Men's Journal

Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama break their own speed record on Yosemite’s El Cap.

by Dougald McDonald

Last winter, after Germany’s Huber brothers broke a Japanese-American team’s record for speed-climbing the Nose of El Capitan in 2:45:45 (a sprint in big-wall terms), Yuji Hirayama called teammate Hans Florine and said, “Let’s get that record back.” Florine responded, “I’m already planning on it. I just wondered who would be on the other end of the rope.”

Florine, 44, has broken the Nose record seven times since 1990, slicing the mark on Yosemite Valley’s 2,900-foot granite monolith (an ascent that usually requires three or four days) from eight hours to under three. On July 2, Hirayama scurried up the first pitch, with Florine racing behind to retrieve gear, linked by a 200-foot rope with only a few pieces of protection to guard against a fatal fall. Despite a stuck rope and a bobbled piece of equipment, the two clasped hands at the ponderosa pine in 2:43:33 — two minutes and 12 seconds faster than the Hubers.

On October 12 they hit the wall again, cutting their own record to 2:37:05. “I joke that for every minute
we took off the record, it would buy us one more year holding it,” says Florine. “You could look at that like eight more years.”

Florine’s recap of the duo’s record-breaking summit of the nose:

5 min 55 sec: Top of first pitch (previous best: 4:59). “The cold had us starting off cautiously,” Florine says.

18 min: Sickle Ledge (July time: 16:20). “I’d neglected to remove a protection piece on the third pitch, and had to down-climb eight feet to retrieve it.”

46 min: Dolt Tower (July time: 56:00). This was the crucial section. “We made the transition swings from Sickle and climbed through the 400-foot Stoveleg Crack without mess-ups,” says Florine.

1 hour 4 min: Eagle Ledge (July time: 1:06). “We were out of breath from the sprint to Dolt Tower. I blew it on the first go of the King Swing and had to do it a second time.”

1 hour 28 min: Camp 4 (previous best: 1:20). “We were still out of breath from the speed and getting a little rest.”

2 hours 37 min: Top-out Tree (previous best: 2:43). “My hands were freezing. I had a tough time untying knots,” says Florine. “I wasted no time belaying Yuji for the final four pitches; he was going too fast for it to make a difference.”