Yosemite climber Nick Ehman smashes El Capitan speed record set by Alex Honnold ascending 3,000ft cliff with only a short rope in just four hours and 39 minutes

A rock climber has smashed the record for summiting Yosemite's El Capitan, climbing the sheer rock face in just four hours and 39 minutes. 

Nick Ehman, 28, scaled the 3,000 foot cliff early on the morning of October 10, covering around eight and a half vertical feet per minute, on 'the Nose' route.

The previous record was held by Alex Honnold - about whom the Oscar-winning 2018 documentary Free Solo was made - who completed the feat in five hours and 50 minutes in 2010.

While Honnold used the King Swing route of the Nose, Ehman took the Jardine Traverse, with both climbers using a mix of aid and free climbing. 

Honnold congratulated Ehman, telling Climbing: 'I'd love to talk to Nick about his whole experience – he must be feeling super dialed on the Nose. No one has really been playing the speed climbing game for several years; it's great to see someone getting after it again.'

A rock climber has smashed the record for summiting Yosemite's El Capitan, climbing the sheer rock face in just four hours and 39 minutes

Ehman started his climb up the Nose, El Capitan's most popular route, which traces the cliff's central prow as it rises 28 pitches straight up from the valley floor

Alex Honnold is seen on the summit of El Capitan. He is the only person to free solo the formation in Yosemite, a climb that was the subject of the 2018 documentary Free Solo

Ehman, who has already completed El Capitan sixteen times this year, used only a short rope and aluminum gear to assist him in the challenge. 

He started his climb up the Nose, El Capitan's most popular route, which traces the cliff's central prow as it rises 28 pitches straight up from the valley floor. 

'I didn't know when I set up that morning how comfortable I'd be going fast,' Ehman told the San Francisco chronicle.

But after getting going, 'I felt very comfortable in that no-fall headspace, and felt like I had to go for it.'

In order to claim the record Ehman took photos along his climb to keep time-stamped evidence for the sport's unofficial record keepers.

Ehman carried around ten pounds of gear to assist with the climb but no food or water.  

Ehman said he 'felt better and better and got more and more excited the higher I went' and made sure to keep an eye on his phone to stay ahead of the record pace. He passed four climbing parties during his ascent.

He climbed over the lip of El Capitan at 12:41 pm, 4 hours and 39 minutes after starting. 

In order to claim the record Ehman took photos along his climb to keep time-stamped evidence for the sport's unofficial record keepers

The skilled climber, who has already completed El Capitan sixteen times this year, used only a short rope and aluminum gear to assist him in the challenge

He heard the cheers from a group of friends and spectators who had gathered in the meadow on the alley floor beneath him. 

'I was pretty emotional at the top. I'd been dreaming about that experience for a really long time — being light and unencumbered up there by myself,' Ehman said. 

Later that day, his friends and girlfriend threw him a small party at Camp 4, the valley's climbing epicenter.