Climbing pair breaks speed record on El Capitan in Yosemite

Two climbers, Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds, set a new speed record Saturday for climbing the Nose route of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

They climbed the nearly 90-degree, 2,900-foot precipice in 2 hours and 19 minutes.

That’s four minutes faster than the previous record set in 2012 by climbing rock star Alex Honnold and Hans Florine, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Gobright and Reynolds were scheduled to make the climb 10 days earlier but a friend of theirs, Quinn Brett, was seriously injured Oct. 11. Tom Evans of ElCapreport.com said Brett fell 100 feet down the Nose, landing on boulders. She reportedly suffered a back injury.

Gobright and Reynolds were supposed to launch their speed attempt the next day, but they postponed it. Gobright, 29, discussed the need for focus in an interview with the Chronicle on Sunday:

“The big thing that Jim and I were worried about was that to some extent you have to kind of put safety behind you when you’re trying to move that fast. It requires a lot of focus, much more than a regular climb. Speed climbing requires your full attention.”

Evans of ElCapreport.com said it was the 11th climb by Gobright and Reynolds, and that they had broken 2:30 on their previous climb.

Gobright said that after topping the Nose on Saturday, he could hear cheers from the crowd down below. A few minutes later, he got a text message from one of the previous record holders, Florine.

Florine has set eight speed records for his climbs up the Nose since 1990, according to the Chronicle.

This story was originally published October 23, 2017 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Climbing pair breaks speed record on El Capitan in Yosemite."