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. (If you are new here, you can read old editions on the Behind the Wall homepage.)
We had a lot of videos released over the past week, including an analysis of the Seould and Prague World Cups from Richardsons Climbing, Oceania Mackenzie and Toby Roberts. Hannah Meul uploaded her first video to YouTube, a diary-style video from her time in Fontainebleau.
We also had some classic fun indoor bouldering vlog videos from Emil Abrahamsson, Crispy Crimps, The Climbing Heads, and Zach Richardson released.
Two of the podcasts I got time to listen to over the last week and highly recommend are ones with routesetter Molly Beard and competition climber Melina Costanza.
Although the World Cup season is over, there are the Continental Championships in Asia and Pan America, along with some winter bouldering competitions, including Master of Fire and Les Grips in Belgium and France.
Please subscribe if you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week.
Watch
- IFSC Boulder World Cup Seoul 2024 | Richardsons Climbing. Madison and Zach talk through their boulders and feelings from the Seoul IFSC World Cup.
- Prague, we love you | Oceania Mackenzie. Oceania takes us behind the scenes to see her preparation before the Prague World Cup and her performances on all the boulders.
- Fighting to the End in Prague | Toby Roberts. Toby reflects on the Prague Boulder World Cup and his surprise at standing on the podium.
- A Climbing Diary | Hannah Meul. World Cup medalist Hannah Meul shares a day in her life climbing in Fontainebleau and her feelings about dealing with pressure in competition climbing in her first YouTube video.
- Two Average Climbers Try to Win A Rock Climbing Competition (for real this time) | The Climbing Heads. Anthony and Emily compete at a local competition in the intermediate and beginner groups in the Touchstone Climbing Series.
- World’s Hardest V7? | Crispy Crimps. Marco talks about the next step on his road to trying to climb 2 Dan in B-Pump Tokyo - becoming a solid 1Q (approximately V7) climber in B-Pump Tokyo.
- Can a Parkour Pro Climb a World Cup Replica? (ft Toby Segar ) | Emil Abrahamsson. Emil sets some hard dynos at the Climbing Hangar, Reading. Will Parkour Pro Toby Segar do them all?
- The World’s Hardest Bouldering Gym - BPUMP OGIKUBO | Richardsons Climbing. Zach shares a compilation of training sessions at the infamous B-Pump Ogikubo climbing gym before going to the Seoul World Cup.
Listen
- Molly Beard — The Language of Movement, Budgeting Your Body Dollars, and Advice From an L5 Routesetter | The Nugget Climbing Podcast. Stephen talks with Molly Beard about how she got into routesetting and how she has adapted as the tools (holds, volumes, drills) have changed over the years.
- Melina Costanza – Elite Mental Training and Performance, Indoors vs Outdoors and Eating as a Top Athlete | The Testpiece Podcast. Josh interviews Melina Costanza about her perspectives on competition climbing and dives deep into her mental training and how she recovered from an eating disorder.
2024 International Climbing Competition Tickets
The World Cup season has wrapped up, but we do have the Asian and Pan American continental championships, a 4-lane speed test event in Madrid, Spain, and a couple of Winter Bouldering Comps.
Here is a rundown of climbing competitions to watch out for the rest of the year.
- 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.
- Master of Fire (Le camp de base, Belgium) December 6 – 7. While passes are sold out, individual tickets are still available.
- Les Grips (Montbéliard , France) December 14 – 15. A new competition in Montbéliard, France, with some of the best international athletes competing, including Toby Roberts, Mejdi Schalck, Tomoa Narasaki, Brooke Raboutou, Natalia Grossman and Camilla Moroni. Tickets are available.
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.
