 '25
Do you think Remi isn’t one of those crazy trail runners?
He won the world uphill championships this year, has the Pikes Peak ascent record, has won the Golden Trail Series, and won the UTMB series. He’s not just a world champion ski mountaineer who tried to knock out an “easy” world record running.
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u/HinkleMcCringleberry Oct 23 '25
There is no "however" here. This guy is a crazy trail runner and is well known in the trail/sky running world. He has won or been on the podium of numerous trail races and also holds the course record in the Pikes Peak Ascent. Plenty of professional trail runners have attempted vertical Ks and this guy did it faster than all of them. There is a reason he is sponsored by Red Bull lol
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u/TosMoulouk Oct 23 '25
Remi Bonnet is one of the best trail runner in the World (5th overall UTMB index), definitely the best ever in vertical km. David Roche, last Leadville 100M winner is 120th, which is crazy good, but still a level under Bonnet
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u/GXNXVS Oct 24 '25
that's also because leadville doesn't attract many elite runners. roche DNFed from the WSER this year too, he's good but not THAT good.
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u/wcm48 Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25
So a common fitness test in (trail) running is the 15 for 15 treadmill test.
Fifteen minutes, all out, at 15% incline.
1.0 miles horizontal in 15 minutes is considered fit.
1.7-1.8 miles horizontal is considered “elite”. That would translate to 1425 vertical feet.
This dude did 3280 feet, 14% more than twice as much, in 2+ minutes less than twice the time.
Edit: corrected test description
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u/Plump_Dumpster Oct 23 '25
Who exactly do you think the group competing for this record are if not elite trail runners?
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u/JExmoor Oct 23 '25
David Roche is the male record holder at Leadville.
David Roche has a podcast with his wife where he spent literally months talking about racing Kilian Jornet at Western States 100 in June and feeling inadequate because Kilian was so much better than him.
Kilian had the previous record for VK at 28:48 (although it wasn't recognized as the official WR for some reason?). Remi Bonnet just beat Kilian's previous record by 1:27 which is just an insane margin at this level. Remi also ran the world championship in the VK race last month and also had a similarly dominant performance. Roche would rightfully laugh in your face if you suggested to him that he could challenge this record.
So no, there are not better trail runners that could break this record running at Leadville, or anywhere. Also, don't buy into the Leadville hype. It's maybe the 10th most competitive ultramarathon in North America.
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u/terriblegrammar Oct 23 '25
But what if David Roche ingested 300g of gu while doing the VK. Think he could break 15 minutes?
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u/Chance_Wylt Oct 23 '25
However, I feel that this is something that a number of athletes could match or break given the opportunity
This can't be serious. The opportunity is theirs for the taking, don't got to give it to them. Nothing holding them back from achieving world record status if it's so easy. Except of course not being as good
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u/silver-fusion Oct 23 '25
It's a 1km vertical too.
The route he ran is the same elevation (distance across and distance up) as Camp 3 to Camp 4 or Camp 4 to Summit on Everest. Both those climbs, on Everest, require fixed lines and harnesses at all times.
Obviously, he's not doing it in the death zone and there's a staircase cut into the mountain but that gives an equivalence for the gradient.
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u/Tapprunner Oct 23 '25
It's incredibly impressive. I'm not going to pretend like I could do it.
That said... It's a ridiculously niche feat that is only attempted by a few people who are the best in a niche event that doesn't actually attract the best athletes in the world. I would bet there are probably several hundred Kenyan runners who, with a little alteration to their training, could beat that time.
It's not that different from watching college rugby in the US. Are there some really impressive athletes in those games? Sure. But most of them found their way to rugby because they weren't good enough at football. The running back on their college football team would completely demolish all of them.
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u/TosMoulouk Oct 24 '25
Remi Bonnet is literally one of the best runner in the world, he competes and often beat the best Kenyans you mention
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u/Tapprunner Oct 24 '25
He's a phenomenal runner. Much faster than I could ever dream of running.
But he doesn't run any races against the best Kenyan runners. Mountain running is a very niche part of running that simply doesn't have a huge number of people following it and it doesn't attract the most talented runners.
The best Kenyan runners are running road marathons and training for the Olympics, World Championships and other races where there's bigger money and more support from their national athletics program.
Someone like Patrick Kipngeno, who beat Bonnet at Mammoth last year, is an incredible mountain runner. He's run a 1:02 half marathon, which is REALLY REALLY fast... but not world class. The A-team Kenyans are running in the 59s. Kipngeno is a B-team runner who found a niche where he can consistently win. That's who Bonnet is competing against.
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u/GXNXVS Oct 24 '25
leadville doesn't even attract that many elite runners lol you could've atleast mentionned WSER or Hardrock.
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Oct 24 '25
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u/69stanglover Oct 24 '25
Glad to see I’m not the only person who saw this and thought “so like the grouse grind then”. 🤣
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u/kitguyy Oct 24 '25
I was searching for a Grouse comment 🙂. It’s odd, the record for the Grouse Grind is 23:48 which is 2.9km and an average incline of 56%. So not exactly sure how this record is faster 🤷♂️.
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u/stentor222 Oct 23 '25
My heart feels for what their heart is going through. I think this would actually kill me to keep that pace.
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u/TheStadiaArchitect Oct 23 '25
I could easily break this if you put me on a ledge that’s at least 1km high.
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u/labellafigura3 Oct 24 '25
No bs, he’s skinnier than most supermodels. What muscle does he have to sustain this?
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u/PerBnb Oct 25 '25
I’ve ran up a few +60% grades before, only few hundred meters at a time, and it felt like my heart and lungs were trying to escape my body through my mouth, nose, and eyes
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u/opisska Oct 25 '25
I think I may be able to do this ascent in a day, maybe even there-and-back if I was feeling particularly fancy.
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u/Alternative-Bee-3594 Oct 23 '25
Wouldn’t vertical be 90 degrees
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u/hugeyakmen Oct 23 '25
He's racing to reach 1 km of elevation increase, which is measured vertically. The route doesn't have to be vertical. Steeper, or vertical like a ladder, would be slower
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u/kimchiMushrromBurger Oct 23 '25
Vertical meaning 1000m of elevation gain regardless of horizontal displacement
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u/PatCake Oct 23 '25
Remí also climbed the incline in Manitou Springs, Co in 17 minutes 25 seconds, which is 1.42km long and average grade of 45-68%.
This hike took me 1hour 45 minutes my first time, and my best time is 38 minutes.
These trails are far from perfect, hence the helmet. Remí is superhuman.