Meet Celina. A Mons ambassador and German snowboarder who calls Zinal, in the Swiss Alps, home. She not only competes on the Freeride World Tour Challenger circuit, she's also a seriously good mountaineer. Handy when a hill needs climbing before you can ride it.
One Sunday in September, with no big plan and nothing to do with us, Celina decided to see how fast she could get up and down Bishorn. It was all her idea. We’re just far too stoked not to talk about it.
What is Bishorn and what was Celina attempting?
Bishorn sits in the Valais Alps in Switzerland, above Zinal, Celina’s home valley. It’s a four-thousander, an outlier of the Weisshorn’s northern ridge, with two summits: a higher western peak and a slightly lower eastern one. In 1884, Elizabeth Burnaby made the first ascent of the eastern peak. So Celina’s in good company, and we reckon Elizabeth would approve.
Celina’s mission was a ‘fastest known time’, or FKT: female, supported, standard route. Start at the church in Zinal, head up to the summit, come back down to the same church. Nothing fancy. She set off at 4:16am on Sunday 6 September 2026 with Rémi along for the ride, and finished 9 hours 22 minutes later.
Over to Celina: here’s how it went
This was a very spontaneous adventure. It is what I’ve come to notice makes for the best ones.
After Ultraks I was wondering what fun thing I wanted to do to see what motor I’ve built over the summer. I thought it could be fun to go up to Bishorn. It’s been a while since I’ve been at 4000m - and why not do it one shot? I’ve never been on the summit. And it’s basically one of our home mountains in the valley. But I also wanted a little challenge. A week after, I saw that a male FKT was set on this route and I figured that’s the sign. Let’s go & explore.
It didn’t take much convincing (at least from my side) for @remibenamo to join this little Sunday outing. So two weeks after my ultra, we found ourselves at 4:16am beginning the ascent under a sky full of stars. Then witnessing a glorious sunrise unfold. It was magical. So grateful to share these moments.
We didn’t set everything up for speed. We just said let’s see how long it takes if we go as fast as possible but as slow as necessary to be safe, scout the route, speak to friends we ran into, enjoy the views, take photos etc.
Fast forward after 9h 22min we went from the church in Zinal to the Summit and back to the church. And in doing so I established the first female supported FKT which got accepted 2 days ago.
I’m calling it a placeholder FKT as I know it won’t be long until it is broken (hopefully by me haha) but I am still proud of it - proud of all the progress I’ve made over the last few months, building an engine that lets me go on such spontaneous bigger and bigger adventures. That expands what is possible.
And perhaps that inspires a soul or two.
And yet I am genuinely curious just how much faster I can do it if I set it up correctly. Let’s see if the opportunity presents itself over the next few weeks.
Placeholder status: pending
Celina reckons someone will break this FKT soon, and she’d like it to be her. We’d back her on that. For now, a 9h 22min round trip from the church in Zinal is on the books, set on a spontaneous Sunday with a mate and a sunrise. Progression over perfection, basically.
Follow Celina on Instagram (@_celinaweber) to see how much faster she’ll go the next time.
Photo credit: Rémi Benamo
