The climbing community is mourning the loss of one of its most accomplished young speed climbers.
Videos by FanBuzz
Jake Whisenant, who made headlines after setting a speed record on Yosemite National Park's famed El Capitan, died Aug. 3 in an accident in California's Sierra Nevada. He was just 30 years old.
The Tulare County Sheriff's Office Coroner confirmed Whisenant's death, though officials have not released details about what happened.
His longtime friend Bailee Moore shared the heartbreaking news on Instagram.
"It is with an impossibly heavy heart that I share the passing of my lifelong friend and confidant, Jacob Daniel Whisenant," Moore wrote.
Moore said Whisenant's loved ones were devastated but found some comfort knowing that "Jake died doing what he loves in the beautiful Sierra Nevada."
And Whisenant certainly knew those mountains.
He gained national attention in October 2024 when he and fellow climber Brant Hysell tackled the Lurking Fear route on El Capitan in an incredible 2 hours, 55 minutes and 32 seconds.
According to climbing publication Gripped, the pair broke the previous speed record held by Yuji Hirayama and Nick Fowler.
Even more remarkably, Whisenant and Hysell had completed the same route in a little more than four hours just two days earlier.
Whisenant wasn't finished pushing himself.
In May, he and Noah Fox climbed El Capitan's famous Nose route twice in the same day, according to the Yosemite Climbing Association. They completed the grueling feat in 14 hours and 38 minutes.
Whisenant's death has prompted an outpouring of tributes from fellow climbers and others who followed his remarkable accomplishments.
Moore closed his own tribute with a message that seems especially fitting for a man who spent so much of his life climbing.
"I will look for you in every life, my brother," he wrote. "Now go rest high up on that mountain."
