Watch climber sprint up rock taller than any Denver building in record-breaking time

A Colorado man sprinted up a steep rock formation that’s taller than any building in Denver as fast as he could — and he broke a record.

It wasn’t just by luck, though. Michael Reese, a 26-year-old from Boulder, trained hard to run up the First Flatiron, a popular rock formation that RootsRated said creates “an outdoor playground for all levels of climbers.”

The First Flatiron is steep: the surface looks like it goes straight up with a 60-degree face that goes up 1,000 feet, The Denver Post reported. It’s also incredibly tall.

“To put the height of the climb into perspective, the First Flatiron is almost 40% taller than Denver’s tallest building, the Republic Plaza,” The Denver Post reported.

Reese really wanted to be the fastest person to climb up the First Flatiron, he told McClatchy News. He first got into climbing in 2015.

He started seriously training in March, and in July he broke records, running the First Flatiron in 9 minutes and 23 seconds, Reese said. He beat the previous record by 2 seconds, which had stood since 2011, the Post reported.

“I have always loved nature, so it was an amazing realization that I could combine both,” he told McClatchy News. “After coming back from grad school at Cal Poly in March, I decided to train more seriously for the Flatirons records.”

On some days, Reese would climb up twice a day. He said he climbed the First Flatiron about 50 times from April to May, and he tested different segments of the rock slab to find the perfect way up.

“There is always a risk factor as a fall on the first would probably be fatal, so part of the game is having the technical expertise and mitigating risk,” Reese said. “The (First Flatiron) is a majestic formation that creates the perfect challenge because it combines fitness, technical capability, risk management and is a full body workout. It might be the most fun thing to do on the planet.”

To meet his goal, he had to be extremely focused, Reese said.

“It is like it’s own bubble in time,” he said. “It is a mix of pain and pushing your limit, and fun in terms of flying over the spectacular sandstone.”

This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Watch climber sprint up rock taller than any Denver building in record-breaking time."