Alex Honnold Sets New Half Dome and El Cap Speed Records

Both The Adventure Life and The Goat are reporting today that rock climber Alex Honnold has set new speed records on Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite, going up both the regular Northwest Face Route as well as the Nose on the two faces respectively.

Honnold began his assault on the record books by scaling the Northwest Face route on Half Dome in just 2 hours and 9 minutes, which shaves 41 minutes off the old record. He then proceeded to go directly to the Nose on El Cap,  which he scaled in just under six hours, giving him a new record for the combined climb of both routes. Essentially, he did them in just 8 hours total. Amazing!

Honnold's climbing buddy Ueli Steck was on hand to observe the proceedings. Apparently the two are still planning on making a speed attempt on the Nose as well, although we haven't had a lot of updates on their progress in the past month. That record currently stands at 2 hours 37 minutes and was set last October by Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayma.