Alex Honnold Smashes Yosemite Solo Speed Record
The veteran Yosemite climber has proven once again that he's the king of El Capitan
Alex Honnold has set a new rope-solo speed record in Yosemite that surely won’t be broken anytime soon, having climbed the 3,500-foot Salathé Wall in only 11 hours and 18 minutes.
Earlier this month, American big wall climber Brant Hysell, the man behind the Gravity Labs YouTube channel, rope-soloed Salathé Wall in record-setting 19 hours and 57 minutes. The previous fastest time was by Cheyene Lempe in 2013 at 20 hours and six minutes.
Salathé Wall is a 35-pitch 5.9 C2 that was first climbed in 1961 by Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt, Tom Frost. It was first free-climbed in 1988 by Todd Skinner and Paul Piana who swung leads over a nine-day period. The overall fastest time is four hours and 55 minutes by Alex Honnold and the late Sean Leary.
“I’ve never had the Salathé solo record,” Honnold told the San Francisco Chronicle. “When it was my friend who held it, it would have felt weird to go and dunk on him. But if it’s someone I don’t know, it’s like, game on!” Shortly before climbing the Salathé Wall, Honnold free-soloed two tall routes, see below for more info.
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