Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold smash The Nose Speed record

It was in the air, they’d made a series of sub 3 hour ‘training runs’ and today they did it: Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell blazed up The Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite in a mere 2 hours, 10 minutes and 15 seconds. In doing so they beat the previous record, set last autumn by Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds, by almost 10 minutes.

While this is the first time that Caldwell sets the record, Honnold on the other hand reclaims the "title" - on all accounts informal but nevertheless an interesting and important testing ground - that he had set in 2012 when he raced up the nigh 1000 m route with Hans Florine in 2:23:46.

Superfluous to say the new record has been established by two of the world’s most talented and expert climbers who, as it happens, have honed their skills on the smooth granite walls of Yosemite valley. One of Caldwell’s standout climbs is the Dawn Wall, the world’s hardest big wall freed in January 2015 with Kevin Jorgeson. Honnold for his part has countless free solos and huge linkups to his name, but without a doubt the crowing achievement that earned him worldwide recognition was his audacious free solo of Freerider on El Capitan a year ago. The two are not new to setting new standards together and in February 2014 they teamed up to complete the coveted first traverse of the major ridge line of Fitz Roy in Patagonia.

The Nose Speed
Women
10/2014 - 5:02 Mayan Smith-Gobat & Libby Sauter
09/2013 - 5:39 Mayan Smith-Gobat & Libby Sauter 
09/2012 - 7:26 Mayan Smith-Gobat & Chantel Astorga
06/2012 - 10:19 Jes Meiris & Quinn Brett
09/2011 - 10:40 Libby Sauter & Chantel Astorga
2004 - 12:15 Heidi Wirtz & Vera Schulte-Pelkum

Men
05/2018 - 2:10:15 Tommy Caldwell & Alex Honnold
10/2017 - 2:19:44 Brad Gobright & Jim Reynolds
06/2012 - 2:23:46 Hans Florine & Alex Honnold
11/2010 - 2:36:45 Dean Potter & Sean Leary
10/2008 - 2:37:05 Hans Florine & Yuji Hirayama
07/2008 - 2:43:33.Hans Florine & Yuji Hirayama
10/2007 - 2:45:45 Thomas Huber & Alexander Huber
09/2002 - 2:48:55 Hans Florine & Yuji Hirayama
2001 - 3:24:20 Dean Potter & Timmy O’Neill
1992 - 4:22 Hans Florine & Peter Croft
1991 - 4:48 Peter Croft & Dave Schultz
1991 - 6:01 Hans Florine & Andres Puhvel
1990 - 6:40 Peter Croft &Dave Schultz
1990 - 8:11 Hans Florine & Steve Schneider
1986 - 10:05 John Bachar & Peter Croft
1975 - 17:45 Jim Bridwell, John Long, Billy Westbay, first repeat in a day
1960 - 7 days, Royal Robbins, Joe Fitschen, Chuck Pratt e Tom Frost, first repeat
1958 - 47 days, Warren Harding, Wayne Merry e George Whitmore, first ascent


TOPO: The Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite

@tommycaldwell and I climbed the Nose in 2:10:15 today!! Felt great! And I’m proud to announce a new partnership with @livemomentous (link in profile) which I’ve been using for recovery after each lap up El Cap. We’ve climbed The Nose 8 times in the last few weeks so obviously the recovery program has been working pretty well. Check out the link. Photo: @brettlowell

A post shared by Alex Honnold (@alexhonnold) on May 30, 2018 at 1:17pm PDT