FATAL CLIMB

Speed Climber Who Set El Capitan Record Killed in Horror Accident

Jake Whisenant shot to fame in 2024 after smashing the speed record on one of Yosemite’s most feared routes.

A record-breaking Yosemite speed climber has died in an accident in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Jake Whisenant, 30, of Mammoth Lakes, died Aug. 3, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office Coroner said, as the New York Post reported. Authorities have not said how the accident happened. Longtime friend Bailee Moore confirmed the news on Instagram, writing, “It is with an impossibly heavy heart that I share the passing of my lifelong friend and confidant — Jacob Daniel Whisenant.” Whisenant made his name in October 2024 when he and fellow climber Brant Hysell raced up El Capitan’s Lurking Fear route in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 32 seconds, a new record. In May, he and Noah Fox scaled the granite giant’s famed Nose route twice in a single day, taking 14 hours and 38 minutes. Moore wrote, “I will look for you in every life, my brother. Now go rest high up on that mountain.”