What’s Next for Hillary After Skyrunning?

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Hillary Gerardi is one of the world’s great badass mountain runners. 

A friend to all of us at Run the Alps, Hillary lives here in the Chamonix valley and frequently drops in on Run the Alps trips. She works part time for Run the Alps as the Environment & Climate Projects Manager, supervising that corner of our Net Positive work. 

Originally from St Johnsbury, Vermont, she has lived in France since 2011. She moved to Chamonix valley with her husband, alpine scientist and mountain guide Brad Carlson, in 2015. They live in the village of Servoz with their cat Kima.

Hillary began competing in the Skyrunning World Series in 2017, a global circuit of steep, highly technical races. Skyrunning requires both mountaineering skills to navigate rugged terrain along with the speed and endurance of trail running. She has become well known in the series, securing a long list of impressive victories, including three wins plus the women’s course record at Trofeo Kima, one of the series’ most demanding races.

It was on June 17, 2023, however, that Hillary grabbed the attention of the outdoors world. Over the course of 7 hours and 25 minutes, she ran and climbed from the St Michel Church in Chamonix to the summit of Mont Blanc, and in doing so grabbed one of the world’s most coveted speed records. 

The historic moment was documented by Davina and Seb Montaz-Rosset in the film, “Always Alive.” Always Alive is currently making the rounds at mountain film festivals. (Watch the trailer here.) 

These days, it’s not an overstatement to say that she is a celebrity in France’s outdoors circles. The film was recently shown as part of the Montagne en Scene festival to six sold out shows in Paris in the 3,000 seat Rex Theater. 

Now, after years of Skyrunning, Hillary’s making a big change– she’s moving on. What’s next for this Black Diamond-sponsored mountain athlete? Run the Alps’ Doug Mayer has been profiling Hillary since 2017, for a variety of magazines and web sites. He recently sat down with her at Galerie Café, one of Run the Alps’ favorite cafes in Chamonix, to talk about the future. 

Doug: Skyrunning announced in a major article that you retired! Retirement’s a pretty heavy duty word. 

Hillary: I think that caused some confusion. I’m not retiring from running. I’m retiring from the Skyrunning circuit. I’ve been taking part in Skyraces since 2017 and I’m ready to move on, to do something else. Something in a different format. 

When I spoke with Skyrunning, I didn’t think about it as retiring or as a big deal. I told them I thought it was going to be the last time I ran in the series. Their response was, “Oh, you’re retiring! You’re leaving!”

Doug: Well, you have to admit… It kind of does seem like the end of an era!

Hillary: Totally. It’s a little bit sad. But, doors close and doors open, right? 

Doug: Let’s tackle the obvious question first. 

Hillary: Let me guess. “What’s next for Hillary Gerardi?”

Doug: You said it, not me!

Hillary: First of all, this winter I hope we get enough snow because my biggest goal is to learn to do a back flip on skis!

Then, as a relatively newly minted French citizen, I want to do the French Trail Running Championship in Val d’Isère, in the long distance category.  And, if that goes well, I want to try to qualify for the world championships in Canfranc in the Pyrenees. And, for a surprising turn of events for people who know me as an American, I want to try to qualify for France.

Doug: I can’t imagine you not doing big mountain projects, though. 

Hillary: Oh, I’m certainly still interested in mountain projects. I’m kind of waiting for inspiration. There are a few projects that I’ve thought I’d love to do. And I’m always open to suggestions. My hope is that, through training for longer distances, I will be able to spend more time in the mountains. I want to run from hut-to-hut and do some bivouac-to-bivouac routes. I want to get out next summer and do big, long days. I’d like to do a lot of fast packing too. I would like to combine summits with Skyrunning-type terrain. 

There are opportunities all over the place. 

Doug; You’re in a transition moment.
Hillary: Yes. But, at the same time, since I finished my season, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to think. It’s what happens this time of year. The racing season is behind us. But there’s still a lot going on. 

Doug: Well, it’s not like you’re known for having grass grow under your feet, Gerardi! Tell us about right now. I can barely keep track of you. Just a few weeks ago, you were co-presenting the new Trail Running Awards event.   

Hillary: Besides presenting at the Trail Running Awards by Mile & Stone, I took the train up to the Kendal Mountain Festival in the English Lakes District, too. Mostly, I’ve been spending a lot of time traveling around Europe, speaking at the Montagne en Scène (“Mountains on Stage”) film festival for Always Alive. 

