![]() Jason Wells, left, and Tim Klein fell to their deaths on June 2 while trying to ascend El Capitan. The two expert climbers killed Saturday were speed climbing in that manner on El Cap's Freeblast route when one fell and pulled the other 1,000 feet (305 meters) to their deaths. But the amount of gear in a race against the clock is pared to the bare minimum to save weight, and climbers sometimes move in tandem with neither anchored to the rock. ![]() Climbers are roped together for safety, and they clip their lifeline into protective pieces that they place in cracks along the way to catch them if they fall. "It's a very complicated route," said Daniel Duane, author of the book "El Capitan." "It meanders all over the place and it has pendulum swings and bolt ladders and there are little variations where you can go this way and instead of that way, so there's a ton of trickery involved in shaving off time." Other cracks come abruptly to an end in a sea of smooth granite, forcing climbers to swing 30 feet (9 meters) left or right to find the next hand or foothold. Ledges large enough to camp on offer respite, but sometimes there is little more to grasp or perch on than a sliver the width of a few coins. (Associated Press)Ĭlimbers jam hands and feet into finger- and fist-width cracks to inch their way up the vertical wall. The Nose is the best known and typically takes accomplished climbers four or five days.Īlex Honnold, top, and Tommy Caldwell are pictured during a practice climb last week. El Cap, though, looms largest and offers 58 distinct routes. ![]() Yosemite is mecca for climbers around the world because of its vast array of beautiful soaring granite walls and peaks. "As I hammered in the last bolt and staggered over the rim, it was not at all clear to me who was the conqueror and who was the conquered," Harding said afterward. That milestone took 12 days in a final push that followed 48 days of advance work over 18 months as Harding pounded bolts into the route to aid his climb. "I think it is getting close."Ĭlimbing times on El Cap have fallen precipitously since the first ascent of the cliff 60 years ago by Warren Harding and two others. ![]() So which one of those is the four-minute mile?" Florine said before the mark was broken. "We were pushing the five-hour barrier before and then the four-hour barrier and then the three-hour barrier. Hans Florine, who has held the speed record for the climb on and off between 19 - the last time with Honnold - said the new mark is equivalent to the ongoing quest to break the two-hour marathon or Roger Bannister's 1954 achievement in the mile. Honnold said it would have been easy to stop after setting records Monday and May 30, but they pressed toward the 2-hour goal he considered the "human potential" for the route. The duo broke the Nose record three times in the past week, carving more than 20 minutes off a mark set last year. I had a wave of, `Oh wow.' I'm pretty proud we saw it through.' "Īlex Honnold, right, and Tommy Caldwell, pictured at the top of El Capitan on June 3, set a new speed record for scaling the rock face. "It was slightly emotional when we finished it. "Oh my god, we're doing it," he thought to himself as he secured the rope around the tree and hoped Caldwell would hustle up the final pitch. Honnold didn't think they were on a record pace until he pulled his phone out and looked at his timer as he ran for the tree that marks the official finish line, he told The Associated Press by phone as he hiked down from the summit. ![]() Hamilton man narrowly escapes death on El Capitan.It also came just days after two speed climbers fell to their deaths on the peak. The blisteringly fast pace capped weeks of practice climbs up the so-called Nose route that runs up the middle of the massive monolith towering above Yosemite Valley. After two of the world's most celebrated rock climbers twice set astonishingly fast records on the biggest wall in Yosemite National Park in a week, they did it again Wednesday, breaking a mark compared with track's four-minute mile.Īlex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell scaled El Capitan's 915-metre sheer granite wall in one hour, 58 minutes and seven seconds, Honnold said. ![]()
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