The Speed King
September 28, 2002
As I write these words I’m on an airplane bound for San Jose. I’m enroute to Yosemite Valley to watch a world-class athletic event, as if I’m a real sports journalist covering an event the world cares about. Alas, not many are interested in what I’m going to watch, but it is my passion. When I told my friend Jim Herson about this trip, his response was, “Wow Bill, nobody appreciates this speed stuff more than you!” Perhaps that is true, but nobody is more driven and more accomplished than Hans Florine.
Five days ago, I received this short email from Hans:
Yuji Hirayama and myself climbed The Nose route on El Capitan in 3 hours and 26 minutes*. We passed 7 parties! but the record for passing, THAT I KNOW OF, is Chandlee Harrell and myself passing 9 parties in 2000 on the Nose in a 7 hour and change ascent.
all the best..
Hans Florine.
* this was the time from the start of the first pitch per the SuperTopo, and finishing at the bolts over the lip where it has been timed to in the past. We continued up the slab and both got to the big tree at 3:27.
He also left me a phone mail message stating, “The Olympic rules for speed climbing allow for a one minute deduction for each party passed.” Of course it was tongue in cheek, but seemed pretty valid to me.
When I notified him I was coming out to watch, support, and video some of the action, he was pleased. I demanded a worthwhile effort. I didn’t want him to barely break the record like he did the last time he owned it. This was back in October of last year. Hans and Jim Herson broke Dean Potter’s and Timmy O’Neill’s Nose record by a mere two minutes. Dean and Timmy had been the first time to go under four hours and Hans and Jim followed up with a time of 3:57. Two weeks later Dean and Timmy answered emphatically with a time of 3h24m – the standing record. Back then Timmy had thought that sub-3 hours was possible for him and Dean. Now Hans felt the same way. His typically curt response to my demands was simply:
2:57 - Ba da bing!
One of the most attractive aspects of Hans’ personality is his confidence and this was just one more instance of it. I’m his biggest fan, but I thought that Dean Potter was just too bold and too fit to be beaten by Hans. Heck, Dean climbs harder, trains harder, runs faster. How could Hans be a faster climber, I worried. None of that entered Hans’ mind. He just considers himself the fastest man on stone.
But Hans had a secret weapon: Yuji Hirayama. Yuji is perhaps the best crack climber in the world. He recently made a no-falls ascent of the Free Salathe Light in a mere 13 hours, becoming only the second man to do this. Tommy Caldwell took 19 hours for his no-falls one-day ascent. Yuji had also been up working on freeing the Great Roof. He had studied the video of Lynn Hill and tried to duplicate her moves at the crux, but failed on one move. I asked him if it was because his fingers were too big and he said, “No, I’m just not strong enough.” He didn’t use that as an excuse at all, but he did think it was easier for a smaller person because of the highly compacted body positions necessary under the overhang.
Loobster was waiting for me at the San Jose airport. Unfortunately my bags weren’t. This happens to be a lot. The airlines must know what I think of them and use every opportunity to emphatically prove me right. In the nearly three hours we had to wait for the next flight carrying my bag, I had the opportunity to go buy a new video camera. Heck, United should be held responsible for this. I certainly can’t be held responsible for my own weakness towards cool electronic gadgets.
Photo 1: Yuji and Hans getting goofy after climbing the Nose.
After a late dinner at Carl’s Junior – required whenever I visit California – for a delicious Western Bacon Cheeseburger (without a doubt the king of fast food burgers and, yes, I know that isn’t saying much), we drove out to the secret spot. The secret spot wasn’t lost any of its luster. Log live the southern route to Yosemite!
We had originally planned to head to Hans’ house, but with our late arrival, we figured to save ourselves the time it would take to drive up to and then back down from Hans’ house. We used that time to sleep instead, and sleep we did. We both slept like stones.
The alarm went at 4 a.m. and we slowly got moving. We’d had less than five hours of sleep, but wanted to get into the Valley and up the first pitch of the Nose so that we could video Yuji and Hans climbing past us. We drove into the Valley and over to El Cap Meadow. I organized Loobster’s rack and we stuffed the gear into his pack. It was quite cold out and I left the car with all the clothes I brought, including a hat and gloves.
