Remember last year when the Huber brothers set a new speed record for The Nose on El Capitan? Well, their amazing climb has been bested by Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama, who completed the route in 2 hours, 43 minutes, and 33 seconds. That's 2 minutes and 12 seconds faster than the Hubers for those keeping track at home.
According to this article over at SFGate.com, it took the two climbers three attempts to break the record and at one point they were more than 10 minutes ahead of the record pace, before exertion and exhaustion caught up with them.
Of course, in the rock climbing community, Forine and Hirayama's climb was expected, as they were the previous record holders before the Hubers knocked them off the top spot last October. The Nose route is one of the most iconic and demanding in the world, and average climbers can take several days to complete the climb. At 2900+ feet in length, it's probably the best known route on El Cap, itself an icon in Yosemite.
Congrats to Hans and Yuji. What an amazing display of climbing skill. Will the Hubers try to respond? Reading between the lines in the article, it seems that they are content with their place in history and, for now, they have no plans to try to re-break the record.
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