Florine Climbs El Cap’s Nose for 100th Time
Plus 3 more of the day’s top stories
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On Thursday, rock climber Hans Florine began his 100th ascent of the Nose of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, according to Gear Junkie. He and his team plan to sleep on the wall for two nights before finishing on Saturday.
The Nose, a classic Yosemite route, is nearly 3,000 feet tall, graded 5.9 C2, and requires 31 pitches to complete, according to Mountain Project. Despite being El Cap’s easiest full-length route, injuries are not uncommon on the Nose, Rock & Ice reports. In the past four decades, 41 out of 101 incident reports on El Cap came from the Nose (including a 2015 fall that resulted in death).
Many well-known climbers have completed the Nose, including Lynn Hill, who was the first to free-climb it. Dean Potter, along with partner Sean Leary, held the route’s speed record until 2012, when Florine and Alex Honnold broke the free-climbing record with a time of 2:23:51.
Speed isn’t the focus of Florine’s current ascent, which he’s climbing with explorer Fiona Thornewill and journalist Jayme Moye, according to Gear Junkie.
“The two partners I am going with have never been higher than 400 feet up the cliff,” Florine told Gear Junkie. “It will be super fun seeing and experiencing their reactions.”
We've reached Dolt Tower. With @hansflorine on his 100th ascent of the Nose on El Cap! #Nose100 pic.twitter.com/khq1hDBxUv
— Jayme Moye (@JaymeMoye) September 10, 2015
In Other News
- Colorado race and festival company Human Movement announced the highest triathalon in the world on Thursday. The triathalon will take place in Dillon, Colorado, at an elevation of 9,156 feet on September 10, 2016.
- A study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found oat residue on a 32,000-year-old grinding tool from southern Italy. The findings suggest that cavemen ate oats, which means that modern paleo dieters may be off-base with some of their eating restrictions.
- The shoes Roger Bannister wore when he ran the first sub-four-minute mile in 1954 sold for 266,500 pounds (more than $400,000) to an anonymous bidder in London on Thursday.