Last October, Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds climbed the Nose route on Yosemite's El Capitan in 2 hours, 19 minutes, and 44 seconds, breaking the 2012 speed record held by Alex Honnold and Hans Florine by nearly four minutes. Needless to say, that didn’t sit too well with Honnold.
At the time, Honnold told us “It’s actually really motivating. Now I have a reason to train, and climbing the Nose fast is fun. And Brad deserves it—he worked really hard—but I am going to smash his record in the spring. I’m recruiting Tommy Caldwell.”
Which is exactly what he did. Caldwell and Honnold have spent the spring in the Valley, running laps on the most famous chunk of granite in the world. This morning, they flew up the nearly 3,000-foot route in 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 15 seconds, a little more than nine minutes faster than Gobright.