By headlamps, we soloed up the mostly 4th class approach to the first pitch and geared up at the base. The first pitch is rated 5.10d and certainly is challenging, but it isn’t the continuous and there are a number of rests on small footholds. I had freed this pitch early in the year, but only following. I led it via headlamp and made one mistake. I paid for it with an eight-foot fall. I finished up the long pitch and fixed the rope for Loobster. He was going to jug this pitch, as he hadn’t climbed a single technical pitch all year. This guy has got to move to Colorado soon!
As Loobster was nearing the belay we heard Yuji and Hans approaching. They came via Pine Line (5.7) and not up the ledges we used. They did this unroped, but had already switched into their climbing shoes. They had a couple of Yuji’s friends heading up the East Ledges. They would carry descent shoes, food, water, and video them on the last two pitches. We would cover the first two pitches.
Yuji would lead the entire route, just as before. Yuji is a climbing machine. He is so incredibly talented, so strong, and, refreshingly, so friendly and relaxed. This former World Cup champion is taking two years off to climb other things – like El Cap. After this route, he’d turn his attention to the second free ascent of the new Quantum Mechanic (5.13 crack route to the right of Astroman), Free Rider, and maybe try to free Half Dome as well (the Higbee Hedral variation).
Photo 2: The ever redoubtable Loobster.
Yuji floated up the first pitch, but it didn’t look frantic or even very fast. It only looks fast when compared to other climbers. Heck, he took three or four minutes to lead the first pitch – a 150’ of 5.10 climbing. This doesn’t involve any frantic movement, just continuous movement. “Konichiwa!” we greeted him. He smiled warmly and said hello back to us. He clipped the belay and moved on up the next pitch (5.11b). This would be Yuji’s eighth ascent of the Nose. It would be Hans’ 45th ascent.
Hans started climbing up the first pitch as soon as Yuji had three pieces clipped. This is the key to climbing really fast – continuous movement by both climbers. I have simul-climbed many times before, but for me it usually involved moving once the leader ran out of rope. Hans’ philosophy is to move whenever you can. His concept of a belay is just three pieces anywhere between the leader and the second. On this climb he would rarely clip into a single standard belay.
Hans has to climb and adjust the slack for Yuji. His goal is to never prevent Yuji from moving. If Yuji is on easy ground, then Hans pulls out more rope from his Gri-Gri and lets Yuji run. When the climbing is more difficult for Yuji, Hans can then make up some ground and “bank” some rope. They two would nearly simul-climb the entire route.
When Yuji did the tension traverse on the second pitch, he acts as a counterweight pulling Hans up, as they both hang from the penji-point. Soon they were out of sight. They were on Sickle Ledge in 17 minutes, the top of pitch 6 in 20 minutes. They were flying and it was clear the record was going to be broken. The only question was by how much. The Nose was completely free of any other climbers. A rain the day before had chased everyone off.
We rapped off and scrambled out to El Cap Meadow to sit in chairs and watch the action. It was going to be over pretty soon. We met a film crew of three shooting video of the ascent. They were actually making a film about Sierra Club founder David Brower. I’m not sure how they work this footage into the story, but what the heck. We also saw Jacki and Marianna, Hans’ wife and daughter.
Yuji powered up Stovelegs with Hans in tow. They brought a single #3 Camalot for the long fist section. Yuji would leave this at the bottom of this section and run it out completely. Hans would use this piece as a handhold and repeatedly place it as he simul-climbed behind. The got to Dolt Tower in well under an hour and, in fact, got to Boot Flake in around an hour. Yuji climbed the bolt ladder over to the Boot Flake crack sans aiders. He just locks off on a quickdraw and moves on. He did stand in an aider a couple of times on cam hooks to reach the crack itself. Once he gets to the tight hands 10c handcrack, he runs to the top without any gear. He probably was out of gear at this point anyway.
Photo 3: Yuji Hirayama, perhaps the best crack climber in the world.
As soon as Yuji hits the top of Boot Flake, he clips in and Hans lowers him down. Yuji cleans a few of the pieces he left below the hand crack. Hans is at the top of bolt ladder at this point. Yuji nailed the King Swing on the first try and clipped in on Eagle Ledge. Moments later Hans does the same swing and joins him. They transfer the gear here and Yuji is off again.
