Got my stamina strong, 24 ain't hard
Check the whole North 40 off my scorecard

One thing that I know for sure
My 12 hour score beats your 24

I'm a dinosaur, but let me make my case
I'm still much much younger than leather and lace

I'm not concerned about Alex Honnold at all
He don't use a rope enough to know how to clean draws

But I digress, time to ring that bell
For the 24 hours of horseshoe hell

We're gonna climb thru the night till the daylight comes
I got 99 problems, a hundred pitches ain't one

     -- Kris Odub Hampton

First of all, let me say that if I appear in Reel Rock 2015 looking haggard and exhausted, it is only because the camerawoman told me to look that way. I felt fine at the end of the competition, but they wanted some shots of exhausted competitors and I was happy to oblige. Also, if I appear in Reel Rock 2015 dropping burrito fixins all over myself, it is only because I'm a slob.

Guy and I are back for another round of Horseshoe Hell. I didn't take many pictures and I don't have much of a story to report. Both of us came to the competition this year in good shape, but without having done any specific endurance training. It didn't matter, we crushed it. With a strategy fine tuned from last year's experience (biggest change: save all the trad lines for later in the competition when queues start to develop on moderate sport lines).

We pushed hard this year. Never waited in line. Never took a break. Not once in 24 hours did we stop. I didn't weight the rope. I didn't take off my climbing shoes until the competition ended. On average, we led one route every five minutes and forty seconds... for 24 hours straight. At the 10:30pm check-in we turned in a scorecard with 78 routes each. And when the shotgun fired at 10am Saturday morning, we had 127 routes each.

As for the Mile High Club... Guy wrote it best:

The results are in! Jeff Deutsch and I (un)officially made the Mile High Club at 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell this year!!! We both climbed 127 routes, but were only credited for 124 routes/5090 feet (Jeff) and 123 routes/5050 feet (Guy). There's usually a discrepancy in our scorecards every year, owing no doubt to my terrible handwriting at 4am and the fact that the volunteer staff have to score over 350 cards in just a few days. Since we're just a few hundred feet shy of the needed 5280 feet, and didn't get credited for 3/4 routes, I'm going to assume that had we been recognized for all 127 routes, we would've just squeaked in to the club. While officially we won't receive the Mile High Club t-shirt this year, I'm super proud of our accomplishment nonetheless. A big thank to Jeff for helping me to crush my goals in this competition year after year: first by demolishing the 100 route milestone with ease in 2013, and then hitting the mile high club in the final minutes of the comp in 2014 by convincing me that one lap on a 5.5 choss groove chimney would be worth it. It sure was buddy :)

After requesting that they look at our scorecards again, we were both credited with 125 routes and 5190 feet. But we know we made it, and that's all that matters to us. Also from Guy... "I've got enough t-shirts anyway."

Thanks to Cat and Phil for cheering us on. Thanks to Cat, Dave and Meredith for taking photos. Thanks to Guy for talking me into doing this crazy event a second time.

Heading back to Ithaca we climbed a bit in Southern Illinois. Phil, Dave and I explored the stiffly graded sport climbs at Jackson Falls for two days. We got on Through the Smoke, Rattler, Master Marley, Blue Spark, and The Garden Route at Spleef Peak. At Lovely Tower we climbed Hidden Treasure and Fine Nine. At the Gallery we got on my favorite climb, Group Therapy. So. Ill. is a great way to break up any drive across the country. Free camping and free climbing in a really nice setting.