The Nose Record
Edilma Howard
Nestled in the heart of Yosemite Valley, El Capitan stands as a towering challenge to those who dare feel brave enough to scale its imposing face. This legendary monolith, with its sheer granite walls that reach skyward for over 3,000 feet, has drawn adventurers and climbers from around the world for decades. It is on this majestic stage that the history of The Nose Speed Record unfolds.
Over the years, climbers continued to push the limits of speed and skill on The Nose, and in the 1970s, the concept of the Nose Speed Record emerged. The goal was to ascend this iconic route in the shortest amount of time possible, testing the physical and mental limits of the climbers. What started as a personal challenge soon evolved into a fiercely competitive pursuit, captivating the climbing community and capturing the imagination of the world.
The aim of the game is to go up the wall as fast as you can. So, when it comes to doing the Nose in a day (NiaD) anything goes. You can pull on gear, use bolts and anchors as foot holds, jumar up the wall, and use any aid you want.
The 90s saw Hans Florine and Peter Croft battling it out for the best time. Hans Florine teamed up with Shipoopi in 1990 and showcased their skill with a time of 8 hours and 6 minutes. Not long after, Peter Croft and Dave Schultz answered back with a time of 6 hours and 40 minutes.
Hans Florine and Andres Puhvel came back in 1991 in retaliation and completed the NiaD in a commendable 6 hours and 1 minute. Building upon this momentum, in 1991, Peter Croft and Dave Schultz came back and astonished the climbing community by scaling the Nose in less than five hours.
The following year, the two rivals, Croft and Florine, joined forces and shattered expectations with a mind-boggling time of 4 hours and 22 minutes. Florine would go on to develop a deep connection with the route, climbing it over a hundred times and engaging in a record-setting rivalry.
In a groundbreaking achievement, Sue McDevitt and Nancy Feagin made history in 1992 as the first all-female team to complete a one-day ascent of the Nose. Their remarkable feat was accomplished in a time of 17 hours and 40 minutes.
Lynn came back a year later more determined than ever and managed to free climb The Nose again, this time in just 24 hours. This record was held for 12 years until Tommy Caldwell free climbed The Nose in just 12 hours in 2005, not once, but twice!
The year 1998 witnessed another groundbreaking achievement when Hans Florine, alongside Nancy Feagin, embarked on an impressive enchainment. They successfully climbed both the Nose on El Capitan and the Regular Route on Half Dome in a time of 23 hours and 30 minutes.
Dean Potter lowered the NiaD solo record to an astonishing 12 hours and 59 minutes, showcasing his exceptional skill and speed. In 1999, Hans Florine added to his impressive climbing resume by completing the NiaD for the 20th time.
The early 2000s saw a flurry of record-breaking attempts. In 2001, Hans Florine partnered with Peter Croft again and achieved a remarkable time of 4 hours and 31 minutes, closely approaching their 1992 NiaD record.
The record-breaking continued in 2008 when Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama answered back with a time of 2 hours, 37 minutes, and 5 seconds, further solidifying their place in the NiaD speed record history (a few months earlier they made their ascent at 2:43:33).
In 2012 saw another male record. Just a day before his 49th birthday, Hans Florine, partnered with renowned free soloist Alex Honnold, achieved an astonishing time of 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 46 seconds.
The year 2013 witnessed significant achievements by Mayan Smith-Gobat and Libby Sauter, who set the new all-female record at 5 hours and 39 minutes. Smith-Gobat and Sauter continued to lower their own record, accomplishing the NiaD in 5 hours and 2 minutes in 2014, and shortly after, in a remarkable time of 4 hours and 43 minutes in 2015. This record is still to be beaten.
In 2017, The Nose speed was cut down even more to 2:19:44 by Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds. An unassuming duo no one expected would break such a record. That season, Brad and Jim climbed The Nose 11 times, perfecting the moves, the sequences, and ultimately their time.
2018 was the year when two of the most prolific climbers answered back to the two amateurs who were somehow holding the new record. Filled with their competitive nature, Alex and Tommy spent countless hours on the Nose until they achieved their goal of sub-2 hours.
On June 6, 2018, climbing legends Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first to complete The Nose in under two hours. With a remarkable time of 1 hour, 58 minutes, and 7 seconds, they shattered the symbolic 2-hour barrier, leaving the climbing community in awe. Two days before they had climbed it in 2:01:50.
