The fastest man on The Nose of El Capitan just lost his title.
Alex Honnold held the solo speed climbing record on The Nose (5.9 C2) until a man from Bloomington, Indiana snatched it from him on Tuesday.
Photographer Tom Evans reported 28-year-old Nick Ehman dispatched the 900m route in 4 hours, 39 minutes. He climbed in a mixed free and aid (or “fraid”) style, and his mark soundly beat Honnold’s existing 5:50 record.
Google Ehman’s name and you’ll find a Mountain Project profile with one item on his to-do list: an easy, nondescript 30m trad route in Tuolomne Meadows.
He brought the sauce this week, though, and plenty of it to douse a juggernaut. Honnold still holds the overall speed record on El Cap, at 1:58:07, along with Tommy Caldwell.
5:50 also doesn’t come close to Honnold’s fastest solo time on the formation; that came during the events of Free Solo, when he climbed the Freerider in 3:56.
But none of that makes him faster than Ehman on The Nose, for whom yesterday brought an impressive tick. The logistics of climbing alone on a route that complicated and challenging are titanic. And earning a speed record on any Yosemite classic means defeating the best climbers of a generation.
Honnold has shown a penchant for snatching his lost records back. Watch for him to check in at El Capitan soon — if he’s not too busy being dad.
