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The 23-year-old Cameron Hörst has made his third ascent of a proposed 5.15a sport route, with a repeat of Jonathan Siegrist’s Hundred Proof, a 110-foot roof in the Clear Light Cave of Mount Potosi outside Las Vegas. Originally bolted by Andy Raether, the route was sent by Siegrist in 2020. Hörst made the first repeat on December 7, followed by Joe Kinder later that day.
Opening with 30 feet of 5.12a vert leading into a massive limestone cave roof, Hundred Proof shares a back half with Smoke Wagon (5.14d), which Hörst ticked in February. “The first half of Smoke Wagon is like a 5.14a,” he told Climbing, “and the first half of Hundred Proof is like 5.14b/c.” The harder, more direct start landed on Hörst’s radar after he sent Smoke Wagon.
When he finally sent the proposed 5.15a this week, however, Hörst used a kneebar to score a rest three-quarters of the way through the roof, in the middle of the redpoint crux. As a result, he and Kinder—who used the same kneebar beta—have suggested a downgrade to 5.14d.
In an interview the day after his send, Hörst said he felt close to sending the route for a while. “A couple of days ago, I fell going to the anchors because my foot slipped,” he said, “So it felt like sending yesterday was all about showing up and making it happen.”
5.15a appears near-limit for Hörst at this point in his career. His first 5.15a, Kinder’s Bone Tomahawk in St. George, Utah’s Fynn Cave, has received several marks on either side of the 14/15 line with new beta and currently sits as a slash grade. His second, Martial Law at Robber’s Roost—sent in June —has yet to see a repeat.
Unlike the Roost, however, where Hörst says there is either obvious alternate beta potential or none at all, the Clear Light Cave of Potosi is more subtle. “It’s very blocky, featured rock,” he said. “There are a lot of features where you can find something if you look closely.” Once Hörst and Kinder discovered and used this kneebar, their strategy on Hundred Proof was totally revamped.
Hörst described Martial Law as a sprint, a “hustle-y route between mediocre rests, where you do a six-to-eight bolt section of climbing with no rest, take a mediocre rest, then hustle to the next.” Hundred Proof, on the other hand, is far longer, but with more opportunities to rest. There are boulder problems on the route, but they aren’t as hard as those on Marital Law, he said. There’s just a lot more climbing. “You’re doing these problems, getting rests every few bolts, managing your pump the whole way. So if you’re a really good fitness climber, good at using your knees, you could climb well here. The energy systems and pace are very different.”
A few hand and footholds crumbled off of Hundred Proof while Hörst was working it, both in the redpoint crux and afterward. This made the climb objectively harder, with a few longer moves and more tenuous feet, but it didn’t change his final opinion. “At the time, I thought maybe that would level the playing field,” he said, “but even with the holds breaking, it’s not enough to keep it 5.15a with the kneebar.”
Hörst said that although it’s not a full hands-off, kick-back-and-relax rest, he can get a solid breather for 30 or 45 seconds at this kneebar before pulling into the remainder of the redpoint crux. This makes a pivotal difference in power levels going into the second half, “a series of powerful deadpoint moves between good edges and pockets, leading to a big jump move from a righthand undercling to a jug.”
Once you’ve stuck that, the climber has two more bolts of climbing to pull the lip of the cave and clip chains. “It’s still territory where you can fall,” Hörst said. “The holds aren’t that good, the feet are smeary, it’s really steep, and your body is in redline zone. You’re doing this last little V5 to V6 boulder problem, before the last bolt. Then you can do a little shake, compose yourself, and hit a few more committing moves between good holds to the top.”
Hörst was quick to clarify that the manner in which Siegrist sent the route, without the kneebar rest, was certainly 5.15a. “I’d like the climb to be 5.15,” he said, “and the way Jonathan did it was 5.15. But I want to do every route in the most efficient way possible, whether it’s a 5.13a or a 5.15a. I’m not going to do a route and hold the grade just because I want the grade.”
In Hörst’s words, proper grading revolves around recognizing the easiest feasible way to do a line that is still within the bounds of acceptable technique. “If [Hundred Proof] were put in Santa Linya, Spain, the masses would go and figure out the easiest way to do the climb. These kneebars would be found. And that’s with full respect to Jonathan, because he’s so strong that he doesn’t even need to find the easiest beta sometimes,” he said. “He can do 5.14d or 5.15a in a few days of work. But for me, that’s a limit climb. I’m gonna try to find subtleties and beta that make the route possible for me.”
Hörst said unlocking this beta on Hundred Proof has made him consider kneebar potential on other hard American sport routes, too.
Much of the top-shelf sport climbing in the United States is in limestone caves quite similar to Clear Light, often established in the 2000s and early 2010s, when kneebars and kneepads weren’t yet prevalent in the standard American climbing toolbox. “There are quite a few hard [American] routes that haven’t seen repeats in the last decade that could have kneebar beta lowering the intensity of the climbing,” Hörst said. “Until a lot of the hardest routes done before this new age have been reassessed, there will probably be this phase of downgrading.”
Kneebars are one thing, but kneepads—which both Hörst and Kinder used during their redpoints—are also a tricky subject. Some climbers draw the line between the two. (Others draw the line at stuffing books underneath kneepads to boost thickness.)
Kneepads aren’t as widely accepted in the modern sport climbing kit as high-performance rubber, dynamic ropes, gymnastic chalk, wiregate carabiners, or other technological advancements, but Hörst says they should be, or at least will be in the future.
“I’m a young climber, so I’m definitely not as versed in the worldly realm of hard climbing as someone like Joe [Kinder] or J-Star [Siegrist],” Hörst admitted. “But I try to understand their opinions and develop my own… and at this stage of climbing, across the world, the use of kneebar pads is widely accepted. All the hardest climbers use them when they need to, and climbs should be graded based on the consensus of the most efficient and effective way of doing [them].” That includes using rubber kneepads for added grip and protection.
It’s a question with a broader reach than just sport climbing, too. “Barefoot Charles” Albert recently proposed another V17, established (as per usual) without climbing shoes. But even Albert himself didn’t balk when his last V17 proposal, No Kpote Only, was downgraded to V15, and it’s fairly obvious that Albert’s decision to eschew performance climbing shoes doesn’t mean his climbs should be graded under different criteria.
The principle is the same with kneepads, Hörst argues. Kneepads, like performance rock shoes, are a basic, widely used tool available to every climber. That doesn’t mean everyone has to use them, but climbs should be graded with their use factored in.
Hörst’s views are buttressed by the simple truth that in the sport of performance rock climbing, equipment progression is inevitable. People are always going to find technical solutions, in addition to getting stronger. “Yes, getting stronger is the best way to improve,” Hörst said, “but over the course of decades, technical improvements play a role. The climbing shoes of the 1980s and 1990s weren’t nearly as good as today’s shoes. That allows us to do stuff people couldn’t do back when Wolfgang Güllich was doing hard routes in the 90s.”
“To me, kneebar pads are a logical progression. People have always used their knees when they need to. Why not make a pad that has rubber on it to help you? I find nothing immoral in it. It’s just that you have to be objective and honest about how you do it.”
Hörst isn’t sure what his next big project will be, though he’s clear on one thing—he’s actively hunting for more American 5.15s (there are around a dozen proposed at current count). He and Kinder are also working on an extension to Bone Tomahawk. “I’ve never climbed 5.15b before,” Hörst said, “but we’ve invested multiple trips into this thing and come up empty-handed. It’s my biggest project so far and the same for Joe probably. So we think it could be 15b.”