Horseshoe Hell 2020

Bryan and I won the lottery ... Herd Immunity is hellbound! @fredbill222 and @bleat_bleat_bleat . 

I’d be stoked to connect with 2020 Lions. Who’s in this year?

Lots of good beta and hell reports online. Anyone have anything to add here? Training tips? Favorite snacks at 3am?
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BLEAT!

Horseshoe Hell is a funny game. I played the game for at least 7 years and got 2nd in "Elite" as a team twice, one of those times was the year they had the real rock special featuring Honnold and Earle & Berry (No mention of us :P) 

Anyway it's a funny game because the basic strategy dictates that a 1 move wonder 5.12b takes less effort (and is usually 1-2 stars) whereas a sustained 5.12b might be 4 stars, but it takes precious energy to execute, for the same amount of points. Nobody is climbing 4 star routes near their limit. Furthermore 30' routes (which there are a rediculous amount of)  vs. 100' routes of the same grade get the same points. 

Lead in blocks, this means 4 laps in a row on the easy stuff, if the first two bolts have challenging moves leave the 2nd bolt clipped after every lap (legal), dial any routes near your limit. Use short ropes, don't sleep, protein drink, stimulants, avoid crowds

Avoiding crowds and jockeying for position is huge. The people that try to break the pitch count records are usually abrasive types who want to do the route before you do

Ryan Surface wrote: Horseshoe Hell is a funny game. I played the game for at least 7 years and got 2nd in "Elite" as a team twice, one of those times was the year they had the real rock special featuring Honnold and Earle & Berry (No mention of us :P)

Anyway it's a funny game because the basic strategy dictates that a 1 move wonder 5.12b takes less effort (and is usually 1-2 stars) whereas a sustained 5.12b might be 4 stars, but it takes precious energy to execute, for the same amount of points. Nobody is climbing 4 star routes near their limit. Furthermore 30' routes (which there are a rediculous amount of)  vs. 100' routes of the same grade get the same points.

Lead in blocks, this means 4 laps in a row on the easy stuff, if the first two bolts have challenging moves leave the 2nd bolt clipped after every lap (legal), dial any routes near your limit. Use short ropes, don't sleep, protein drink, stimulants, avoid crowds

Avoiding crowds and jockeying for position is huge. The people that try to break the pitch count records are usually abrasive types who want to do the route before you do

Great beta, thanks! Since you can only do two laps, would a block of four leads mean two different routes instead of staying on the same route with both partners?

F r i t z wrote:

Great beta, thanks! Since you can only do two laps, would a block of four leads mean two different routes instead of staying on the same route with both partners?

Both partners should climb the exact same routes for efficiency. On easy routes where you don't need to save second clip (you untie if you need to save 2nd clip) the work flow is this:

 Partner 1 hangs draws, climbs route, lowers down, partner 2 pulls rope so partner one can immediately start climbing. Partner 1 completes second lap, Partner 2 does 2 laps. If route 2 is adjacent swing over while cleaning and preclip 2nd bolt on route 2. Partner 2 leads route 2 twice. This is how you get the "blocks of 4".

Repeat.

Ryan Surface wrote:

Both partners should climb the exact same routes for efficiency. On easy routes where you don't need to save second clip (you untie if you need to save 2nd clip) the work flow is this:

 Partner 1 hangs draws, climbs route, lowers down, partner 2 pulls rope so partner one can immediately start climbing. Partner 1 completes second lap, Partner 2 does 2 laps. If route 2 is adjacent swing over while cleaning and preclip 2nd bolt on route 2. Partner 2 leads route 2 twice. This is how you get the "blocks of 4".

Repeat.

Ah, I gotcha. Thanks! What was your favorite 0300 snack, Ryan?

We'll be there, first year that there will be a gimpy category!

La MoMoface wrote: We'll be there, first year that there will be a gimpy category!

Nice, what’s your teamname? Are you guys missing limbs, perchance?

