A single fall would end it. A single hesitation would cost minutes they could not claw back. Alex Honnold and Hans Florine threaded 31 pitches of the Nose on El Capitan in 2 hours, 23 minutes and 46 seconds, seizing the world speed record on June 17, 2012.
The pair left the ground just before six in the morning. A crowd had already gathered in the meadow below, still in shadow, watching two figures move fast above them. The forecast promised a 90-degree day and the clock would not wait for anyone.
A breathless push through the shade
Florine led the lower half of the route while Honnold took the upper pitches, including the final bolt ladder. There, one long pull over a slight bulge nearly undid him.
They stayed in the shade as long as the wall allowed, never stopping. The ascent was a steady, breathless push. “Safety first, fun second, speed third,” Honnold told reporters afterwards. “And it honestly played out like that.”
Forty-five seconds, three minutes, thirteen
The previous record of 2:36:45, set by Dean Potter and Sean Leary in November 2010, fell by nearly 13 minutes. Honnold and Florine had come heartbreakingly close before. They missed by 45 seconds in November 2011, then by three minutes on a warm-up run just three days before this attempt.
For Florine, it was his eighth time holding the Nose speed record across 22 years. Honnold arrived fresh from a solo triple linkup of El Capitan, Mount Watkins and Half Dome in under 19 hours, completed only a week earlier.
“Now that we officially have a record, it feels surprisingly satisfying,” Honnold said. On Father’s Day, near his 48th birthday, Florine climbed into the record books one more time and then stepped down into the meadow to his family.
