William Boffelli sets new FKT on Mont Blanc: 4 hours 43 minutes to summit and back

The 4-hour and 54-minute record set by French alpinist Benjamin Vedrines for the Chamonix-Mont Blanc ascent and descent didn’t last particularly long — just seven days, to be exact. On 31 May, Italy's William Boffelli wrote a new chapter in the history of speed alpinism, establishing an incredible Fastest Known Time (FKT) of 4 hours and 43 minutes.

Boffelli, a 32-year-old ski mountaineer and skyrunner from Bergamo, set off at 5:45 AM from the Chamonix church wearing running shoes, carrying skis, boots on his backpack, and all the necessary mountaineering gear for the classic Grands Mulets route. At around 2,200 meters he switched to ski boots and skis, while after passing the Grand Plateau he strapped on crampons to ascend the ridge. In a breathtaking push he reached the 4,810-meter summit of Mont Blanc at around 9:30 AM. Once at the top, Boffelli removed his skins and launched into a lightning-fast descent down the mountain's north face. The final stretch was completed on foot, sprinting back to the church to complete the round-trip in 4 hours, 43 minutes, and 24 seconds.

This was Boffelli’s first attempt at breaking the record, and he did so via a slightly different route compared to Vedrines after the Grand Plateau: while the Frenchman went left via Le Corridor and Col de la Brenva, the Italian ascended the Vallot route. In lowering the previous record by 11 minutes, Boffelli has edged significantly closer to the psychological barrier of 4 hours and 30 minutes — a feat Vedrines himself had predicted as difficult but possible.