I’m Raziq Rauf, a Los Angeles-based author of This is Running, my celebration of running culture in the 21st century. Running Sucks is an independent and reader-supported newsletter, focused on the beautiful people who make running an electrifying, diverse, and joyous place, so please buy my book, and subscribe and share to support my work. Thanks for reading.
The Dirtbag Fixer who helped Kílian Jornet complete his “human-powered journey”
What does it take to get the greatest mountain runner of all time to complete his next mind-blowing, headline-grabbing mission?
That was the question when Kílian Jornet embarked upon his States of Elevation project. His goal was to run up the 72 highest peaks (all over 14,000 feet in elevation) across the contiguous United States in just one month. As well as a 600-mile month including over 400,000 feet of vert, he cycled over 2,500 miles between the peaks1.
That the Spaniard was capable of such a feat wasn’t really in question, but for record-breaking escapades to go to plan, many things need to go just right. His close-knit team at Nnormal (the brand he co-founded with Spanish shoe company Camper) did much of the preliminary mapping, but who could be the trusted right-hand to execute all the logistics at the sharp end of the deal?
Enter: Preston Hopkins.
In his mid-30s, the Wisconsin native started running 20 years ago. All his friends were playing baseball, but, due to being blind in his left, crucial eye, that was the only sport his doctor said he wasn’t allowed to play. When the track team beckoned, all the spots were taken for sprinting but nobody wanted to run distance. So Preston ran a couple of miles, and here we are, chatting in running’s equivalent of backstage in Kílian Jornet’s dressing room. But how did we get… here?
It was spring 2025. Preston was cooking for 80 people at an outdoor event in southern Colorado when he received a cryptic text from an athlete friend.
“What are you doing all of September?”
As an independent contractor who firmly believes that variety is the spice of life, Preston had not yet planned his September. He was interested.
After a quick phone call with someone named Nick, where it was made clear that his schedule from late August through the whole of September had to be completely free, and that the plan involved Kílian Jornet, that interest was piqued further.
That was Nick Danielson2, the photographer set to document Kílian’s efforts (and a great runner himself). He was tasked with finding “someone that can run logistics, and also live in an RV with Kílian.” He asked around his contacts in the outdoors industry, but knew what he was looking for:
“You need to have a logistical mind that has experience in planning things, and looking at permits, and drive times, and all those things – like a producer – but you also need to be a dirtbag,” Nick explains. “You need to be able to not only be able to live off grid for a month, but you also have to put his needs above your own for that whole month.”
This person had to put meals together and know how the project works specifically in relation to the humans that are part of it. At first, Nick thought he needed three people, but it turned out he only needed one. The Dirtbag Fixer.
Nick laughs, “Preston was just the right amount of logical and experienced, and also the right amount of crazy to fit the needs of the job.”
After that initial call with Nick, Preston ran a 50K race, and then connected with the rest of the Nnormal team. They soon realized that he had that experience creating schedules with athletes, so they showed him the plan.
Why does Preston think that he was so suited to the job?
“You need someone who understands who Kílian is, and what it is that he’s trying to achieve. It’s also someone who’s not going to be starstruck and is able to stay on task while understanding that it’s a crazy opportunity to work with Kílian. It’s a job that is going to go 99% unnoticed. And I do that often for athletes.”
I’m drawn to these behind-the-scenes stories. I have always enjoyed being within arm’s reach of this world’s greatest culture creators – from musicians to athletes – and noting the unsung heroes who facilitate such greatness has always been so interesting to me.
The mental machinations of being in such close proximity to era-defining greatness, but seeing the human first and foremost, and attending to their needs is a level of diplomacy very familiar to Sherpas in the Himalayas.
“A lot of people treat him as this deity, and that is not lost upon me, but at the end of the day, when the dude comes in from a 250 mile bike ride in the desert, he’s tired and he sweats just like us.”
