‘In the end, I had to really fight and push through. The tour demanded everything from me physically and mentally. I'm exhausted but over the moon. Simply an indescribable day for me.’ – Andy Steindl
The Spaghetti Tour is a tough and famed route which knocks off 18 Italian and Swiss peaks and demands a whopping 4,423m of ascent. It's around 30km of high altitude alpine traversal, and most normal people take like 5 days to complete it. However, some mountaineers are simply built different.
Not only did Andy Steindl just set a new world record for completing the infamous Spaghetti Tour, he also blew the previous FKT (fastest known time) out of the water. Additionally, this isn't even the first time Steindl has held the record for this route! He completed the tour back in 2015, setting the then-record at 14 hours and 35 minutes. Now, almost a decade later, he's literally halved that time.
Steindl completed the tour in 7 hours, 45 minutes, and 44 seconds. This is a wildly good time which we don't expect to be beaten for a while (though with mountaineering records, you truly never know when someone's going to pull a superhuman performance out of the bag). The previous record holder, French mountaineer Benjamin Védrines, completed the tour in 9 hours and 18 minutes. It's safe to say, Steindl's thrashed him here.
Apparently the conditions were about as ideal as they can get for snowy 4000m peaks, and Steindl was feeling good at the start line, the Monte Rosa Hut which sits at 2882m. He set off in the cold blue light of 2:40am and ascended to the first of 18 summits – the Nordend (4,604m) – in just under 2 hours.
'My mind was completely focussed, the tactics were right and I was really in the flow for the first few hours. When I looked at the clock, I could hardly believe that I was really that fast,’ reported Steindl after his victorious run. He made it to the finish line by 10:31am.
Everything just fell into place perfectly today.
Some background on Andy Steindl: this guy has always been a preternatural mountain-loving maniac, having first summited the Matterhorn at the ripe old age of 14. Now 35, Steindl is constantly hunting records and pushing his capabilities when it comes to speed in the mountains. He's an official DYNAFIT athlete and he's employed their gear impressively across multiple mountainous missions – from snowy skyruns to spectacular speed climbs.
He set the speed record on Mont Blanc in 2019 with Italian François Cazzanelli, heading up via the Peutérey Integral ridge and returning in just under 16 hours. Stein also set the record on the Matterhorn, his home mountain, which he run up and down again in just 3 hours and 59 minutes.
This latest achievement is certainly his most impressive. Keep your eyes peeled for the next nutter to take on the Spaghetti Tour. We wish them a hell of a lot of luck.
Key Data
Total time: 7:45:44
Kilometres: 30.28 km
Metres in altitude (ascent): 4,423 m
Start: Monte Rosa Hut, Zermatt (2,882 m)
Finish: Klein Matterhorn mountain station, Zermatt (3,817 m)
Conquered peaks over 4,000 m: Nordend (4,608 m), Dufourspitze (4,634 m), Zumsteinspitze (4,563 m, Signalkuppe (4,554 m), Parrotspitze (4,432 m), Ludwigshöhe ( 4,341 m), Corno Nero (4,322 m), Vincentpyramide (4,215 m), Punta Giordani (4,046 m), Liskamm Ostgipfel (4. 527 m), Liskamm West summit (4,479 m), Castor (4,228 m), Pollux (4,092 m), Roccia Nera ( 4,073 m), Breithorn Zwilling Ost (4,139 m), Breithorn Zwilling West (4,160 m), Breithorn Mittelgipfel (4,159 m), Breithorn Hauptgipfel (4,164 m)
