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 had a ton of content released in advance of the Olympics, and the final OQS event in Budapest is still running with the finals tomorrow. Today was a very emotional day, with many provisional tickets being confirmed. You can find replays and results on the Olympic Channel.
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
- Fighting for Olympia | Alexander Megos. Get a quick recap of how the Shanghai OQS event went for Alex before watching Alex and Christoph Hanke have a training session in the Frankenjura Academy.
- Persistence and Pain: Svana’s Test of Strength | The Outsider Ep.3. Learn about how Svana Bjarnason rehabbed her ankle injury and how the Shanghai OQS event went for her.
- Miho Nonaka: Japan’s Iconic Olympic Climber | Adidas TERREX. Learn more about how Miho Nonaka got into climbing and about her preparation to qualify for Paris 2024.
- The BEST move of the 2023 World Cup season? // Boulder Breakdown. The Impact Routesetting team are back with a breakdown of the slab-360-move from Innsbruck 2023 from the Male Final.
- We ran an Olympic Comp with 2 Olympic Medallists 🥇🥉. GB Climbing organised a comp simulation with official IFSC setters on the Olympic Titan Wall in Parthian Climbing London, and Toby Roberts talked about every boulder and how he scored.
Read
- How “Ego, Innuendos, and Lies” Almost Led to the Removal of a Beloved Community Climbing Wall. Read on climbing.com about how a free climbing wall opened by Kai Lightner to support underprivileged communities in College Park, Georgia, was almost pulled down by City officials. By Delaney Miller.
- Janja Garnbret & Brooke Raboutou – Progress Through Fun Read about how Brooke Raboutou and Janja Garnbret became friends, leading to a joint training session in Ljubljana.
- After Giving Up His 2020 Olympic Dreams for His Family, Campbell Harrison Is Going to Paris. Read on climbing.com about how Campbell Harrison went from playing Tomb Raider to giving up his Olympic Dream for Tokyo to be with his family and then to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. It’s a must-read piece by Holly Yu Tung Chen.
- Conversation with Watanabe Masako. Richard Aspland from the IFSC interviews Watanabe Masako about her battle with Bone cancer from age 5, how she started climbing in 2018, had her leg amputated in 2019, and attended the Japan National Championships and Para World Championship in 2021.
Listen
- Episode 25: Jack Masel ft. host Niklas Wiechmann. Niklas Wiechmann from Beta Routesetting turns the tables on Jack Masel and interviews him about how he got into climbing, became a head routesetter and gym manager, and the Japanese style of setting after a recent trip from the owner of B-Pump Ogikubo.
- Addressing the Entire Climbing Cycle – CBJ Podcast with Chris Klinke. John Burgman talked with Chris Klinke, the president of Trango, for CBJ. Learn about how he changed his career from being a VP at a financial firm to then a mountain guide before becoming the president of Trango.
International Climbing Competition Tickets
The competition season has started, so here is the rundown of where you can find World Cup and OQS tickets.
- 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!
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