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, we got two more Japan-centric videos from Magnus Mitdbø and Emil Abrahamsson, the third IFSC Lounge episode with Matt Groom and Alex Honold, and Catalyst Climbing look at breaking the pure longest dyno record with Riki Schwark.
New speed climbing content also dropped this week. Speed climbing coaches Albert Ok (USA) and Peter Schnabel (Germany) talked about the recent competitions and the first hold of the route in their new podcast, 20 Holds. German speed climbing athlete Sebastian Lucke shares a behind-the-scenes look at his experiences from the European Speed Cup in Mezzolombardo, Italy.
We also got a dose of routesetting content. EpicTV went behind the scenes at Studio Bloc Masters 2024 to see how the qualification round is set. Climbing Curated interviewed Palmer Larsen, USA competitor and head coach of the Momentum Climbing Team in Salt Lake City. Holly Chen interviews her boss, Buck Yedor, Head of Routesetting for The Spot gyms in Colorado.
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.
Please subscribe if you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week.
Watch
- Trying to break the 15-year-old Dyno Record. Watch Brazilian climber Riki Schwark attempt to break the biggest dyno Guinness World Record with Catalyst climbing.
- IFSC Lounge with Matt Groom and Alex Honnold. Matt Groom interviews Alex Honold to get his perspective on the Salt Lake City World Cup, go deeper into some of the questions Honold asked on the live stream and learn what Honold will be doing at the Olympics.
- IFSC Speedclimbing European Cup Mezzolombardo 2024. Sebastian Lucke gives us a look behind the scenes at the Mezzolombardo European Speed Cup, including how he prepared for the competition and how he felt during the event.
- Creating Competition Boulders at Studio Bloc Masters 2024 with EpicTV. Go behind the scenes of the routesetting process of the qualification round at Studio Bloc Master 2024, where 4 women and 4 men set 80 qualification boulders at the World Cup for everyone.
- I competed again… In Japan. Magnus Midtbø competes in the 101 competition in B-pump Ogikubo and does better than he thought he would.
- Climbing with the strongest brothers in the world. Emil Abrahamsson dives deeper into what makes the Japanese so good at climbing with Tomoa and Meichi Narasaki in Akiyo and Tomoa’s private gym.
- Crack Masters Showdown between Will Bosi, Bronwyn Hodgins, Jacob Cook and Mari Salvesen. Watch two teams of some of the best climbers compete on some of the Crack Masters 2024 boulders.
Listen
- 20 Holds: Hold 1. In the first episode of their new podcast, Speed Climbing coaches Albert Ok and Peter Schnabel talk about the Shanghai OQS, Mezzolombardo European Speed Cup, and Hold 1.
- Bless Its Brushless Heart with Holly Chen and Buck Yedor. Learn about how Yedor manages a multisite routesetting team across the Spot gyms in Colorado. He talks about what goes into supporting route setters’ development and maintaining consistency across a group of gyms.
- Climbing Curated Episode 24 with Palmer Larsen. Palmer Larsen talks about how he copes with the difficulties of setting as a taller climber, the difference between commercial and competition settings, and the benefits of setting as a coach.
International Climbing Competition Tickets
The competition season has started, so here is the rundown of where you can find World Cup and OQS tickets.
- Budapest (Hungary) Olympic Qualifier Series Event: You will not need a ticket to enter the Ludovika Campus, where the Budapest OQS event will be held, according to the Olympics OQS FAQ (at the bottom of the page). The schedule for the event is available.
- 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. Some tickets are still available.
- Chamonix (France) Lead and Speed World Cup July 12 – 14. The event will be free to attend. There are VIP tickets on offer.
- Briançon (France) Lead and Speed World Cup July 16 – 19. The event will be free to attend.
- Olympic Ticket resale platform. Some tickets for the Olympics are coming up through the official resale platform.
- European Championship in Villars (Switzerland) 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, and seated tickets are almost sold out, but 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 DM me on Instagram.
See you next week!
P.S. Please share with anyone you think would enjoy reading Behind The Wall.
