UKC

US climber Miranda has broken the women's speed solo record on The Nose (5.9, C2) of El Capitan. Smashing the previous record of 24 hours and 39 minutes, Miranda's ascent took her under the 24-hour threshold - finishing with a time of 21 hours and 50 minutes.

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In reply to UKC News:

"Nose in a day" record 24 hours and 39 minutes? I know things are bigger in the US, but I didn't realise their days are over 24 hrs......

In reply to Chris Harris:

What is it they say about exam questions?

Beating her old time of 24 hours and 29 minutes with a new time of 21 hours and 50 minutes, less than a day I think?

Now I feel petty and dirty for pulling you up. Forgive me

Cheers

Toby

In reply to Toby_W:


Indeed 21hr 50 is less than a day, but it says "Women's Nose-in-a-Day Solo Record Broken".

As it hadn't been done in a day before, there was no "in a day" record to break.

Yes, one has been set, but not broken.

In reply to UKC News:

I've sometimes wondered how it would feel as a punter on a trip of a lifetime trip to do the Nose in normal style, to be constantly overtaken by people using the route as a recetrack.

In reply to Chris Harris:
Have a like, that's me owned. Serves me right. (I blame the article)

Yes I remember being in Chamonix once and some American looking very Twight scampered past with a pair of old school walkman headphones on.

Cheers

Toby

In reply to Chris Harris:

California days may have 25 hours, but in Texas they last 30! Shame their best climbing is bouldering....

CB

In reply to UKC News:
May I be the first on this thread to say "well done" rather than comment on other aspects of the report.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:


You may, but it would be a bit boring.

In reply to Robert Durran:
If 'boring' means recognising achievement then I am happy to stay boring.

In reply to GrahamD:

Presumably like someone doing their first VS/E1/whatever, only to have someone casually stroll past soloing the same route (or a harder adjacent route). Only bigger

In reply to andrewmcleod:


I don't think my first VS or E1s were really a trip of a lifetime though, and overtaking on those routes wouldn't have been a casual event

In reply to UKC News:

This is such a big achievement, having been up there the idea of rope soloing the nose is less than a day is so impressive. Miranda is a total wad, and super humble, I'm glad the NSAID went down to her, seems appropriate.

In reply to Chris Harris:




You'd have to be pretty mean to refuse to recognise a record breaking 24 hour 39 minutes single push ascent as being very much in the same spirit as a successful NIAD attempt

In reply to UKC News:

Very impressive to rope solo NIAD - and to set the record. Hats off!

(The magazine mistakenly left out the "rope" part)

In reply to UKC News:
Am I right in thinking that no-one has yet completed an unroped solo of a route on El Capitan? I guess the Nose is not a candidate with the King Swing.

In reply to timjones:


Soon we'll be saying that Roger Bannister wasn't the first person to run a sub 4 minute mile, on the grounds that the previous record was only just over the 4 mark, and very much in the spirit of a sub 4, particularly as nearly all of that mile was run in the first 4 minutes, with just a few yards after the 4 minute mark .....

In reply to UKC News:

Having done 4 routes on El Cap, and never managed any of them in less than 3 days - well ok North America Wall only actually took 2.5 days - I am always humbled and gob struck by anyone who can get up it in a day, and when done solo, I'm doubly humbled and gob struck.

Well done Miranda Oakley. That is one seriously bloody impressive piece of climbing

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:
Not so much the King swing, as it can be avoided with a variation. The main reason to avoid soloing the Nose is the Great Roof an the Changing Corners Pitch. Consider that only 4 (Maybe 5?) people have actually free climbed it on a rope!

Freerider might be better? But hard slabby moves lower down? Would be interesting to hear what might be considered the best contender for anyone up to it?!

Either way, awesome effort from Miranda!!

In reply to Sir Stefan:



In the context of Yosemite climbing, the 'rope' part is not necessary, and would probably be considered a bit of an anachronism?

In reply to GrahamD:

When Pete and I tried to do the NIAD we were told by some americans that we were doing it the easy way. Which seems fair enough. Hauling looks shit!

In reply to Chris Harris:

I think there should be a colon ( between 'day' and 'solo'.

In reply to andrewmcleod:


We could have a long talk about that subject after the first bottle of whisky going on to the next.

In reply to Chris Harris:


Aren't arbitrary time barriers silly

In reply to Sandstone Stickman:

There's no reason why those pitches couldn't be aid soloed un-roped is there? (rather you than me though!)

In reply to Toerag:

Didn't Honnold solo the nose as part of his triple link-up in about six hours? To achieve that he can't have used his rope on many pitches?

In reply to jon:

According to Honnold, there's really 2 issues with free soloing anything on El Cap. First, all routes are damn hard, and even the easiest ones include some very insecure parts, i.e. polished and slippery terrain where you don't feel secure no matter how you dial it. Second, preparing for a free solo ascent would be noticed immediately and there would be a huge interest and crowds making sure you would need to handle the pressure of the public in addition to the actual climbing. Alex seems to be more or less the only person not minding onlookers and film teams on his hard free solos, but even he seems to think it would be a bit too much if he tried it on El Cap.

In reply to edinburgh_man:

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug? Is that allowed?

In reply to Jubjab:

Well my reply was more addressing Toerag's comment about aid soloing un-roped than free soloing:

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:


Russ Mitrovich set a solo fastest time on Zodiac, carrying a rope but apparently only using it very briefly - reportedly for just a short section of one pitch; for the rest of the route he relied on the security(?) provided by two or three daisies clipped to whatever gear was reachable as he progressed. To recommend such a technique these days would be to invite the sky to fall in on one's head!

In reply to Goucho:



Couldn't agree more, Gouch - it's a colossal amount of focused activity to cram into 24 hours.

As a slight aside, how was NA Wall? It doesn't seem to be a route you hear about so much these days - apart from the El Nino option. 2.5 days may not be groundbreaking but it still sounds very respectable, especially if it was some time ago; when did you do it? I recall Nipper and Hans Doseth doing it in about that time in 1979 - or was it 3.5 days? Either way it was generally viewed as pretty quick. [I'm assuming, of course, that you're not Nipper!]

In reply to bensilvestre:


Tried? Does that mean you bailed or you went over the 24 hours? If the latter then you can claim NIAP.

In reply to UKC News:

This title would have been much better as "Miranda Oakley breaks women's nose ..." And letting the column width truncation do its thing...

Ps. Well done

In reply to GrahamD:


Been there, done that. We even got lapped by one person; and overtaken on the last pitch by a couple who had done half dome in the morning.

See: http://www.coldmountainkit.com/knowledge/articles/349-el-cap-it-s-about-the...

In reply to Chris Harris:


To be fair to Miranda, this is kind of true. During her previous record run she dropped one of her jumars and had to jug on one with a grigri until she took mine at Camp 5. This lost her 39 minutes for sure.

In reply to David Coley:


I ran a sub 4 mile. Admittedly it took me 5 minutes, but I lost a shoe part way through & had to stop for a bit while I got another one.

In reply to Chris Harris:


Yep, just about it, if you had spent 1min 30secs waiting for the new shoe, some might well call it sub 4 mins, even if not true. (And you might well get a place in the British 1500m team.) I was just explaining some history on why many saw her previous run as in-a-day.