Kilian Jornet Burgada voted People's Choice Adventurer of the Year

The 26-year-old from Catalonia has dominated the international scene of skyrunning and ski mountaineering competitions and this has been flanked recently by a spate of astounding speed ascents such as the Innominata Ridge and Mont Blanc in less than 5 hours in 2012 and up and down the Matterhorn in less than 3 hours last year. In winning the award Burgada beat a strong field of 12 other candidates that included the Canadian alpinists Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted and the Czech sports climbing champion Adam Ondra.

"I'm very proud of this award," said Jornet. "While I don't run to be admired or to have more followers, it’s truly an honor to be recognized by National Geographic and to know that people voted for me."

NOMINEES 2014
Stacy Bare and Nick Watson - American adventurers and veterans who launched an organization that links veterans to the outdoors and the outdoors community;
Greg Long - American big-wave surfer who won the 2012/13 Big-Wave World Tour, despite nearly losing his life in a massive wipeout a few months earlier;
Amy and Dave Freeman - American adventurers and educators who completed a three-year, 11,647-mile journey across North America by kayak, canoe, dogsled and foot, connecting with students and teachers along the way;
Diana Nyad - Sixty-four-year-old American long-distance swimmer who recently completed a swim between Cuba and the United States, on her fifth attempt;
Kevin Pearce - American snowboarder who, after surviving a traumatic brain injury, launched the “Love Your Brain” campaign to encourage the use of helmets for kids;
Kilian Jornet Burgada - Spanish “skyrunning” ultrarunner whose new brand of running involves blazing up technical terrain such as glaciers, rock ridges and steep snowfields;
Raphael Slawinski and Ian Welsted - Canadian alpinists who were the first to summit Pakistan’s K6 West, one of the last great unclimbed peaks in the world, despite danger and political turmoil in the region;
Adam Ondra - Czech rock climber who takes climbing to new frontiers of difficulty;
JP Auclair - Canadian skier who is best known for his special style of urban skiing;
Sarah Marquis - Swiss hiker who has just completed a three-year trek from Siberia to Australia.

HALL OF FAME
2014 - Kilian Jornet Burgada
2013 - Felix Baumgartner
2012 - Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa and Sano Babu Sunuwar
2011 - Edurne Pasaban
2009 - Dean Potter