Setting a New El Cap Speed Record (Shortest Straw)
2026 · 43 min · Big Wall · Oliver Tippett
Oliver Tippett and Taylor Martin attempt and complete a speed ascent of The Shortest Straw on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Tippett reports the pair climbed the route in 9:51 (May), a time that he says shaved a couple of hours off the previous mark attributed to Skiy DeTray, David Allfrey and Cheyne Lempe. The upload notes it was a clean push with no big falls. The film is useful as a concrete record of what a sub-10-minute big-wall push looks like: the pacing, transitions and small decisions that matter when margins are minutes rather than hours. It privileges on-route movement and logistics over behind-the-scenes commentary, so climbers interested in speed tactics on El Cap will find it a practical case study rather than a broad history of the route.
Review
A practical case study in speed tactics on El Cap, and a clean one. Oliver Tippett and Taylor Martin climb The Shortest Straw, 15 pitches and 1,800 feet of A4 between Zodiac and Zenyatta Mondatta, in 9 hours 51 minutes on May 17, 2026. That took a couple of hours off the previous mark set by Skiy DeTray, David Allfrey and Cheyne Lempe in 2002. No big falls.
This is for aid climbers and for anyone curious what a sub-10-hour push on a route that normally takes four to seven days looks like: pacing, transitions and small decisions when margins are minutes. Skip it if you want history or personality. The film privileges on-route movement over commentary, and forty-three minutes of that is a lot if you do not aid climb.
What works is the transitions. Speed on a wall is mostly changeovers, and the film shows them in real time rather than cutting around them. The Sawblade pitch and the thin hooking of the crux are given their names and their time. What it leaves out is Martin's perspective again. She described the route as one that once took her five days, and that line deserved a scene.
Climbing an El Cap A4 in Under 14 Hours is the same pair's miss on Lunar Eclipse. Watch that first. This is the record they got after the one they did not, and it reads differently with the miss behind it.
