There is lots of news to catch up on since I’ve been away on holiday in the South Pacific, but we’ll start with a good story out of Yosemite National Park. Over the weekend, climber Hans Florine completed his 100th climb of The Nose, the most well-known and iconic route to the top of El Capitan, a mountain that he has now climbed more than 160 times in total.
Florine was joined on his historic ascent by Jayme Moye and Fiona Thornewell, both of whom were making their first attempt on The Nose. The trio began their climb last Thursday and wrapped up the ascent of the 7569-foot (2307 meter) peak on Saturday. Along the way they completed more than 3000 feet (914 meters) of vertical gain on one of the toughest rock walls in the world.
Hans first made an ascent of The Nose back in 1989, and has been enthralled by the mountain ever since. Back in 2012 he and Alex Honnold even set a speed record for the route, completing the entire climb in just 2 hours, 23 minutes, 46 seconds. His other 60 climbs up El Cap have come along one of the various other routes that are common on the granite slab.
Congratulations to Hans on making his historic 100th ascent. That is an impressive record to say the least. And also congrats to both Jayme and Fiona for not only accompanying him on this adventure, but also completing their first climb up El Capitan as well.
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Thanks Kraig. It was such an incredible experience! You might be interested to know that Hans is working on a book chronicling his 100 ascents of the Nose. "On the Nose: A Lifelong Obsession with Yosemite's Most Iconic Big Wall Climb" will be published by Falcon in the summer of 2016.