New Speed Record On El Capitan

Climbing 884 metres of vertical rock in under three hours may sound bonkers but that was the latest stunt from the Huber brothers, who have just speed-climbed the Nose, on El Capitan, not once, but twice in less than a week.

They set out last Thursday to break the record for the fastest ascent of the famous - or infamous - climb, which previously stood at 2 hours, 48 minutes and 55 seconds after a similar ascent by Yuji Hirayama and Hans Florine in 2002.

The Berghaus-sponsored climbers only just managed to nose ahead of that - sorry - with a time of 2 hours, 48 minutes and 35 seconds, breaking the record with a measly 20 seconds to spare.

That wasn't quite good enough for them though, so they headed for the Nose again on Monday, knocking over three minutes off Hirayam and Florine's time. Job done! The new record now stands at 2 hours, 45 minutes and 45 seconds.

Impressive stuff, although we're a bit worried they didn't have much time to appreciate the view on the way up ...