On Saturday 31 May 2025, the Italian, William Boffelli broke the record for the round trip between Chamonix and the summit of Mont Blanc by setting an incredible time of 4 hours 43 minutes and 24 seconds.
Leaving Chamonix at 5:45 a.m. in the cool down air, William Boffelli set out with a pair of skis strapped to his back. When he reached the snow line at about 2,200 meters of altitude, he swapped his running shoes for his ski boots and crampons. In ski mountaineer mode, William progressed with lung-busting speed to reach the summit of the Mont-Blanc at about 09:30 am. where he removed the crampons and clipped into his skis and started the descent that soon reached a hair-raising speed.
The ascent is really hard work, the descent is a serious threat to life; navigating around and between huge seracs avoiding deep and fatal crevasses until reaching the snow limit, reverting to running shoes where his descent continued, at first over rough ground to the treeline, avoiding the long and winding paths, he took many a perilous direct line, until reaching the roads of the valley and the final gentle but deceptively painful incline to the church.
From an altitude of 4,800m to 1,050 in about 60 minutes, William arrived at the church in the centre of Chamonix just 4 hours 43 minutes and 24 seconds after departing.
We might expect this record time to stand for years. But maybe not?
The last ski assisted record time of 4 hours 51 minutes and 43 seconds, was set by the Frenchman Benjamin Védrines.... the previous Saturday. Benjamin's record time stood for just one week!
William set a time 11 minutes and 17 seconds faster than Benjamin.
These mountain speed merchants need more than incredible skill, fitness and stamina, it seems like they have to have a really crazy sense of humour!
Some fun facts. The fastest unassisted ascent and descent of Mont-Blanc was set by Kilian Jounet on 11 June 2013 with a time of 4 hours, 57 minutes and 44 seconds. Kilian broke the long-standing record that was set on 21 July 1990 by the Swiss Pierre-André Gobet with a time of 5 hours and 11 minutes.
Read all about it!
Le Dauphiné (with a bit of help from chamonix.net)
