Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell have set their third speed record on The Nose of El Capitan in the space of a week, breaking the 2 hour barrier that they had set their sights on, with a time of 1 hour, 58 minutes and 7 seconds (1:58:07). On 4th June, they stopped the clock after 2:01:53, just five days after they set a time of 2:10:15. That's over 2,600m (3 x ~880m) of Yosemite granite climbed at speed in the space of a week...
This morning, @tommycaldwell1 and @AlexHonnold broke their own record on The Nose on El Cap: 1:58:07! pic.twitter.com/ACyus9Do9N
— Patagonia (@patagonia) June 6, 2018
Hans Florine - the man who has notched up more El Cap ascents than anyone else - and a gathering of big wall enthusiasts have been spectating these speed attempts from the meadows. Accoding to Climbing.com, this was approximately the tenth ascent of the route by the pair in recent weeks as they fine-tuned their techniques and tactics. This new record is not far off Alex and Thomas Huber's 2003 speed record of 1 hour 51 minutes )1:51) on the 19 pitch Zodiac (~550m).
Despite the excitement surrounding their efforts, the past few days in the Valley have proved bittersweet, following the news that two experienced big wall climbers, Tim Klein (42) and Jason Wells (45) fell to their deaths while climbing the Freeblast on Saturday.
Comments
...and let's hope that's an end to this non-sense.
Why? Some people want to climb the hardest boulder problem, the most difficult sport route or the highest E grade trad route, why not the fastest climbing?
Probably best left to others to decide what their own goals are eh?
Maybe there should be more focus on every day climbers, who often pull off feats well beyond what they believed. I’d love an article when I do my first E3* ‘Here’s Phil, he’s just climbed an E3 despite having a bit of podge on his belly and not being a professional sportsman with all the benefits that entails’.
This news is no great surprise, is unrelatable to the vast majority and quite frankly.. who gives a damn?
*actually no, I wouldn’t.
Amazing.
On the table, why are some names in black, some in blue and some in red?
It's a WIkipedia screenshot, so some are hyperlinks and the red ones are some weird hyperlinks that don't have an article associated with them.