Welcome to Behind The Wall, a weekly newsletter published every Saturday.
Each week, I highlight the favourite things I’ve watched, read and listened to from the world of indoor and competition climbing.
I also track where you can buy competition tickets during the World Cup season.
This week was a bumper week of content. We got multiple interviews with World Cup Climbers and a breakdown of the Keqiao Boulder World Cup semi-final boulders. We also got a peak behind-the-scenes at routesetting and training.
This weekend, the Boulder European Cup in Klagenfurt, Austria, is ongoing, and next weekend, we have the Boulder and Speed World Cup in Salt Lake City, USA. The first Olympic Qualifier is in 3 weeks in Shanghai.
I know there is lots of great content that I don’t know about. Let me know at behindthewall@inside-climbing.com, and I’ll give you a shout-out if I feature it.
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Watch
- Rock City Training Camp Day 1 with Japanese, GB and German World Cup climbers. Watch some of the best World Cup climbers, including Toby Robert, Yannick Flohé, Alex Megos, Yoshiyuki Ogata, Miho Nonaka, Daiki Sano, Erin McNeice, Max Milne and other GB athletes compete in a World Cup training camp.
- Inside Natalia Grossman’s Qualification Round At Studio Bloc Masters with Epic TV. Watch Natalia Grossman navigate the Studio Bloc 2024 Qualification round of 80 boulders.
- Boulder World Cup finals - how to make them in 2024 from Udo Nueman. Watch an in-depth analysis of each of the Keqiao Semi-Final boulders from Udo Neumann.
- Story of how Futaba Ito discovered climbing. Revisit a video from the lead-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics looking at Futaba Ito’s climbing journey. There are non-Japanese subtitles available.
- Routesetting in China - Part 1. Learn what it is like to visit and route-set in China from Niklas Wiechmann (Beta Routesetting) and Jake Mason (Bouldering Bobat, Hang Head Routesetter and GB Routesetter).
- Japanese Route setting with Tomoa Narasaki and Ikeda Yudai. Hear what Tomoa and Ikeda enjoy about route setting, what they think makes a good problem, and what moves will become popular at World Cups this year. There are English subtitles available.
Read
- Meet Toby ‘The Terminator’ Roberts: the teenager set for Olympic heights by Natalie Berry. Natalie Berry (from UKClimbing) interviews Toby Roberts and his dad, Tristian Roberts, for the Guardian on Toby’s journey to qualifying at the Olympics.
- Natalia Grossman Is Making History as Team USA’s First Latina Climber by Suzie Hodges. Read about Natalia Grossman’s struggles with illness in 2022 and 2023 and her plans for preparing for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
- Interview with Molly Thompson-Smith by Richard Aspland. Learn how important sport has been in Molly’s life and the influence her parents have on her. Learn how she dealt with a major ankle injury, how she would love to go on the Great British Bake Off, and how her annual comprehensive annual mince pie review started.
- Why a gay athlete kissing his boyfriend after qualifying for the Olympics was “a powerful thing” by Jon Holmes. Learn how Campbell Harrison is championing the LGBTQ community in climbing and how the personal has become political for him.
Listen
- Chloé Caulier Interview on That’s Not Real Climbing Podcast. Learn more about how Chloé started climbing, what it is like being the only female World Cup climber in Belgium, and how she still faces problems with men giving her advice (beta spraying) when she climbs.
- Sam Watson Interview on the Climbing Intelligence Agency Podcast. Learn what Sam thinks of the future of speed, what it is like to train for Speed climbing, and why he thinks Speed climbers could run below 4.5 seconds now. Find it on YouTube and Spotify.
International Climbing Competition Tickets
The competition season has started, so here is the rundown of where you can find World Cup and OQS tickets.
- Salt Lake City (USA) World Cup May 3 – 5. Preferred seating is sold out. However, general admission is still available at Boulder and Speed. Because the competition is happening indoors in the USA Training Centre, the spectator capacity is limited. Update April 28: Saturday and Sunday tickets are sold out. More tickets may be released on April 30.
- Salt Lake City (USA) Paraclimbing World Cup May 7 – 8.
- Shanghai Olympic Qualifier. Sport Climbing tickets have already sold out after going on sale on April 8. You can still get tickets for the Urban Festival and other sports.
- Budapest Olympic Qualifier: A Hungarian article on the OQS event in Budapest from the official Hungarian site for the Olympics states that the event will be free to enter.
- Innsbruck (Austria) Boulder, Lead and Paraclimbing World Cups June 24 – 30. World Cup Pass Tickets sold out within a few hours. Single-day tickets will be available on May 1. You will only need tickets for the Boulder finals and Lead semi-finals and finals.
- Chamonix (France) Lead and Speed World Cup July 12 – 14. The event will be free to attend.
- Briançon (France) Lead and Speed World Cup July 16 – 19. The event will be free to attend.
- European Championship in Villars August 23 – September 1. Tickets are yet to be announced.
- Koper (Slovenia) September 6 – 7. Tickets are yet to be announced.
- Prague (Czechia) World Cup September 20 – 22. VIP tickets are sold out, but seating and standing tickets are still available.
- Seoul World Cup October 2 – 6. Tickets are yet to be announced.
That’s a Wrap
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Behind the Wall. Let me know what you think at behindthewall@insideclimbing.com or D.M. me on Instagram.
See you next week!
P.S. Please share with anyone you think would enjoy reading Behind The Wall.
