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WanderlustMD
Trad climber
Lanham MD
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 4, 2007 - 02:48pm PT
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Did they get it?
Any word from the valley?
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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I heard they're just into dancing, now.
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
St. Looney
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That was a shirtless ascent. I think it's clear they need to shave off a little more weight. Pants maybe? Heh heh.
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Alan Doak
climber
boulder, co
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Forwarded by Bill Wright, though I don't know the original author. It looks like they beat the record by 15 seconds.
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> The Brothers were smoking up the route as I got my merceless eye trained on them and started shooting... they started a little before 7 so I picked them up as Alex climbed into the stovelegs. There was a party on a portaledge half way up the stovelegs who just sat there taking pics as Alex blew by short fixing for Thomas... I figured they would make Dolt tower in an hour from the start but turns out they were at the Jardine Traverse cutoff in an hour... sweet!! They raced up to ECtower and in 1 min 38 sec alex climbed Texas flake. In no time at all he was on the boot and Thomas was cleaning like a man possessed. Thomas was soon on the toe of the boot, a place where I felt they wasted too much time in the past using 4 to 5 minutes to change over leaders and shoes and such... Thomas was out of there in less than 2 minutes and they were on record pace .... they looked strong and everything was working in their favor. They smoked by a party on camp 4 and soon thomas was on the great roof... then things started to unravel... Thomas missed a few reaches and had to re-try a couple of moves and I said to someone.... "ugh oh.. Thomas is having some trouble".... the clock seemed to be running away from them and I started to have my doubts about this attempt... then one of Thomas's aid slings floated away in the breeze and they were in deep doo doo. But Thomas redoubled his efforts and managed to make the pitch with just one aider but we all knew what that mistake could cost... they had to jug with only one aider now or the leader had to aid with only one aider and there was no spare. But they charged upward in a somewhat, for them, awkward style that was not the smooth rehersed style we have become acustomed to.
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> They went out of my view after Alex jugged to the Glowering spot but it still seemed possible ... I knew that they still had to pass the two Croatian women up high in the dihedral... we wondered ... "what if one of these women was hired by Hans to seduce the manly Alex while Thomas was not looking?!!" I just had to wait for Alex to come into view just below the alcove.... the minutes ticked off.... It was like the astronauts going behind the moon and being out of communication for 20 minutes... I waited and watched... watched and waited... I watched my wrist watch and tried to chat a bit with the people who had chosen to watch from the bridge... I kept looking and just about when I had given up hope there came Alex sprinting into view... a vast roar, peppered with monkey calls arose from the crowd... they still had a few minutes but had to bust ass to get it done... soon they were both on the last pitch with Alex racing up the last few feet to the tree and Thomas flailing at the rope with the Jumars and lunging up the the last few feet with Alex reeling him in like a giant fish on a line
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> Then it was over... and soon a puzzled look came over everyones face... did they or didnt they??... I had them at around 2:51 but I had no idea of when they started and just figured it was about 6:45, which turned out not to be the case in the end... anyway Gleason got a call from SAR Greg who was on top and he said they passed him going down and said they had missed it by 35 seconds, having done the thing in 2:48:35.... of course we were just flabbergasted that it could have been so close after such a climb!! They were soon down and then things got more interesting yet......
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> BUT........................ turns out that they thought that Hans and Yuji had done it in 2:48 FLAT and that is why they felt they had missed it... BUT.....Hans is nothing if not a fanatic about the EXACT time for doing things....So in a rush Alex and Max raced off in the car to the lodge and a YFI connection to get on Hans site and see if he had some change on his 2:48 time like they did... turns out he did.... 50 seconds... so it was, that the Huber Brothers, after a long and dedicated effort to climb the Nose in the fastest time, came to be the record holders by a mere 15 seconds!!! The crowd went wild!!!!
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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Yeah but how accurate was their watch? Could of been off by that much....
just kidding....way to go Alex & Thomas!
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Phil_B
Social climber
Hercules, CA
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Alan,
That's a snippet from the ElCapPics report for 10/4/2007
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=459477
Appears to be some confusion about what the time for Hans and Yuri's ascent was. . .
Crikey, that's how long it takes me to do a single pitch, let alone the freaking Nose!
Pretty proud ascent dudes
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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On a 30+ pitch route, 15 seconds means a tie in my mind.
Which is totally proud for that record.
I'd be surprised if the uber-bros don't take a few more stabs at getting something more definative though.
Congrats!
Peace
Karl
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BCD
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Of the few brushes with “fame” I’ve had in the climbing world, a slideshow given by Hans stands out in my mind as “how not to conduct oneself in the world of competition”.
The reason there is confusion about Hans and Yugis time is because they altered it a little bit in order to get the record. At the slideshow, Hans explained that they employed a sort of “Olympic Rule” which allowed them to deduct a set amount of time for each party they had to pass along the way. Their actual time was nowhere near 2:48.
I distinctly remember this because I laughed out loud, thinking he was making a joke. He looked at me, and kept talking. Oops! Apparently this little known fact was swept under the carpet shortly thereafter.
So good for Alex and Thomas. They got the best time, and they didn’t cheat!
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Brian
climber
Cali
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BCD,
You gotta be joking there... right?
Brian
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Dudeman
Trad climber
Hansen, Idaho
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The Hubers' are the "real deal". Very inspiring!
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rwedgee
Ice climber
canyon country,CA
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Who actually is the "Time Master"? It seems we must now have a title & protocall for this job. I assume it is not one of the climbers. A neutral 3rd party?? I can smell a Rolex sponsorship here!!
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elcap-pics
climber
Crestline CA
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Well all this talk of 15 seconds or whatever... interesting momentary subject... give us a few more days and maybe the topic will be moot...
Read the ElCap Report to get the real deal daily....
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Hardman Knott
Gym climber
Muir Woods National Monument, Mill Valley, Ca
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Clint - thanks. Somehow I missed that thread ;-(
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clustiere
Trad climber
Rock Ridge/ Oakland CA
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not that I really care but Han's will crush it- now try Hans and Alex that would likely do it-for the record
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno, CA
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Regardless, their time is bad ass. Hans' time is bad ass. Sh#t, doing it in their reconnaissance time of 5 +/- hours is bad ass.
I guess one can't help but point out the contradictions and sneaky-pete type of behavior surrounding Hans time. It seems pretty suspicious. You really don't hear of anything like that, ever, with Alex and Thomas. I think most people also are pretty aware that Hans is far more into protecting his image. Some might say fairly vain. You don't get a name like Hollywood Hans for nothing, ya know! =)
Regardless, I think the bros. will put this whole thing to rest for quite a while in a few days. Doing almost the last half of the climb with only one aider certainly slowed them down. Hans is certainly badass too. Maybe he'll come back with his own answer?
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Anastasia
Trad climber
California
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Great! I knew they could do it! Congratulations!
I just wonder if they will do it again just to stretch the time out farther?
AF
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