Rock Climbing Duo Breaks the El Capitan Speed Record…Again.
Over the past month, famous rock climbing duo Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell have been routinely breaking records on one of the world's most popular rock faces
Over the past month, famous rock climbing duo Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell have been routinely breaking records on one of the world’s most popular rock faces – Yosemite’s El Capitan.
On May 30th, the duo shaved nine minutes off the previous climbing record on El Capitan’s Nose, hitting the mark in 2 hours, 19 minutes and 45 seconds. Now, they’ve shaved another nine minutes off that record, inching closer to their aggressive goal of finishing the 3,000 foot climb in under two hours. They finished the climb in 2 hours, 1 minute, 53 seconds.
On their first record-breaking climb, the duo had a couple rope tangles and mishaps, hindering them from their perfect climb. On their second record-breaking attempt, a rope tangle near the top added about two minutes. As the climbers continue to train and practice the famed-climbing route, they hope to create a record that will be very difficult to break in the future.
The duo took pause during the last couple of weeks, as a different duo of experienced rock climbers fell to their death on June 2nd. The tragedy forced Honnold and Caldwell to take some time to consider their strategy and route. The duo in the deadly accident were using similar tactics up The Nose.
Honnold and Caldwell have been scaling cliffs together for years, including a three-peat that is also in the record books. The two men free-climbed El Capitan, Mount Watkins and Half Dome — the three biggest walls in Yosemite — in one 12-hour period in 2012.
Here is a (recently updated) history of the climbing records broken on The Nose:
6/4/2018 – Alex Honnold, Tommy Caldwell — 2:01:53
5/30/2018 — Alex Honnold, Tommy Caldwell — 2:10:15
10/21/2017 — Jim Reynolds, Brad Gobright — 2:19:44
6/17/2012 — Hans Florine, Alex Honnold — 2:23:46
11/6/2010 — Dean Potter, Sean Leary — 2:36:45
10/12/2008 — Hans Florine, Yuji Hirayama — 2:37:05
7/2/2008 — Hans Florine, Yuji Hirayama — 2:43:33
