Training Strategy Ahead of Cameron Hörst's 5.14d Sending Spree

Learn the training details behind Cameron Hörst's three 5.14d sends in a month!

The hardest part about the training process isn’t the work itself—it’s waiting to see it all come to fruition. Delayed gratification is the name of the game.

Slogging away in the gym and punching the clock on your project doesn't always produce immediate results. Many climbers find themselves frustrated at the slow—or sometimes imperceptible—progress and stop trying. It can be disheartening to strive toward something without concrete evidence that your efforts will pay off in the end. 

That’s the kicker, though; there are no guarantees, especially not right away. You have to love the process even more than the feeling of clipping the chains. The grind doesn’t have the same allure as the send…but it’s the only thing that works, eventually. And when it does, everything that’s been happening beneath the surface finally becomes clear.

No one understands this better than PhysiVāntage Pro, Cameron Hörst. Cam recently ticked three 5.14d climbs in just over a month.

The first, Smoke Wagon at Mount Potosi near Las Vegas, Nevada, is a steep route that cuts right up the chunky limestone guts of the Clear Light Cave. It’s long, unrelenting, and far from clean—everything Cam typically avoids.

The second, Southern Smoke Direct in the Red River Gorge, shares many of the same traits as another starkly overhanging enduro-fest after a testy boulder problem right off the deck.

Zoolander, also in the Red, broke the pattern. Previously climbed by only Alex Megos, Daniel Woods, and Yannick Flohé, this crimpy route took Cam on a technical quest through a series of gritty boulder problems up the unadorned, lightly textured face of the Old Zoo wall. 

Cam took down all three of these routes between February 5th and March 10th. For most climbers, that’s hardly enough time to complete even one major project. But nothing about his sending spree actually came that quickly. He’s spent the past year working hard toward specific improvements that only recently materialized. Sending is just the tip of the iceberg—it’s everything we can’t easily see that got him there. 

Cam’s latest approach to training can be summed up in one deceptively simple guideline: work your weaknesses.

“Fitness sport climbing has always been a noticeable weakness of mine,” he notes, “and I knew it was going to hinder my long-term growth if I didn’t try to improve it.” To that end, Cam embraced his anti-style. He shifted his attention in the gym over the off-season to endurance and power-endurance training. Any climbing trips he took during this time involved projecting the long, pumpy routes that used to thwart him. He included enough strength training to maintain his abilities in that arena but focused primarily on bringing his aerobic capacity up to speed. 

Months of the slow and steady grind got Cam to the point where he’d developed his endurance base to the extent that his level of maximum strength at the time would allow. Then it was time to shift back toward strength to get the most out of his training adaptations. A few weeks of dedication on the systems board soon sparked the spree.

Not everyone can send 5.14d in a month. Fewer still can manage that feat three times. But every climber out there can learn from how Cameron pulled it off. Falling and flailing on your weaknesses might not feel nearly as good in the moment as topping every climb you touch. What’s bound to feel worse, though, is the realization that all that perceived “success” never amounted to much in the end.

Stay the course—your own sending spree could come sooner than you think!

Cam's Training In His Own Words

Cameron describes the two distinct phases of his training leading up to these incredible sends...

Uncut Footage of Zoolander

Cam's Favorite PhysiVāntage

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