People in the audience are generous with their energy and enthusiasm, and that in turn brings me a lot of energy. But, it can also take a lot out of me. There’s a term in French, énergivore. It means something that eats your energy. I flip a switch to fully turn on at the event, and afterwards, it’s hard to turn it off. I end up pretty wiped out. 

Doug: What has it been like to share the film of your Mont Blanc record? 

Hillary: It’s really cool. Getting to show my film and then talk about it with an audience means that I get to keep savoring the experience— which reminds me of a blog post I wrote for Run the Alps about savoring our experiences. I’m almost a year and a half out from the record, but I get to keep reliving it nearly every night. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to share that moment with people who are seeing it for the first time. 

At one of the events, someone asked me at what point I realized that I had set a world record – that I’m in the history books. I honestly told them, “I’m still working on that! I know I achieved something that was really meaningful for me, but I don’t necessarily remember that it’s a big deal to anyone else.” But I can pinpoint the moment when I realized that I might actually get the record. 

Doug: When was that? 

Hillary: On the way up, I realized I was way ahead of schedule. But, that’s a bit like a race. You could be leading in the first half, but so much can happen in the second half of a race. 

It was on the way down that I really realized I might break the record. I knew about how much time it might take me to get down. I thought to myself, “I got this – as long as I don’t mess anything up!”

But, I knew that it wasn’t over until I reached the church. I had the notion that I might make it when I started the descent, but it was only real when I reached église Saint-Michel.

Doug: I’m really bummed I missed seeing you finish. In the photos, I could see such a quick succession of emotions when you touched the church: exhilaration, exhaustion, some tears. That inner succession of thoughts was right there on your face.

Hillary: One of the things the filmmaker captured really well was the emotion involved in the record. That, and how much teamwork went into making it possible.

Doug: Anyone who knows you, knows you’re deeply committed to environmental initiatives. Climate change in the Alps is a big part of the story in Always Alive. What kinds of projects are you involved with now?

Hillary: I’m doing a lot right now! I’ve got to figure out exactly where I want to focus. There are a million things to do, and all of them are worthy.

I was just asked to help lead an environmental initiative for ENOS, the European Network of Outdoor Sports. I’m working with Black Diamond on their environmental sustainability strategy.  I’m still actively involved with PTRA (Pro Trail Runners’ Association), and we are currently working on setting our 2025 goals. 

Here in France, I’m helping out with OSV (Outdoor Sports Valley, or OSV, is an outdoors business incubator based in Annecy, France) to launch a new initiative that will be called the  “Ordinary Project”. The idea of the Ordinary Project is that environmental action by athletes should become completely ordinary.

Doug: So, athletes will learn how to integrate climate change issues into their own routines?

Hillary: Right. It’ll be a year-long program coordinated by Protect Our Winters France. OSV’s business members will sponsor their athletes and staff to take part in the training. There’s going to be a kickoff with educational resources, getting everybody up to speed on the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and related topics. They will cover communication tactics and teach athletes what the levers are that you can pull to create change. 

They want the project to eventually grow and become a certification that athletes can complete and put on their CV. Brands will eventually be able look for and sign athletes specifically that have gone through the certification. I think it’s a pretty cool initiative that’s going on inside the industry. 

Doug: There’s so much going on in this space, these days!

Hillary:  There are so many great initiatives. Practically every day I hear about something new that excites me! Black Trail Runners is doing some really cool work. The Outdoor Alpine Club based in Annecy, France and Alpine Run Project are also ones that come to mind. 

Right now, we’re seeing so much growth in trail running and it’s amazing to see more and more people falling in love with our sport. But some of this growth is moving in a way that I think is potentially dangerous for the sport—putting too much focus on performance for the sake of performance and emphasizing commercial profit over values could cause us to lose what many of us think of as the soul of trail running.

At the same time, however, there are a ton of initiatives popping up all over that are really cool and inspiring. This is a pivotal time for the sport and these projects are incredibly important especially for helping new runners out on the trails. 

Doug: You’re really inspiring and it’s always fun to see what you do next.
Hillary: I’m also excited to see what the next year holds for me. Changing things up on the racing front means that I’ll get to learn a lot and try new things—the challenge will also be in channeling my energy and not spreading myself too thin. Let’s check in about a year from now and see if I managed to stick to that!