Back in December of 2022, in front of witnesses armed with video cameras, Dr. Alexander Pruss, professor of philosophy in the College of Arts & Sciences, set a new world record. Pruss repeatedly climbed up and down the climbing wall in Baylor’s McLane Student Center for one hour, and his total distance of 1013.7 meters (about 1108 yards) beat the Guinness World Record for greatest vertical distance climbed on a climbing wall during that period of time.

Now, Pruss has had another world record confirmed by Guinness –– also involving the Baylor climbing wall in the McLane SLC. On July 15, 2023, Pruss set the indoor world climbing record for fastest vertical mile (male), doing 112 climbs, at 14.4 meters each, in a total of 1 hour 42 minutes and 58 seconds. This was for a continuous time, including descents and breaks. The previous world record, held by Andrew Dahir, was for 1 hour 51 minutes and 37.5 seconds –– almost nine minutes more than the new time set by Pruss.

The second record-breaking climb by Dr. Pruss can be seen on a YouTube video. Details of how Pruss prepared for his climb and about the climb itself can be found on this initial entry and on this more recent, updated entry on his personal blog.