They arrive at Camp IV after an hour and 25 minutes. Hans calls this the halfway mark, so they are on pace for a 2h50m ascent, but the hard time consuming pitches are coming up. Yuji only uses the aider a couple of times on the Great Roof pitch. He fixes the rope at the end of this pitch and for the first time Hans uses his ascenders. While Hans is cleaning the Great Roof, Yuji is climbing the 10a/b Pancake Flake with a hundred feet of slack! But the time he hits the 11b crux further up, he has only twenty feet of slack, but he’s been placing gear so he doesn’t risk a huge fall here. Nevertheless he climbs this without a standard belay.
Yuji goes right into the awkward 11a flare, leading up to Camp V. Hans simul-climbs Pancake Fake, even the 11b section, using the gear that Yuji left behind. Hans just uses these pieces as handholds and leap frogs them up this section. This sounds simply, but in reality isn’t so easy. He’s got to be able to place and remove this pieces as quickly solidly as if he was just jamming the crack. Also, these pieces have to fit where he can reach or he had to immediately clip it to his harness and use his fingers. All this is while 5.11 ground where a fall is simply out of the question – it would be catastrophic for Yuji.
The next hard pitch is the 12c/d Glowering Spot and Yuji again uses the aider a couple of times. After this pitch he’ll be able to climb out at 5.11/A0. He’s thirty feet up the pitch when Hans arrives below him. Only after the King Swing were these two climbers within reach of each other. Yuji carried a 4mm cord that he left tied into an anchor whenever he was out of gear. Hans would arrive, clip on all the gear, and Yuji, by then forty or more feet up, would pull it up. They re-stocked Yuji only five times in 3000 feet of climbing.
Yuji got to Camp VI after about two hours. I recalled the Hans’ had climbed out from there in 40 minutes or so. We knew they’d be breaking three hours at this point. They simul-climbed the 5.10+ pitches leading to the final bolt ladder and the bolt ladder itself. We watched all this from the Meadow through binoculars and caught Hans’ white shirt sprinting up the final slabs and out of sight. We knew they finished around 2h50m, but would find out later the time to the tree at the very summit (well into un-rope-able terrain) in 2h48m55s!
This is a pretty solid time and Hans’ thinks it will stand for awhile. Potter doesn’t seem that interested in playing this game anymore and there probably isn’t anyone else alive could challenge this time. Only time will tell. Maybe there will be another long period of time where no one tries to break this record because they think it is untouchable. Hans and Peter Croft’s record of 4h22m stood for nearly ten years before Potter and O’Neill broke it. That said, one of the first things Yuji would say when we met them at the base of the East Ledges rappels was that he thinks it can still go fifteen minutes faster. Upon hearing this, Hans shook his head. He didn’t think he could go faster. On their previous ascent Hans had never slowed Yuji’s ascent. This time he admitted to holding up Yuji by about six minutes.
Loobster and I hiked into the base of the rappels to shoot a video interview. We chatted incessantly with Hans, Yuji, and their two other Japanese friends. Hans had dropped a Ropeman (tiny ascender used to protect the leader from the possibility of the second falling) and beaned one of them in the head. He had been bleeding profusely, but appeared fine at this point.
When we got down to Manure Pile Buttress, we ran into Steph Davis, Dean Potter’s wife and a world-class climber in her own right. Hans passed on his congratulations to Dean for his incredible feat of free climbing both Half Dome and Free Rider on El Cap in a single day. A couple of years ago Steph had written a very disparaging and illogical letter to Climbing Magazine about speed climbing. It was hypocritical as well since she has dabbled in speed climbing herself. Hans told her about the new record on the Nose and said he “gave Dean some to shoot for.” Steph responded, “I don’t think Dean’s playing that game anymore.” I later ran into Dean while running out from Pine Line (no, I didn’t break Hans’ record). Dean was wearing dark glasses and had shoulder length black hair. I’d previously seen him only in magazines and videos and he frequently had really short hair. I ran by him initially, but what really caught my attention was the dog he was walking. I remembered the dog from the Mastes of Stone V video with Dean and Steph Davis. I stopped and introduced myself. I passed on my congratulations on his unbelievable and inspiring feats. He asked what we were up to and we told him about Hans and Yuji’s climb. I knew Dean and Hans weren’t friends, so I concentrated on Yuji. Dean was very impressed by Yuji and was anxious to meet him. I asked if he had any grand plans for his valley stay. He just responded, “I want to work on becoming a better free climber.” This from a guy who has soloed, unroped, Astroman and 5.13 sport routes. If he becomes much better, he’ll be world-class in pure difficult to go with this status as a speed climbers, soloist, and alpinist.
