Climbers set speed record on El Capitan

SAN FRANCISCO, July 3 (UPI) -- Two climbers broke a record this week by climbing the Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in California in 2 hours, 43 minutes and 33 seconds.

Hans Florine of Lafayette, Calif., and Yuji Hirayama of Hidaka, Japan, broke the record set last year by brothers Alexander and Thomas Huber of Germany by 2 minutes and 12 seconds, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Mid-climb, Florine and Hirayama were 10 minutes ahead of the previous record, but later mistakes slowed them down.

Florine has held the record for the Nose several times since he first set a speed record there in 1991. In fact, the Hubers broke the record that Florine and Hirayama set in 2002, doing the climb 3 minutes faster.

The rivalry is a friendly one, Florine said.

"I love those guys to death," he said. "They honored me and Yuji by going at the Nose and believing it was a worthy record."

El Capitan, a sheer rock face 7,569 feet high, was first climbed 50 years ago, an ascent that took 47 days. At least 24 people have been killed since 1905.

Speed climbers run even bigger risks because they cut corners to complete sections in minutes that other climbers do in days.

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