Their record-breaking ascent came shortly after surpassing the previous record set in 2017 by Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds. The incredible feat achieved by Honnold and Caldwell is likely to remain unmatched for a significant period.
Speed climbing anything is not easy, let alone speed climbing one of the biggest granite monoliths in the world. From Jim Bridwell and co with 17 hours and 45 minutes to Alex and Tommy with 1 hour, 58 minutes and 7 seconds just shows how much this discipline has evolved.
Meet Angel, a former desk-jockey turned global wanderer. After catching a severe case of the climbing (and travel) bug, she's now a world traveller, living the dirtbag dream. Highballs? Too mainstream for her taste. She's all about the thrills of lowballs, where the real action happens. Nowadays, you'll find her in Thailand, either precariously balanced on a granite slab or trading stories with Nemo and his buddies underwater!
The Nose is a big wall climbing route up El Capitan. Once considered impossible to climb,[1] El Capitan is now the standard for big wall climbing. It is recognized in the historic climbing text Fifty Classic Climbs of North America and considered a classic around the world.[2]
El Capitan has two main faces, the Southwest (on the left when looking directly at the wall) and the Southeast. Between the two faces juts a massive prow. While today there are numerous established routes on both faces, the most popular and historically famous route is The Nose, which follows the massive prow.
Once thought to be unclimbable, the high granite walls of Yosemite Valley began to see their first attempts and first ascents in the 1950s. One of the most coveted routes was the Northwest Face of Half Dome, and among those coveting it was Californian Warren Harding (Harding made an unsuccessful attempt on Half Dome in 1955, and returned for the 1957 season just as Royal Robbins and team were completing the first ascent. "My congratulations," Harding recounted, "were hearty and sincere, but inside, the ambitious dreamer in me was troubled."[3]
Harding turned to an even larger unclimbed face, the 2,900 feet (900 m) prow of El Capitan, at the other end of the valley. With Mark Powell and Bill "Dolt" Feuerer, they began the climb in July 1957. Rather than follow the single-push "alpine" style used on Half Dome, they were forced, given the technology of the day, to fix lines between "camps" in the style used in the Himalaya. Attempting to get half way on the first push, they were foiled by the large, 2-3" cracks, and Feuerer was required to form new rock spikes or pitons by cutting off the legs of wood stoves. This gave the name to the crack system leading to the half way point, the "stove leg cracks".
Compelled by the National Park Service to stop until March, due to the crowds forming in El Capitan meadows, they complied. As soon as the snow melted, the team had a major setback when Powell suffered a compound leg fracture on another climbing trip. Powell dropped out, and Feuerer became disillusioned. Harding, true to his legendary endurance and willingness to find new partners, "continued", as he later put it, "with whatever 'qualified' climbers I could con into this rather unpromising venture."[4] Feuerer stayed on as technical advisor, even constructing a bicycle wheeled cart which could be hauled up to the half-way ledge which bears his name today, "Dolt Tower"; but Wayne Merry, George Whitmore, and Rich Calderwood now became the main team, with Merry sharing lead chores with Harding.
The team had finished what is, by any standard, one of the classics of modern rock climbing. The Nose Route is often called the most famous rock climbing route in North America, and in good fall weather can have anywhere between three and ten different parties strung out along its thirty rope lengths to the top. On the 50th anniversary of the ascent, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the achievement of the original party.[5]
The second ascent was made in 1960 by Royal Robbins, Joe Fitschen, Chuck Pratt and Tom Frost, who, even with 125 bolts already in place, took seven days in the first continuous climb of the route without siege tactics.[2] The first rope-solo climb of The Nose was made by Tom Bauman in 1969.[6] The first ascent of The Nose in one day was accomplished in 1975 by John Long, Jim Bridwell and Billy Westbay. The first free ascent was in 1993 by Lynn Hill, who one year later completed the first free ascent in under 24 hours.[7][8] Today The Nose attracts climbers of a wide range of experience and ability. With a success rate of around 60%, it typically takes fit climbers two to three full days of climbing to complete.[citation needed]
As it became clear that any face could be climbed with sufficient perseverance and bolt-hole drilling, some climbers began searching for El Cap routes that could be climbed either free or with minimal aid. The "West Face" route was free climbed in 1979 by Ray Jardine and Bill Price, but despite numerous efforts by Jardine and others, The Nose resisted free attempts for another fourteen years.
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