2012 24HHH

The 2012 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell endurance climbing competition takes place annually on the last weekend in September at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Jasper, Arkansas. 2012 marked the seventh year for this event to take place and each and every year it attracts more and more climbers and with a diversity of backgrounds and experiences.

The premise for 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell is leading a route clean for points, and doing that in succession  for 24 hours straight. Team members will not have to climb the same routes, but will only get points for lines that  they climb. Individual scores will be tallied as a team total. This way a 5.9 climber can match with a 5.12 climber and make a team. Strategy is the key. In addition, within the team competition there will be an individual category. Participants must register and compete as a team, but will also be rewarded on individual performance. –twofourhell.com

The weekend begins with a packet pickup, equipment demos and hot dog roast Thursday night, a full day of climbing from 10am Friday until 10am Saturday, followed by a pasta dinner and awards ceremony at 4:30pm and dyno/arm wrestling competition and party to finish out Saturday night. Sunday morning hosts a pancake breakfast to send off the teams, volunteers and spectators properly.

This event is headline sponsored every year by Patagonia and 35 other sponsors, all ranging from climbing equipment retailers to clothing brands to energy bars makers. One of the key aspects of the weekend is the sustainability enforced to aid in reducing an imprint. To enforce this, climbers this year were all provided with a reusable bowl, spork, silipint and reusable bag to hold all their swag in (seriously, these climbers get a lot of killer swag.) Simply reading through the in-depth schedule on the TwoFourHell website, looking through the photos or watching the videos cannot fully describe the experience. Sadly, this year I was only able to be a part of the experience for 8 hours, but next year is already blocked off on my 2013 calendar.

These two teams I followed the closest of all, given they were both Russellville based and I had the opportunity to shoot a few of their training experiences leading up to that weekend. Below them, you’ll find video and photo footage of some of the weekend’s highlights.