BURST
On October 12, 2026, Connor Baty (23) of Colorado and Max Krieger (27) of Utah became the first team to link six Zion big walls in under 24 hours. They completed the enchainment in just 18 hours and 52 minutes—well under target, on their first attempt, and on the only day they had set aside to do it this season.
The linkup included Monkeyfinger (5.11 A0; 9 pitches), Lunar Ecstacy (5.10 C2+; 9 pitches), Sheer Lunacy (5.10 C2-; 8 pitches), Moonlight Buttress (5.8 C1; 10 pitches), Touchstone Wall (5.10- C2; 9 pitches), and Prodigal Sun (5.8 C2; 9 pitches). That’s 54 pitches, 5,920 feet of climbing, and 6,520 total feet of rappelling.
Prior to their attempt, the record was four walls, first completed in 1992 by Conrad Anker and Doug Heinrich, who used speed and aid tactics to link Touchstone, Moonlight Buttress, Monkey Finger, and Spaceshot (5.7 C2; 8 pitches). The last recorded attempt of five walls in a single day was in 2003, by longtime Zion climbers Ammon McNeely and Ryan McCray. Ten years later, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell set a new speed record on the four-in-a-day, freeing Sheer Lunacy, Moonlight Buttress, Touchstone, and Spaceshot in just 16 hours. But no one, to Krieger and Baty’s knowledge, had ever attempted six.
Connor Baty first got the idea after linking Touchstone, Moonlight, and Prodigal Sun solo in October 2024. The enchainment took him 12 hours.
“Right after that, someone made a joke—‘Hey, if you can do three in 12, that means you can do six in 24,’” Baty recalls. But though he’d mentioned the idea to Krieger, one of his main wall partners at the time, the two didn’t start to make plans in earnest until late September, 2026. That’s when Baty announced he’d be in town for a two-week stopover in the midst of his year-long quest to paddle from Colorado to Mexico along the Colorado River. (He’s already back on the water; he took the call for this interview from the middle of Lake Mead.)
“Do you want to do the six?” Baty texted Krieger. Krieger’s answer was an enthusiastic yes. The only problems were that the two had just a few weeks to prepare, and their only good weather window would be on October 12—the very last day Baty would be in town before he’d need to hop back on the river.
Krieger, who works full-time as a hot air balloon pilot in St. George, asked for two days off work to practice. During that time, he and Baty did dress-rehearsal laps on Monkey Finger, Sheer Lunacy, Prodigal Sun, and about three-quarters of Touchstone. They skipped Moonlight, which Baty had already climbed 13 times. Baty then did an additional solo burn on Lunar Ecstasy to ensure that he had the gear memorized. He says he can still name just about every piece and move on the six-wall linkup in order.
Practice went well, but rain threatened their single weather window. Krieger asked for the day off anyway. Their plan was to climb as much as they could before the first drops fell.
“The logistics were pretty simple,” Krieger says. “Monkey Finger is at the end of the canyon, so we did that first and got it out of the way.” Then, they moved downcanyon, employing speed-climbing tactics for each wall, and re-upping on food and water at every base. Friend Gus Barnett crewed them through the whole attempt, providing rides and switching out racks. A fixed line on Moonlight streamlined the rappels for Sheer Lunacy, Lunar Ecstacy, and Moonlight Buttress. They saved Prodigal Sun for last.
The two split up the load by skillset: Baty, the faster aid climber, took Lunar Ecstacy, Moonlight Buttress, and Prodigal Sun, while Krieger, the stronger free climber, took Monkeyfinger, Sheer Lunacy, and Touchstone. Krieger started strong, giving the team an hour lead on their goal time for Monkeyfinger. The momentum carried, each wall going hours faster than expected.
Unfortunately, that meant they got to Sheer Lunacy well ahead of schedule, right when the wall was in full sun. Krieger, who had been dealing with dehydration cramps on and off all day, took the lead in 90-degree temperatures. By the top, he was dizzy and nauseated.
“I thought I was going to throw up—maybe a bit of heat stroke,” he says.
“He had to trooper it out,” says Baty. “He had a hard time in the heat.” Some water and a short rest got Krieger feeling well enough to follow Baty up the next wall, Moonlight. The next low didn’t come until a few walls later.
“The worst part for me was Touchstone at Sunset,” Baty says. “Max and I both hit a low when we got to the top and realized we had two more pitches left. We did not want to be up there.”
Things turned around when they found Barnett waiting at the base with slices of pepperoni pizza from Domino’s—and a handful of other friends who’d arrived to cheer them on.
“The moral support was huge,” Krieger says. “If it was just me and Connor out there, it would have been a whole lot trickier for us. Having some people to egg you on and keep you talking about things other than the climbing—that was pretty key.”
The last challenge struck about halfway up the sixth and final wall. Spiders crawled in and out of all of the placements. That was eerie enough, Baty said. Then he scared something much larger out of the crack.
“It looked like a giant chicken. It came at me, and I ended up having to fistfight this bird right around midnight on Prodigal Sun,” he says. “It kept dive-bombing me, and I [was massively runout] at that point so I was not happy.” (If you see a large splatter on his helmet in the photos, that’s why.)
The team topped out Prodigal Sun and stopped the clock at 11:52 p.m., having set a new standalone FKT for Lunar Ecstasy at 2 hours 10 minutes, as well as FKTs for the five- and six-wall enchainments. Right as Baty’s feet touched the ground after the final rappel, it started to rain.
Their time on each route, including its respective descent, is as follows:
- Monkeyfinger: 1hr 56 min
- Lunar Ecstasy: 2hr 10min (FKT)
- Sheer Lunacy: 2hr 40min
- Moonlight: 2hr 5min
- Touchstone: 2hr 47min
- Prodigal Sun: 2hr 56min
“The reason we picked the six we picked is that those are the classics of Zion. People come to Zion, and those are the walls they go and climb. It’s like doing a season in a day,” says Krieger. In the future, he’d like to tack on the other two classics—Space Shot and Desert Shield (5.11- C3; 9 pitches)—for an eight-wall single-day linkup. “That’s something for down the road,” he says. If he hopes to do it with Baty, though, it’ll have to wait; the very next day, Baty left town for the river. He’ll be paddling for the next 30 days.
In the meantime, Krieger and Baty say they’re just proud to have added another chapter to Zion speed-climbing history.
“We wanted to set the five- and six-wall benchmark so people can see what’s possible and to bring a little more credit to Zion,” Krieger says. “It’s a pretty cool feeling to be a part of it, and it would be cool if we saw more people coming out here and trying new linkups—a new era of speed-climbing for Zion.”
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