Photo 4: Yuji and Hans. Once again the Speed King. 2:48:55!
We reposed in the Meadow for lunch. Our group was Yuji, his two Japanese friends, Hans, Jacki, Marianna, the Loobster, and I. We took photos, ate, and talked about the great feat. I queried Yuji incessantly about his climbs in Yosemite and his thoughts about the controversy surrounding his ascent of Kryptonite (5.14c/d) in Rifle. He was very hurt by the allegations that he and Francois Legrande had chipped holds on Kryptonite. He emphatically stated that he only cleaned mud out of an existing pocket. Being a professional climber, his reputation is everything to him – it is his livelihood – and he felt very mistreated to see such claims in print without at first consulting him on what happened.
Lethargy was taking hold of the group. Of course this was fine for Yuji and Hans because they had already climbed El Cap, but the Loobster and I needed to more done. The Loobster wasn’t that motivated so I decided to try and take Hans’ Pine Line Loop record from him. Sure, he had gained the Nose record today, but he’d be losing the even more coveted Pine Line record, I hoped.
I dashed into the route from the paved road, the official start/finish line, only to find a group of four, with three at the base and the leader halfway up the pitch. I was relieved of rushing up the pitch and the speed attempt was over. I chatted amicably with the belayer and asked if I could solo up the route after the leader reached the top. She immediately said yes. I climbed up a few feet and was just standing there chatting with her when my feet slipped off and I fell to the ground. This didn’t boost my confidence for soloing this hundred-foot 5.7. I started up cautiously and my foot slipped again. Dang! Be careful, I chided myself. The rest of the pitch went fine and I was soon at the top. I had no motivation to push things on the downclimb. I saw Hans and family on the way out – they were hiking around looking for the Ropeman that Hans had dropped.
Back at the car, I finally got motivated and we packed up the gear and headed for the Salathe Wall. I really like the opening pitches of this route and wanted to try and free climb the 5.11b 3rd pitch. I convinced the Loobster that no aiders would e necessary. The first pitch is a full 50 meters and rated 5.10c. I find this to be the easiest 5.10c in all of Yosemite. It does have a couple of thin, hard sections, but they are short and good rests are plentiful. I was soon at the belay and the Loobster followed the pitch cleanly as three Germans rapped down past us, fixing lines to the top of the third pitch in preparation for starting up tomorrow.
I led the short, wide, leaning crack up to the hanging belay at the top of the second and the Loobster followed. This pitch is only rated 5.8, but I find it pretty challenging, as did the Loobster. He wanted to head down, but I felt I had to at least try the next pitch. After he got me on belay, I stood up on some tiny footholds at the belay and was immediately stymied. There weren’t any holds. I could see a reasonable undercling hold, but it was too far above me. My feet were screaming in pain. I was wearing a new pair of Mythos and I hadn’t broken them in yet. I slumped back onto the anchors and rested my feet. I nearly gave up right then, but vowed to at least take one fall.
The next time up, I stemmed way to the right to a small, positive foothold. Previously I didn’t think I could reach this from my other footholds. Now I had, but my right foot was far to the right and too high. How would I get onto it? I ended up pushing myself to the right by pressing against the wall to left and this worked. I was then able to clip the fixed pin driven straight up underneath the roof. The next holds were desperate fingertip underclings with tiny footholds. I fell due to a lack of power and probably more due to a lack of mental conviction. I rested a bit and then tried again. This time I got further to the right and clipped the next fixed piece. I once again fell while trying to reach a hold over the roof. I then found a key hold over the roof and desperately slapped around to the right until my fingers left a crack. I could then pull around the roof and onto 5.7 ground. It’ll have to be a project for me. The Loobster wasn’t interested in following it, so I rappelled the German’s fixed line and cleaned the three pieces of gear. I went down to the top of the first pitch and Loobster rapped to join to me. One more fixed-rope rappel and we were on the ground. It was time to head back to San Jose. It was a short trip, but well worth it. We got to see a world-class athletic achievement up close. I got to support my friend Hans and climb with my friend Loobster. Plus I got to spend 13 hours in Yosemite and any time spent there is precious.
Photo 5: Th e Loobster is in the bottom right corner of this photo. He is at the top of the first pitch. The crack slanting up and to his left is the second pitch. The big roof above him is the third pitch. This roof is turned by traversing under it from left to the right.