两小时五十五分速攀 El Capitan 的纪录保持者，三十岁攀岩坠亡

Two hours, fifty-five minutes, thirty-two seconds.

That is how long it took one man to climb nine hundred metres of vertical rock.

That rock face is called El Capitan, in California.

The man who climbed it was Jake Whisenant, thirty years old.

In early August he fell to his death while climbing in the Sierra Nevada.

El Capitan is nine hundred metres high and close to vertical.

Most people take two or three days to climb it, sleeping at night hanging off the wall.

But there is a small group who compete on speed.

Two years ago in October, Whisenant and a partner climbed one route in two hours fifty-five.

The fastest record before that was three hours and five minutes.

They cut nearly ten minutes off it in one go.

In this discipline, ten minutes is a generational gap.

This May, he climbed the most famous route on it twice in a single day.

In American climbing circles, his is the kind of name that gets remembered.

Then came August 3rd.

The cause of death is recorded as accidental; the circumstances are still under investigation and officials have released no details.

One thing to be clear about: it did not happen on El Capitan.

After the news spread, the climbing community wrote a great deal.

What came up most was how steady he was when he was leading other people.

Speed climbing looks like a thrill from outside. People inside know it is thousands of repetitions.

Think about it: something both dangerous and beautiful — how does a person decide whether to do it?