That is where I’m able to realize the project at hand. Yes, he’s putting in tremendous effort, and yes, he is a person, and we’re going to have conversations about his kids, and what he does in his free time, and religion, and politics. Those were the moments with Kílian one on one, and also with Nick and the crew. “
“My favorite parts of the trip were late night in the RV with Nick and the guys from Catalonia. We were just drinking broth, laughing about the days’ events, and talking about random stuff. Those were the moments where I got to see Kílian as a human.”
When the Nnormal team sent Preston the GPX file of a proposed route, for instance, and explained how Kílian was going to cycle between everything, Preston immediately noticed how much of it was on freeways. It immediately became a problem to solve (“A fun puzzle!”) to find a more cycleable route.
Fun puzzles are normal for Preston. As a trekking guide, he was regularly away for two weeks at a time, camping with groups of up to 15. He tells me how he likes to invest himself completely “in the people and the places that “he’s”interacting with.” He tells me how States of Elevation was the longest job he had ever been on. He tells me how he enjoyed learning how to cook for large quantities of people.
Cooking on the trip was one thing that he had to prepare for, so Preston observed Kílian’s habits at Western States 2025. As you read in my interview with Kílian, whole foods are the preferred order of the day. “It was fairly simple,” according to Preston, listing rice, avocado, vegetables, and bone broth as standards on the menu. Only five gels were consumed on the whole expedition.
It’s this understanding of detail that meant that Nick could appreciate being “able to go around to any spot [he] wanted to and capture Kílian on the route.” As the primary photographer, Nick Danielson is arguably the next most visible person involved in the States of Elevation project. Indeed, Nnormal even produced a film3 about his camerawork, and Preston’s “dirty work” was integral to that as well.
“I would be out on the trail all day and get back to my truck and there would be a sandwich, a bag of chips, a bunch of waters,” recalls Nick. “[Preston] very quickly homed in on my needs and the needs of the whole crew. I felt like I was allowed to focus on my one job, documenting the project.”
Ultimately, as much as this article is lauding Preston’s role in the States of Elevation, it’s Kílian Jornet’s humanity that success rested upon.
Jetlag and altitude sickness upon arrival to the United States changed the plans in the first 12 hours of the expedition. Almost immediately, they were three hours behind schedule, but as Kílian got stronger and healthier, the plan was executed perfectly. Almost.
There was one SNAFU that added 90 minutes to one arduous day, but it’s the mark of both Kílian and Preston that nothing was derailed further.
“There was one moment he was coming out of the Chicago Basin with Nnormal athlete Dakota Jones. They did this huge push, and I had a different pin of where I was supposed to pick them up. We’d scoured the map for countless hours together, and it was this one particular point we did not line up on.”
Not expecting the runners to return for a while, Preston had put his head down for a 35-minute nap, and awoke to multiple satellite messages from Kílian. They were cold, wet, and 10km away. The team scrambles the RV to meet the duo with a bike for Kílian.
“I say sorry, and on the side of his bike is the motto for the trip: ‘More Miles, More Fun.’ [Kílian] points to the bike and smiles.”
“The way he handled that… I don’t know if I would’ve handled that as calmly as he did. I’ve worked with a lot of athletes who are pretty big divas. They expect the world to float around them. For someone of Kílian’s stature, he’s hands down the most humble athlete I have worked with.”
That humility and appreciation is clearly found across the team. Just as Nick Danielson identified all the things that made Preston Hopkins indispensable to the States of Elevation challenge, Preston acknowledges the people who did the initial groundwork on the plan that he executed. It paid off in the way that Preston has been with Nnormal ever since.
In a world where careers in the outdoor industry are fiercely coveted, perhaps simply paying attention and adding the most human element of care – even as a dirtbag fixer – is the esoteric skill set that we can really call human power.
Thanks for reading,
Raz x
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Loved this piece, dude. Chapeau.
How freakin' cool.
Love this piece, thank you for sharing it. It leaves me with a sense of positivity and love of human connection, almost innocent in the midst of something incredible.