Indonesian Digital News Archive

Climbers Mayan Smith-Gobat and Chantel Astorga have set a new speed record by female climbers on the El Capitan's the Nose in Yosemite National Park. The two women made their climb a few days ago and managed to chop a whopping three hours off the previous record, which was set just this past June.

Mayan and Chantel made a scouting run up the route last week and even though they felt they were going slow, they still managed to shave nine minutes off the old record, finishing in 10 hours, 10 minutes. But the ladies knew they could go faster and on Monday they took all of the knowledge they gained during the practice run and put it to good use. When they finished, they turned in a time of 7 hours, 26 minutes, completely obliterating the original time.

Not content with simply climbing one of the hardest routes in the world in record time, Mayan and Chantel moved on to also scale Half Dome. The completed the entire link-up in a time of 23 hours, 35 minutes and by doing so became the first all-female team to do both routes back-to-back. You can read Mayan's account of the climb on her blog, which has an excellent account of the day.

Congratulations to Mayan and Chantel on a job well done. Amazing climbing!

The boys aren't the only ones having fun in Yosemite this summer. Earlier in the week we received the news that Alex Honnold and Hans Florine broke the speed record for The Nose on El Capitan, and now another record has fallen, this time for the ladies.

Climbing.com is reporting that Quinn Brett and Jes Meiris scaled the iconic route on June 11 in 10 hours, 19 minutes. Thats a full 21 minutes faster than the previous record which was set last fall by Libby Sauter and Chantal Astorga. Brett and Meiris launched their climbing collaboration while working together at SOS Outreach, an organization that seeks to mold young people through outdoor adventure. The ladies hope to inspire others, particularly youth, through their efforts.

Congrats to Quinn and Jes on an amazing climb. Well done!

And a tip o' the hat to The Goat for sharing this story.

Newsflash: This Alex Honnold kid just might be a pretty good climber.

Yesterday, Honnold teamed up with Hans Florine, another very talented climber, to go after a new speed record on the Nose, the most famous climbing route up Yosemite's El Capitan. The duo managed to complete the climb in just 2 hours, 23 minutes and 51 seconds, shaving nearly 13 minutes off the old record set by Dean Potter and Sean Leary back in 2010.

According to this story from Examiner.com, the two men did a few warm-up climbs last week to scout out the route and get accustomed to working with one another. With that work out of the way they elected to make their attempt yesterday, which also happened to be Florine's birthday. The results were nothing short of spectacular. It's going to be hard for another team to cut more time off the route in the immediate future, although we all know someone will be trying.

Honnold continues to make Yosemite his personal playground. Less than a month ago he teamed up with Tommy Cladwell to complete a free climb of Mt. Watkins, El Cap and Half Dome back-to-back-to-back. That feat is known as the Triple Crown. Not satisfied with that effort, Honnold returned a couple of weeks later and re-climbed the Triple Crown, this time solo. Now he's added a speed record on The Nose to his already impressive resume. All I can say is "wow!"

Thanks to the Adventure Journal for the tip!

Remember a few weeks back when I reported that Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell had completed a continuous free-climb of Yosemite's Triple Crown? Apparently Honnold had such a good time, he decided to go back and do it again, this time by himself.  The "triple crown" consists of Mt. Watkins, El Capitan and Half Dome, three of toughest and most iconic climbs in North America.

According to this story at Climbing.com, Honnold began his epic solo endeavor on Mt. Watkins at 4 PM on Tuesday of this week and finished up on top of Half Dome 10:45 AM the following day. That means he managed to not only scale each of the three big walls, but also travel between them, in just 18 hours of time. That shaved more than three hours off the time he did with Caldwell.

The story also says that he free climbed 90% of the route, using aid on just a few occasions. He also reportedly borrowed a chalk bag from some other climbers on El Cap after he forgot his back on the ground.

Honnold, who is unquestionably one of the strongest climbers in the world today, has made Yosemite his personal playground over the past few years. Last week he even went up the Northwest Face of Half Dome in just 1 hour and 22 minutes, shaving nearly an hour and a half off his previous record.