Rock climbers Yuji Hirayama, top, of Japan and Hans Florine of Lafayette, Calif., bottom, climb up the Nose Route of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park on September 29, 2008. They were on a practice climb as a warm up to a later attempt to break their own speed climbing record of 2 hours, 43 minutes and 33 seconds. Photo: Michael Maloney, The Chronicle