Free solo climber Brad Gobright fell 305 metres to his death

Brad Gobright died while climbing at El Potrero Chico in Mexico. Picture: Facebook.

A record-breaking US rock climber plunged 305 metres to his death off a Mexican mountain on Wednesday – after choosing not to tie a knot in the end of his rope that may have saved his life.

Brad Gobright, 31, was rappelling down the sheer El Sendero Luminoso rock face at El Potrero Chico, near Monterrey, when he tragically slid off the end of his line.

He had been descending the renowned cliff with Aiden Jacobson, 26, when he reportedly misjudged the length of rope he had left beneath him, according to The Sun.

Jacobson, who was sharing the 80m rope with Gobright for the simultaneous rappel, also fell but miraculously survived after landing on a bushy ledge on the 762m cliff.

Describing the harrowing moment they both began falling, Jacobson told Outside: "I was on the left. He was on the right.

"Then all of a sudden I felt a pop and we started dropping. It was basically a blur. I screamed, he screamed.

"I went through some vegetation, and then all I remember is seeing is his blue Gramicci shirt bounce over the edge."

Tributes to well-known Gobright have come in from across the climbing world.

"The climbing world lost a true light. Rest in peace," wrote Alex Honnold, focus of the Academy Award-winning Netflix documentary Free Solo.

"He had a magic about him on the rock, unlike anyone I've ever met," added Alice Hafer, one of Gobright's regular climbing partners.

"He was so supportive and encouraging, always pushing me harder and believing in me."

The pair had misjudged how much rope was left beneath them, according to Jacobson – who was left with only a broken ankle from his fall.

They were using the technique of simul-rapelling, by which two climbers abseil on opposite strands of a rope and act as counterweights to each other.

That means that if one climber falls off the end of the rope, the other climber loses their counter-weight and also falls.

The chances of that happening can be minimised if knots are tied in both ends of the rope, but Jacobson said that they had chosen not to do that.

One reason climbers may choose not to do so is that knotted ropes have a higher chance of getting stuck when the climbers, after abseiling, pull the rope down.

Gobright abseiled off the end his side of the rope, causing Jacobson to also plunge, according to the surviving climber.

View this post on Instagram

These are some shots taken on the desert road trip I took last week. The trip was ten days long and we sampled different types of climbing. Long, short, winggate, solidified mud, exposed calcite, scary basalt. We climbed trad, sport and even bouldered. Some times it was very hot and other times it was very cold. We slept in the dirt, the back of vans and fancy hotel rooms. At times things got very chaotic but at other times it was calm and silent as I stared off into the vast openness. The trip wasn’t really about projecting and sending hard. It was more about getting variety in a relatively short amount of time. I hadn’t taken a trip like this in a really long time and it was actually a very refreshing experience. I’m teaming up with @gramicci_climb to make a short film about the trip. Pic 1: The Six Star Crack 📷 @tradisplaid Pic 2: Castleton Tower Pic 3: @alicehafer on Castleton Tower Pic 4: @maison.deschamps in The Fisher Towers Pic 5: 📷 @maison.deschamps Pic 6: Monument Valley. @evolv_worldwide @frictionlabs

A post shared by Brad Gobright (@bradgobright) on Nov 22, 2019 at 10:21am PST

Mexico's Nuevo Leon state civil defence office said Gobright fell about 300 meters.

Gino Negrinni, a Costa Rican climber who was on the mountain at the same time, said he heard the climbers' chilling screams as they plummeted, according to Rock And Ice magazine.

Gobright is believed to have landed near the bottom of the cliff on a ledge known as Skull Amphitheatre, according to the mag – which hailed him as "one of the most accomplished free solo climbers in the world."

The veteran climber, of Orange County, California, had been scaling cliffs since he was seven and held multiple speed ascent records.

Among his biggest achievements was his October 2017 speed record for ascending the Nose route of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

That climb is considered one of the world's most technical and dangerous in the world.

He and climbing partner Jim Reynolds raced up the nearly vertical, 884m rock face in just two hours and 19 minutes.

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I’m so sorry to hear that @bradgobright just died in a climbing accident. He was such a warm, kind soul - one of a handful of partners that I always loved spending a day with. I suppose there’s something to be said about being safe out there and the inherent risks in climbing but I don’t really care about that right now. I’m just sad for Brad and his family. And for all of us who were so positively affected by his life. So crushing. Brad was a real gem of a man. For all his strengths and weaknesses (like his insanely strong fingers, or living out of a Honda Civic...) at the core he was just a good guy. I guess there’s nothing really to say. I’m sad. The climbing world lost a true light. Rest in peace...

A post shared by Alex Honnold (@alexhonnold) on Nov 27, 2019 at 9:12pm PST

Previous record holder Alex Honnold wrote an emotional tribute to Gobright, saying the climbing world had lost a "true light".

He wrote on Instagram: "I suppose there's something to be said about being safe out there and the inherent risks in climbing but I don't really care about that right now.

"I'm just sad for Brad and his family. And for all of us who were so positively affected by his life. So crushing.

"Brad was a real gem of a man. For all his strengths and weaknesses (like his insanely strong fingers, or living out of a Honda Civic …) at the core he was just a good guy."

In a statement, the state civil defence office said: "We extend our sympathies and support to the rock climbing community."