Like it or not, death is the emotional counterweight that makes climbing’s most important achievements stand out
One month before decorated
American climber Brad Gobright fell to his death in
Mexico following a rappelling accident, I watched him joke about pushing past the point of safety while 2,850 feet above the surface of the Earth. In The Nose Speed Record, Gobright reviews film of himself dashing up the final pitch of El Capitan’s iconic The Nose route on his way to capturing the most famous speed record in climbing. He greedily grabs bolts and anchors with one finger while his partner, Jim Reynolds, yells “No gear, no falls!” down to him. Alex Honnold, also reviewing the film, laughs and calls it sketchy, to which Gobright replies, “Yeah, it’s sketchy, but that’s why I’ve got the record and you don’t.”
Gobright was one of the world’s best big wall climbers, and he made a name for himself with pioneering free ascents of several imposing routes and also by free soloing (climbing without any safety gear) several long climbs. He was a climber’s climber, a true dirtbag who lived out of his car and spent a decade seeking out the biggest and scariest vertical thrills the world could offer.