Two experienced climbers have shattered the ascent record of Yosemite Park's fearsome El Capitan, scaling the granite wall in 4 hours and 45 minutes, the U.S. Park Service announced Friday.
The pair - mountaineering instructors Dave Schultz, 31, and Peter Croft, 33 - made the climb on the Fourth of July, the Park Service said, beating the previous best time for scaling the 3,593-foot granite wall by 1 hour and 15 minutes."This style of climbing can only be accomplished by a team that is intimately familiar with the route and are elite climbers," said Bruce Brossman, director of the Yosemite Mountaineering School, where Schultz and Croft work. "Schultz and Croft set a new standard for speed climbing while safely accomplishing this feat."
The pair climbed simultaneously along some sections of the route, placing and removing protective devices as they went which allowed them to move much faster than a normal climbing team.
The previous record was set this year by Hans Florine and Andy Puvel at 6 hours and 3 minutes.