Speed Climbers Set Record On El Capitan
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
SPEED CLIMBERS SET RECORD ON EL CAPITAN
Peter Fimrite
San Francisco Chronicle
3 July 2008
A Lafayette rock climber and his Japanese partner snatched the world record for fastest climb up the Nose of El Capitan on Wednesday in a thrilling, heart-stopping display of strength, endurance, concentration and pure guts.
Hans Florine, 44, who grew up in Moraga, and Yuji Hirayama, 39, of Hidaka, Japan, pulled themselves over the top of the immense slab of granite and touched the tree that serves as the finish line in 2 hours, 43 minutes and 33 seconds.
It was 2 minutes and 12 seconds faster than the record set last year by the famous German climbing brothers, Alexander and Thomas Huber.
“I feel just like Lightning McQueen,” said Florine, referring to the hero of the movie “Cars,” after he and Hirayama hiked back down to the valley to a hero’s welcome.
“I felt the closest to losing it at the top than I’ve ever felt.”
It took Florine and Hirayama three tries to reclaim their record on the iconic 2,900-foot Nose route, one of the most hair-raising and arduous vertical climbs in the world.
The men started up the giant wall faster than they had ever gone, reaching the granite feature known as the Boot Flake - a spot that most climbers take two days to reach - in one hour. Twelve minutes later they had completed the perilous and spectacular 90-foot-long “king swing.” The large crowd of family, friends and fellow climbers gathered at the bottom let out a giant whoop as Florine spun completely around while in the air.
“There was a kink in the rope that I had to undo,” he said later to chuckles from those who knew Florine’s code phrase for an out-of-control 360-degree spin. He nevertheless completed the pendulum maneuver, which sometimes takes climbers as many as six tries, on his first attempt.
At one point, the pair was 10 minutes ahead of the record pace, but mistakes and exhaustion slowed the climbers down. Florine had to lower himself down 20 feet once to unsnag the rope. And when he reached the bolt ladder at the top, he said he slowed down out of fear that he might pass out if he didn’t catch his breath.
“I was way more exhausted than the last time,” Florine said. “It didn’t feel that fast with all the holdups.”
Reclaiming their record
Florine had planned to recapture the record since October, when the Huber brothers smashed his and Hirayama’s 2002 record by three minutes. The Hubers, known as two of the strongest, most technically skilled and daring climbers in the world, accomplished the task after about 20 practice runs over three years, one of which included a serious fall by Thomas Huber that delayed the quest.
“I have deep respect to Yuji and Hans, and, as we expected, this record, ours, won’t last very long,” Thomas Huber wrote in an e-mail. “But it was great to get this one time in life.”
The Hubers were unhappy with depictions of them by Yosemite habitués as shirtless, leather-pants-wearing rock-star types, complete with entourage and groupies.
In fact, Thomas Huber is a husband and father of three. His younger brother, a certified physicist, comes off as serene and intellectual. Many of those who met them described them as friendly, down-to-earth folk. The movie about their record attempt, “To The Limit,” depicts them as complex, transcendent personalities for whom climbing is more a spiritual quest than a competition.
“I love those guys to death,” said Florine, no irony intended. “They honored me and Yuji by going at the Nose and believing it was a worthy record.”
There was, nevertheless, an undeniable beat-the-Germans mentality among some Florine fans. And Florine is no stranger to rivalry. He first set the Nose speed record with Steve Schneider in 1991, reaching the top in 8 hours and 6 minutes. It was broken a week later. It has since been broken nine times, Florine repeatedly reclaiming the fastest time. World renowned climber Dean Potter and he traded the Nose record several times starting in 2001, prompting one magazine to run a photo illustration of them glaring at each other.
Some purists criticize Florine’s competitiveness, but climbers have been setting and breaking records on the Nose for half a century. They are, undoubtedly, tempting fate on 7,569-foot-elevation El Capitan, which has a rock face so sheer that even some of the best climbers find themselves struggling with vertigo. The top, or roof section, juts outward, leaving climbers teetering in the air with a heart-stopping view, forcing them to contemplate gruesome possibilities.
Thirteen climbers have been killed in nine separate accidents on the route since 1973, when Michael Blake, 19, of Santa Monica fell 2,800 feet after his body weight yanked a bolt out of the wall and severed his rope. Twenty-four people have died on El Capitan since 1905, sometimes because they forgot to do something as simple as tying a knot.
Speed climbing is even more risky - forcing climbers to scale large sections of the route virtually unprotected - but has become an integral part of the history of Yosemite, as was evident Wednesday.
The spectators included Florine’s wife, Jacqueline, his former track coach, Yosemite National Park Superintendent Mike Tollefson and some of the legends of Yosemite big wall climbing. They were screaming encouragement as Florine and Hirayama reached the Glowering Spot, so named because that is where a piton came loose and hit a climber named Warren Harding in the head during the first ascent in 1958. His climbing partners, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore, found him there glowering at the piton. The very piton that hit Harding in the head is on display with other historic climbing artifacts at the Yosemite Museum, according to longtime climbing guide Ken Yager, who organized the exhibit.
This year is the 50th anniversary of that first ascent, which was accomplished in 47 days. “This is cutting edge, traditional Yosemite climbing, the best it gets,” said binocular-toting Tom Frost, a 72-year-old Yosemite legend who, along with Royal Robbins and two other partners, pulled off the second ascent of the Nose back in 1960, in six days. “I joke with Hans about how we knocked five weeks off the record compared to, what, just a few minutes?”
Racing to the finish
The suspense was intense on the last pitch. It ended with Florine scrambling frantically on his hands and feet, gear dragging behind him above the yawning precipice, then getting up and running for the last 30 feet.
Florine and Hirayama stood on the edge of El Capitan with their hands in the air after the climb. Florine’s wife crowned them with laurel wreaths and friends doused them with Champagne, but this might not be the end.
“The Huber brothers are probably watching this and plotting their return,” said Jacqueline Florine. “It’s so fun.”
Hirayama plans to return in September with a film production crew and team up again with Florine in an attempt to lower the record even further.
“I could have gone much more faster, yeah sure,” Hirayama said, explaining how he preserved his energy on the final 18 pitches. “It’s a temporary record.”
Speed climbing
Online: For more information, go to: speedclimb.com or supertopo.com.
On film: “To The Limit,” directed by Academy Award winner Pepe Danquart, about the record quest by Alexander and Thomas Huber, will premiere Aug. 8 at the Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St., San Francisco.
2:43:33
Two hours, 43 minutes and 33 seconds is the new record for speed climbing El Capitan’s 2,900-foot Nose route (at about 17.7 feet per minute) by a duo.
– That’s a minute faster than the average length of a major-league baseball game in 1986 (but those have generally gotten longer since then).
– It’s the same length as the epic 2004 Brad Pitt-Orlando Bloom film “Troy.”
And it’s two minutes shorter than the time it took for the Titanic to sink below the surface after its iceberg collision on April 14, 1912.
