A Dean Potter Free-Solo Speed Record Was Beat by Roped Climbers
Up The Casual Route 5.10 on Longs Peak
Records are meant to be broken, but in the case of the fastest known time up The Casual Route 5.10, seven pitches, on Long’s Peak Diamond set by Dean Potter not for over 20 years.
It took Stefan Griebel and Wade Morris three hours, 53 minutes and 59 seconds to climb the route. It took Potter three hours and 59 minutes. The timing starts at the trailhead to Longs Peak and ends back at the trailhead.
The first free route on the Diamond was in 1975 by Wayne Goss and Jamie Logan via D7, Yellow Wall and Black Dagger. Later that year, Pervertical Sanctuary was freed by Tobin Sorenson and Bruce Adams. Two years later, Duncan Ferguson and Chris Reveley climbed D1 pillar to Table Ledge and named it the Integral Route.
Charlie Fowler then free-soloed the route and said it felt casual and thus it was then called The Casual Route. In 1991, Roger Briggs free-soloed the Diamond at five hours and 45 minutes. Then next speed record was Potter’s.
Who Was Dean Potter?
For those of you who don’t know who Dean Potter was, Dean Potter was the GOAT. He was a Yosemite climber who opened new hard routes around the world, pushed free-soloing on big walls and changed the sport of climbing.
In 2002, he made the first free solo of Supercanaleta on Fitz Roy; in 2003 he made the first ascent of Conception 5.13+ in Moab; in 2006 he made the first free solo of Heaven 5.13a in Yosemite; in 2006 free-soloed Deep Blue Sea 5.12+ on the Eiger with a BASE set up; in 2010 he got the fastest time up The Nose at two hours and 36 minutes.
He died in 2015 in a wingsuit accident in Yosemite.
“Entranced by the flight of a raven, I watch its shadow move effortlessly against golden, shimmering granite. I long to be that free, flying above the cluttered world of normalcy, where so many are half alive.” – Dean Potter
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