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 keep track of what climbing competitions are coming up and where you can buy tickets.
It has been a week since the Olympics, and I’ve managed to catch up on most of the Olympic coverage, though more is still coming out. Multiple podcasts shared their commentary of the Olympics. We also had some pre-Olympic material released around the Olympics, including Micka Mawem’s setting for Oriane Bertone and a documentary about Jakob Schubert’s perfect year.
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Watch
- Oriane Bertone’s bouldering circuit training set by Micka Mawem | Les frères Mawem. Mickael Mawem talks us through the process of setting some combined format competition boulders for Oriane Bertone 2 weeks before the Olympics.
- Devotion: Jakob Schubert’s Journey To The Top. Learn about Jakob Schubert’s perfect 2023 where he sent a 9c route and a 9A boulder outside, became Lead World Champion and won his Olympic ticket.
- Testing a climbing shoe designed from a 3d scan of my foot | Humphrey Wittingtonsworth IV. Have you ever thought about creating a custom climbing shoe for your own foot? Humphrey Wittingtonsworth did exactly this.
- Climbing Chalk Will Never Be The Same | Nate Mitka Climbing. Nate Mitka shares a first look at Chalkless, a silicon-based product that aims to provide the same benefits as chalk but stays on for a whole session and improves air quality.
Read
- Meet the Paris 2024 Olympic Routesetters Part 3: Olga Niemiec | UKClimbing. Before the Olympics, Natalie Berry from UKClimbing sent Olga Niemiec, one of the two female Boulder route setters at the Olympics, some questions about routesetting.
Listen
- Olympic Commentary | Circle Up Podcast. Kyra and Allison give their commentary on the Olympics.
- Women finals Olympic Games Paris 2024 bouldering & lead combined | Another setting podcast. Niki and Jake talk about the female Boulder&Lead final.
- Olympic Reactions With Allison Vest | The Nugget Climbing Podcast. Allison Vest joins Steven to talk about the Olympics.
- Vertical Drag Race: Part 2 | Climbing Gold. Alex and Fitz talk with journalist John Burgman and Speed Climbers Piper Kelly, Sam Watson and Emma Hunt about how speed climbing has accelerated over the last 8 years as climbers have found different betas for the route.
- Mika Hosoi| Climbing Curated. Jack talks with Mika Hosoi about the difference between setting in Canada vs Australia, her controversial opinion about setting extended climbs, and where she gets her inspiration from.
- You Can Strip My Boulder – Blake Green | Climbing Business Journal Podcasts. Holly Chen talks with Blake Green about why competition routesetting is a wicked problem and the importance of diversity in routesetting teams.
International Climbing Competition Tickets
The Olympics may be over, but there are plenty of climbing competitions left this year to follow. Here is a rundown of climbing competitions to watch out for the rest of the year.
- World Youth Championship in Guiyang (China) August 22 – 31. Tickets are yet to be announced.
- Paraclimbing European Championship in Villars (Switzerland) August 24 – 25. The event will be free to attend and tickets are not needed.
- European Championship in Villars (Switzerland) August 27 – September 1. The event will be free to attend and tickets are not needed.
- Koper (Slovenia) September 6 – 7. Tickets for the semi-final and final will be available for pre-sale from July 8th – August 24th at the Koper 2024 World Cup site.
- 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.
- Paraclimbing World Cup in Arco (Italy) September 27 – 28. The event will be free to attend and tickets are not needed.
- Seoul World Cup October 2 – 6. Tickets are yet to be announced
- Asian Continental Championship in Tai’an (China) October 10 – 14. Tickets are yet to be announced.
- IFSC Madrid 4 Speed (Spain) October 18 – 20. Tickets are yet to be announced.
- Pan American Championship in Santiago (Chile) November 18 – 24. 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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