Alex Honnold Free Solos Royal Arches in 34 Minutes

Alex Honnold, Josh McCoy and Timmy O'Neill have just run a hot lap of the 15-pitch Royal Arches in 34 minutes, which is not a speed record but hella fast.

He recently posted: One of the highlights of my Yosemite scrambling this season was climbing Royal Arches with @joshkmccoy and @timmyoneill - it’s always so fun to go scrambling with friends, particularly since each of them has done the route tons of times. Josh has done it in 26 minutes!! Pretty legit for a 15 pitch route… They each had particular ways that they liked and we got to sample each others’ beta. So fun!! It’s like a scrambling version of a coffee date where we get to catch up on life. But just a lot more winded. We did 34 minutes on route as a team.

Royal Arches goes at 5.10 or 5.7 A0. The American Alpine Club recently said, "'Scrambling' blurs the line between third-class (easy unroped climbing) and fifth-class technical climbing. While the grade of the actual climbing is often anywhere between 5.0 and 5.6, the terrain is climbed unroped and is usually accompanied by consequential fall potential."

Some of the comments on Honnold's post include: Calling one of the most classic 5.7 multipitches in the Valley scrambling hurts my Gumby soul. 34 minutes hurts it even more. Think it took us eight hours when we did it as a team of two ten years ago haha.

Definitely blurring the lines when people are "scrambling" in rock shoes with chalk bags. I mostly scramble and always in shoes that I can actually hike and/or run in.

Whatever you call it, a 34-minute hot lap of Royal Arches as a team is one for the books.

For more awesome free soloing or "scrambling" stories visit here.