Speed Climbing El Cap & Celebrating the 50th Anniv. of the first Ascent
This is insane! Back in 2001, Greg and I went to Yosemite with all intentions of doing the big-wall thing on 'The Nose' route of El Capitan in Yosemite. We were going first as film/support crew for our friends Bill and Tom in their quest for a 'Nose in a Day'.
The plan was for Greg and I to spend an afternoon fixing our ropes to Sickle Ledge, then return to the ground. The day after Bill and Tom finished up, we'd pack our things, hit our fixed ropes and do a more traditional 2.5 day ascent with Bill as a team of three.
It took Greg and I nearly 6 hours to get to Sickle Ledge. In short, we sucked! (the fitness level you need to be in to make even a multi-day ascent possible is really something) You see the Huber brothers get there in minutes in this video. Now I'm sure it is time compressed somewhat, but probably not much, given that the current record for this climb is like 2 hours and 40+ minutes!
After fixing our lines and sleeping on it overnight, we bailed, deciding we weren't
ready (fast enough) since it had taken us 6 hours to climb roughly one 'sixth' of the
route! (we really wanted to be in the 4 hour or less range)Instead, we spent the rest of
the trip enjoying some of the nice, long Yosemite classic free climbs instead.
Check out Han's site here for the latest on his recent record setting climb.
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