Last September, he crowned a spectacular year by becoming the first person to free-climb both Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite in less than 24 hours. El Cap had been free-climbed in a day only twice before and Potter’s warm-up, negotiating the 2,000-foot vertical of Half Dome, made climbing history. Earlier in the year he conquered the Nose, which took 45 days in 1958, in a record-shattering three hours and 24 minutes.
