Yosemite valley is the home of some of the largest granite monoliths in the world. It is a Mecca for big wall climbers. The 20^th century brought in some of the most notable ascents of the big wall era.

In 1957 the first ascent of the main steep face of Half Dome was climbed after 5 days of effort.(now called the Regular North West Face Route). In 1958 the first ascent of the main face on El Capitan was climbed, this took 45 days of work over 2 years, ending in a 11 day single push on the wall.( known as The Nose route)

In 1966 the first one day ascent was done of the Regular NWF route on Half Dome.

In 1975 a party climbed the Nose route in a single day.

In 1986 a team of two ascended both El Capitan and Half Dome via the main face routes IN A SINGLE DAY!.(The Nose and the Regular NWF route)

By the late 90's a handful of climbers had soloed each of these routes in a day, but none had dreamt of single-handedly tackling both on their own. In 98/99 season two individuals, (that we know of), Dean Potter and Hans Florine, started adding up the times of the fastest solos on each route and figured, in a 24 hour day, there was a few hours to spare for hiking in between the great monoliths. It only remained to be seen if the math in their heads could pan out on the stone......

In this brief slide show Hans tells how it "panned out" for him on the stone.

(to see the gritty details before you see the show click: can't wait)

Hans's home page. // Back to Speedclimb home:FM'