Time lapse of fastest-ever climb up El Capitan in Yosemite is insanely cool

Rock climbers Brad Gobright and Jim Reynolds accomplished the impossible on Oct. 21, 2017.

The pair broke the record for speed climbing the Nose on El Capitan in Yosemite, scaling to the top in a remarkable 2 hours, 19 minutes, and 44 seconds, beating the previous standing record by 4 minutes.

Photographer and climber Tristan Greszko of Jackson, Wyo., was at the scene during the climb and created an insanely cool time lapse that shows every move of the extraordinary feat in 7 minutes.

"The nature of big wall climbing makes time-lapsing very interesting, and rather playful, and the compression of time and space works really well with climbing such a huge wall," Greszko wrote in an email.

Greszko is an avid climber himself and has always wanted to shoot a time-lapse project of El Cap. The record climb presented the perfect opportunity.

"It's a lot easier to shoot a team of climbers for two and a half hours or so, rather than spending 3-4 days sitting in El Cap meadow, shooting them move slowly from sunrise all the way through sunset," he wrote.

ALSO: Pair break speed record climbing Nose of Yosemite's El Capitan

El Capitan aglow in the late afternoon sun at Yosemite National Park, on Friday May 11, 2012. Visitors to California national parks may notice more trash on trails, longer lines at service booths and fewer rangers this summer as the pinch of the federal government's budget problems grow increasingly difficult to overlook. less El Capitan aglow in the late afternoon sun at Yosemite National Park, on Friday May 11, 2012. Visitors to California national parks may notice more trash on trails, longer lines at service booths and fewer ... more Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close Time lapse of fastest-ever climb up El Capitan in Yosemite is insanely cool 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

In climbing circles, the Nose is legendary and its granite walls were once considered impossible to climb. El Capitan now has several routes to the top, but the nearly 90-degree, 2,900-foot precipice of the Nose is the most popular one.

"The Nose is arguably the most famous route on the most famous piece of rock in the world," Greszko said. "If you've never seen El Cap up close and personal, it's rather remarkable — after an easy 10-minute walk from your car, you literally hit the wall, it rises straight out of the ground, with no prior warning, for 3000-plus feet, straight into the sky."

The first successful ascent was made by Wayne Merry, Warren Harding and George Whitmore in 1958 and took 47 days spread across 16 months.

Before Gobright and Reynolds' October climb, the previous record was held by Florine and Alex Honnold, who did the climb in 2 hours and 23 minutes in June 2012.

It took Gobright and Reynolds 11 attempts last year before breaking the time.

"Before Jim and I were trying to go for the record, we'd just do it fast so we'd have time to do more climbs before the sun went down," Gobright told the Chronicle in October. "Thinking we could try for the record seemed crazy at first. It was this really big, big goal that seemed kind of out of reach. I think that's why we wanted to do it."