© 2024 88.9 KETR
Public Radio for Northeast Texas
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
This page curates KETR's news stories related to Texas A&M University-Commerce.

A&M-Commerce Climbing Society gains Guinness World Record titles

Texas A&M University-Commerce

Texas A&M University-Commerce is now the official holder of two Guinness World Record titles, both received by the Climbing Society.

Back in early January, family, students, faculty and staff came out to support the Climbing Society as they spent six hours non-stop climbing the artificial wall located in the Morris Recreation Center.

On Friday, the team received the official results from Guinness World Records stating that they were now the official holders of two records, "The greatest vertical distance climbed on an artificial climbing wall in six hours" (record 1)  and the fastest time to climb the height of Mt. Everest on an indoor climbing wall (record 2).

The team consisted of  twelve members: Andrew Dahir, Hunter Joyce, Kathryn Cotsakis, Will Lain, Dustin Lux, Luke Raper, Deric Moore, Jake Gadberry, Rory Curtin, Dax Havrilak, Tyler King and Austin King.

Andrew Dahir, team leader of the group and past president of the Climbing Society, tells KETR,

"I am very proud of my team and what we were able to accomplish, everyone worked really hard and it paid of enormously! Without a coordinated effort from Outdoor Adventures, The Morris Recreation Center and The Climbing Society, none of this would have been possible."

With the intense climbing, comes many interesting facts:

Each member climbed the 45-foot climbing wall over ninety times

Four ropes were completely used during the attempt and had to be retired immediately afterwards.

A series of six grigris were used to belay the climbers and had to be switched out to prevent them from getting too hot.

The fastest single climb up the wall was just under 5.2 seconds, achieved by multiple climbers.

Kathryn Cotsakis was the climber who was climbing at the time that record 1 was broken, with Dax Havrilak being on the wall at the time of record 2 being broken.

Not only did they surpass the previous records they more than doubled the previous distance for record 1, and cut the time in half for record 2.  The previous record for record 1 was 5,308.8 meters. The A&M-Commerce team reached a staggering 12,340 meters. If that's not impressive enough, the previous record for record 2 was 9 hours 58 minutes and 55 seconds. The Climbing Society climbed the height of Mt. Everest in "Speedy Gonzales"-style at a - literally - record breaking time of 4 hours 24 minutes and 33 seconds.

"We are delighted to confirm that you have successfully achieved a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for Greatest vertical distance climbed on an artificial climbing wall in 6 hours (team). We would like to congratulate you on your record-breaking achievement. You are OFFICIALLY AMAZING." - Guinness World Records

Many of us - myself included - can barely climb our stairs, so in the words of Guinness World Records, "You are officially amazing."

Daniel was born and raised in Commerce, TX, and has been a life-long listener of 88.9 KETR. After listening to ‘The Art of Sound’ with Mark Chapman as a child, he enjoyed the thought of being able to broadcast across NE Texas. He is now a Radio/Television student at Texas A&M University-Commerce and hopes to continue his work in radio after he graduates. He has been heard in the past as the host of ‘All Things Considered’, ‘Movie Picks with Alice Reese’ and ‘The Morning Bell’.