Last October, Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds climbed the Nose route on Yosemite's El Capitan聽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鈥檛 sit too well with Honnold.聽
At the time, Honnold聽told us聽鈥淚t鈥檚 actually really motivating. Now I have a reason to train, and climbing the Nose fast is fun. And Brad deserves it鈥攈e worked really hard鈥攂ut I am going to smash his record in the spring. I鈥檓 recruiting Tommy Caldwell.鈥
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聽in 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 15 seconds, a little more than nine聽minutes faster than Gobright.