He is one of those who always push the limits of the thinkable a little further. To celebrate the approach of his 40th birthday, the French Ultra-trail champion François D’Haene treated himself to a week of ski touring for a final result of more than 40,000 m of positive altitude difference.
It was through his social networks and his Instagram account that François D’Haene, four-time winner of the Ultra-trail du Mont-Blanc, revealed to his fans the crazy challenge he had just completed: “Everyone talks about the difficult transition from quarantine so I wanted to test it in my own way! », he explains in the preamble.
As he approaches his fortieth birthday, which he celebrated on Wednesday December 24, the ultra-trailer felt inspired and therefore decided to try during “the week preceding my birthday”, to swallow up “40,000 meters of positive altitude gain”. A challenge that he considers to be “certainly not the smartest” project of my life, but we won’t do it again. Especially at 40. »
Mission accomplished
Winner of the Tor des Géants in 2024, François D’Haene returned to his preparation conditions for this challenge in his Instagram publication, explaining in passing: “I hadn’t been out much in mountain endurance for three and a half months to work as seriously as possible on my small compensations”. Specific training which even more pushed the now 40-year-old athlete to take on this challenge: “The desire to play outside was increased tenfold! After presenting the “project” to the staff and those around me, I felt that a small window opened before me! Like a little early Christmas present. So I headed towards this beautiful week of vacation! »
And, it was in the Beaufortain massif, equipped with ski touring, his Strava account to record his feat, and accompanied by his team, that François D’Haene succeeded in achieving his objective. Between Monday 15 and Sunday 21 December, the native of Lille therefore enjoyed 346.49 km of outings in the countryside, all done in 69 hours and 52 minutes, for a total of 40,141 m of positive altitude difference. A totally remarkable performance for the man who won the Transylvania 100 last May.