I've only competed for three years and we never placed that well (top 15 overall) but my partner and I climbed 150 pitches each in 2018 for what that's worth.  Ryan has some great advice.  

My partner and I competed two years in a row where the temps were over 90 degrees so I highly recommend more water and electrolytes than you think you'll need.  I think a lot of people zonk from dehydration so eat and drink when you don't feel like it.  

Also if you are planning on climbing a ton in the North Forty cut your rope shorter.  Pulling extra rope through adds a lot of  time.  Also Tie a permanent figure 8 on one end of the rope.  Use something like a gridlock magnetron to clip in with and just pull the tail side of the rope through the draws like Ryan mentions.  Tying in is a waste of time and I'm guessing your goal will be to not be falling on routes so it's relatively safe.

Congrats on getting in and have a great time!

A couple of odds and ends:

Horseshoe Hell is really a bunch of teams playing different games on the same field. Some folks are going for points, some for pitch count, some for length, some all trad, etc. Decide what game YOU want to play and plan for that.

Set goals, and set them high. Our first year we started thinking about what our goal should be. I think my biggest day climbing at that point was somewhere around 20 pitches. So I figured 50 laps each sounded like a reasonable goal, right? 150% more than I'd ever done before. Then we started looking at the rules. At that time the threshold to be invited back was 100 laps per person. So we said what the hell and doubled our goal to 100 pitches each.

During the comp we had 100 pitches each knocked out before sunrise. We spent the last few hours climbing whatever looked interesting but not really getting after it. You're capable of so much more than you think you are. Aim high.

They were giving away these fancy climbing socks from Butora if you donated 5 bucks to the local climbing coalition. I would never buy stupid shit like that on my own accord, but since it was for a good cause I said why not. Ended up wearing them with my Mythos for the 24. Sweet Jesus my feet felt better after the 24 than they ever did after a long day of multipitch!

Hey Fritz,

Surface up there is a great guy to get beta from, give me a holler as well if you want more info - I have been either competing or apart of hell since 2010. Hope your doing well!

Anyone have a link to the 2020  rules?  I found them from 2019 but not 2020.

F r i t z wrote: Bryan and I won the lottery ... Herd Immunity is hellbound! @fredbill222 and @bleat_bleat_bleat .

I’d be stoked to connect with 2020 Lions. Who’s in this year?

Lots of good beta and hell reports online. Anyone have anything to add here? Training tips? Favorite snacks at 3am?

BLEAT!

Bring a lot of Propell, or any other type of electrolyte mix. They didnt make my stomach feel very great, but they were clutch at keeping me cramp free for the 24h.

Ma Ja wrote:

Bring a lot of Propell, or any other type of electrolyte mix. They didnt make my stomach feel very great, but they were clutch at keeping me cramp free for the 24h.

Good call. I use Tailwind - relatively healthy, no gut bombs and made in southwest Colorado to boot.

Ma Ja wrote:

electrolyte mix. 

F r i t z wrote:

Good call. I use Tailwind - relatively healthy, no gut bombs and made in southwest Colorado to boot.

Nice, I'll check them out. Yeah, Propell was rough on the guts for 30 mins or so every time. But, I probably drank 10 of them!

This?   tailwindnutrition.com/

Cytomax is my personal favorite for endurance, also has carbs to keep your energy levels up. I'll be bringing the whole damn container out there with me this year!

Real food is key too. Dont expect to last all day and night and morning on Cliff bars and such. Bring a Jetboil and your favorite pack of microwave minute goodness, fruit, peanutbutter, pizza, anything that's real.

It’s rigged!
3 years applying- and 3 years nada!

TK421 wrote: It’s rigged!
3 years applying- and 3 years nada!

Are they already done? I thought the emails were going out later this month. And I'm not totally sure about this, but I didnt think all the emails went out all together at the exact same time either.

What's up man!  This is Devil Wears Prana third year on the scene!  Hydration tablet (nuun), pb&j, mini burritos and a whole bunch of psyche.  Once you've got all these, just let the training take over. Looking forward to seeing everyone out there