Michael Reese set a fastest known time on Half Dome in Yosemite on October 28, reaching the summit from the Mist Trailhead in 1 hour 12 minutes 58 seconds. The American free soloed Snake Dike on the way, and beat the mark Dean Potter set in 2015 by about six minutes.
Eleven years, erased on a technical line
Reese started from the pavement with a GPS watch running, swerving around a few tourists before turning into Grizzly Gully. He wore only shoes, shorts and a watch, with gaiters to keep grit out. The approach mixes slabs, mazes and trees, and Reese had got lost there while learning it.
He chose a later start so other parties would be past the crux, and it worked. Before setting off he iced his feet, taped an ankle, and warmed up with strides and meditation. He had been sick from cold exposure two days earlier, but scouted the route again anyway.
He had rehearsed the line 16 times, eight of them free soloing, and practised the crux ten times in a row on each lap. On the day he pushed hard but saved enough energy for the steep ground above Snake Dike. He called that section the “Death March”, where his knees and arms buckled from lactic acid and a dehydration headache set in.
On Snake Dike, an eight-pitch, 800-foot line graded 5.7 R, he recorded 10 minutes 55 seconds. Reese arrived breathing hard and then dry-heaved from the effort.
A Potter line, followed to the summit
One of Potter’s close friends first suggested the project in 2021, and Reese bought a stockpile of the same shoe model Potter used before it was discontinued. He came to climbing from running and triathlon, and set a speed record on Boulder’s First Flatiron in September in 7:51.
Reese’s time was about eight minutes faster than Nick Elson’s previous trailhead-to-summit mark of 1:20:57. “Dean Potter has been one of my idols, probably the one who I looked up to the most,” he told Climbing. He believes any faster time will come from a runner-climber hybrid comfortable free soloing the line.
He said records are made to be broken, and that he does not know how long this one will last.
