Swedish runner sets new FKT on legendary El Capitan

Mountain athlete Petter Restorp joked that he’s now faster than climbers Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell, after running an FKT (fastest known time) in 1:46:59 on the Nose section of El Capitan (El Cap).

El Cap’s steep vertical walls, rising 2,308 metres in California’s Yosemite National Park, were believed to be impossible to scale for many years. In the late 1950s climbers first summited El Cap; in 2017, Honnold became the first climber to ascend the mountain without using ropes, documented in the popular film Free Solo. In 2020, Caldwell and Honnold set a speed record climbing record on the Nose route of El Capitan in 1:58:07.

Runner, mountaineer, and FKT fanatic, U.S.-based Jason Hardrath proposed a runner v. climbers challenge in 2019, where runners start and finish at the same points as the speed climbers traditionally do, but traverse a long, 15.77 km (9.8 mile) route past Yosemite Falls to complete the trek. In 2020, Ben Koss was inspired by Caldwell and Honnold’s speed record to create a running route that replicated the climber’s course.

Koss began at the base of the Nose, and as the FKT website describes it, “ran down the road, through historic Camp 4 and up the Yosemite Falls trail to the summit of El Cap., then continued past the summit, scrambling down to tag the famous tree that all speed climbers must touch.” Koss had successfully ‘outrun’ the climbers in 1:54:55.

Swedish athlete Restorp is both a climber and a runner, and took to Instagram on Saturday to share his FKT experience. “Speed climbing on the Nose of El Cap has always fascinated me,” he said.

“Climbing the way they did, from the base of the climb to the famous tree on the summit in under two hours is just mind-blowing, and one of the most impressive sport achievements I know of. Mind, body and skill has to be tuned to perfection,” he added. The first successful ascent of El Cap took more than 45 days over an 18-month period.

Restorp set out with the goal of besting Koss’s FKT, and completing the run under the speed-climbing record. El Cap is not new terrain for Restorp: “I have climbed El Cap about 10 times, and last time was nine years ago. I have free-climbed the routes Freerider, Golden Gate and El Corazon and done the Nose in a day,” he shared.

This time, however, Restorp was leaving the climbing gear behind. “Being back in the valley and more of a runner these days running up was the obvious challenge,” he said. Restorp replicated Koss’ run, tagging the tree to set a new FKT. “Great route!” he shared.