Yesterday, Honnold teamed up with Hans Florine, another very talented climber, to go after a new speed record on the Nose, the most famous climbing route up Yosemite's El Capitan. The duo managed to complete the climb in just 2 hours, 23 minutes and 51 seconds, shaving nearly 13 minutes off the old record set by Dean Potter and Sean Leary back in 2010.
According to this story from Examiner.com, the two men did a few warm-up climbs last week to scout out the route and get accustomed to working with one another. With that work out of the way they elected to make their attempt yesterday, which also happened to be Florine's birthday. The results were nothing short of spectacular. It's going to be hard for another team to cut more time off the route in the immediate future, although we all know someone will be trying.
Honnold continues to make Yosemite his personal playground. Less than a month ago he teamed up with Tommy Cladwell to complete a free climb of Mt. Watkins, El Cap and Half Dome back-to-back-to-back. That feat is known as the Triple Crown. Not satisfied with that effort, Honnold returned a couple of weeks later and re-climbed the Triple Crown, this time solo. Now he's added a speed record on The Nose to his already impressive resume. All I can say is "wow!"
Thanks to the Adventure Journal for the tip!