The Send
The July 2 climb did not begin well. Hirayama took a warm-up lap on the first pitch, a polished, pin-scarred 5.10d. Halfway up, he missed a hold, falling 20 feet. But, said Hirayama, “[The fall] just made me focus more.”
And focus they did. The pair counted down together in Japanese — “San, ni, ichi!” — and then Florine hit the stopwatch, with Hirayama firing up the crack. The two reached Sickle Ledge (500 feet) in 16.5 minutes, and then Dolt Tower (1,200 feet) in 51 minutes. At the start of his launch across the 70-foot King Swing, Florine spun an aerial barrel roll. The pair made it to Eagle Ledge (1,500 feet) at 1:13, where Hirayama drank half a can of energy drink and passed the rest to Florine.
On P20, Hirayama clipped one bolt and then climbed to the top of P21 — a 150-foot runout. (He often climbs 30 to 40 feet — and often much more — without pro.) Hirayama also led from the base of the Glowering Spot to the summit without restocking his rack, placing no gear in the 5.10b crack on the penultimate pitch because he had none left.
At one point, the pair had a 10-minute lead on the Hubers’ record pace, but minor mistakes slowed them down. Below Dolt Tower on P9, Florine had to lower 20 feet to unsnag the rope. Starting up the bolts above Texas Flake, Hirayama forgot to unclip his aider and had to pause, reach back, and unclip it.
After Florine touched the finish-line tree, Hirayama read the stopwatch attached to the harness of his prone, exhausted ropemate. 2:43:33 — two minutes, 12 seconds faster than the record. “It didn’t feel that fast with all the holdups,” said Florine, “but I guess we did OK.” In this case, OK means just more than five minutes per roughly 115-foot pitch . . . for 31 pitches. “We can go much faster,” stated Hirayama. “We will come back in September, maybe get down to 2:30, or 2:20.”
Thomas Huber was enthusiastic about the new record: “Hans and Yuji did a great job. Congratulations from my heart,” he said. Alex Huber, meanwhile, was philosophical. “The nature of any record is that it will get broken sooner or later,” he said. “Once, Thomas and I [were] the fastest on the Nose, and we are happy about this. Thus, it is a finished story for us.” He added he and Thomas don’t intend to try to reclaim the record.

Record-Breaking Rack
Yates 9.4mm big-wall speed rope (60m), 6mm tag line, 18 quickdraws, four long slings, six carabiners, five Camalots (No. 0.5, two No. 0.75s, No. 1, No. 2), nine TCUs (two No. 00s, two No. 0s, two No.1s, two No. 2s, No. 3), nine nuts, one cam hook, and one Yates Rocker

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