Welcome to Behind the Wall, your weekly digest on what is happening in the climbing competition world.
This week, we examine the pre-season international competitions, which run before the World Cup season begins in April.
We recap the news from last week, including Iulia Kaplina's retirement. I share my favourite content, including Matt Groom's touching portrait of Aneta Loužecká and the story of Muro, a new spray-wall-focused gym in London.
As usual, I will recap where you can buy tickets for upcoming international competitions and what competitions to watch this week.
Pre-Season International Competitions
M2 in the male final of the 2024 Climbing Works International Festival (CWIF) was something different.
Four black volumes created a box on the far right end of the competition wall on the slab. When Jack MacDougall came out, the MC told the crowd that the routesetter Max Ayrton had cooked up something special. Jack immediately started to attempt the cartwheel on the wall, and the crowd went wild. Cameras started flashing, and phones were held high to record the moment.
This was something we hadn't seen before.
Though Jack never managed to complete the full cartwheel, the crowd was buzzing. Who will manage it?
Each athlete came out, and the crowd eagerly watched to see if they would complete the move. Yannick Flohé looked good on it but couldn't get his left foot on the bottom volume. Daiko Sano, who flashed every problem in the qualification round the day before, was also close. He could get his left foot down but could not stand up out of it.
It wasn't until the last athlete, Max Milne, that we saw how the cartwheel worked, and he made it look easy. Max completed it on his first attempt to reach the zone, but the final section was not easy. He would reach the top on his third attempt, but only after the buzzer.
The crowd roared.
No one cared about the buzzer.
CWIF in Sheffield, UK, is the oldest of three pre-season international competitions. These competitions have cemented themselves as the best way for athletes to test themselves before the World Cup season starts in the spring. The other two are Studio Bloc Masters, held in Darmstadt near Frankfurt in Germany, and Dockmasters in Utrecht in the Netherlands. CWIF started in 2008 and has run every year since. Studio Bloc Masters started in 2016, and Dockmasters in 2019.
Each event attracts many World Cup athletes and the best local climbers, who get a chance to test themselves against some of the best. Two of the British 2024 Olympic finalists, Erin McNeice and Hamish McArthur, won CWIF in 2023. Olympic gold medalist Toby Roberts finished 2nd back then, demonstrating how strong he is on the last physical boulder problem. Janja Garnbret won Studio Bloc Masters back in 2019 & 2020, and Natalia Grossman won last year. Staša Gejo won Dockmasters in 2023 & 2024, while Chloé Caulier won in 2020, and Jenya Kazbekova won in 2019.
Olympians Hannes Van Duysen and Jessica Pilz, along with many other World Cup finalists and semifinalists, are registered for the 2025 edition.
The events do more than give athletes an opportunity to compete: they connect the community with them. Each event has an open qualification event that anyone can sign up for and compete alongside the pros. While Dockmasters uses a flash format for those looking to progress to the semi-final, they also host an open qualification for recreational climbers to test themselves and experience the event. They get tickets to watch the semi-final or final, which is included with their qualification ticket.
Both Studio Bloc Masters and CWIF use an open scramble format for everyone. Studio Bloc has 80 problems split into 4 levels of difficulty increasing in points, with athletes scoring on their highest scoring 20 problems. CWIF has 30 problems with more points for a flash. In both events, you can compete alongside the pros, though most pros will compete in the earlier qualification sessions.
What is the Scrabble format? Athletes have a set of problems (50 for Dockmasters, 80 for Studio Bloc and 30 for CWIF) to climb as many as they can as fast as possible, getting points for each climb. Usually, doing a climb on your first attempt will get you the most points, and it will reduce down on further attempts.
The semi-finals and finals for all three events follow the IFSC World Cup Boulder format, with the only exception being Dockmasters, which uses the old 4+ timing rules in the final to let athletes complete an attempt even after the buzzer goes off. This creates the feeling of being at a World Cup, but the events are even more intimate because they are held within gyms, and you sit a lot closer to the action.
Alongside the competitions, the events run community-focused events, including watching adventure films, hosting talks, and standing for local companies and sponsors to sell gear. They feel closer to a festival than just a competition.
This March, I will return to Sheffield for CWIF to climb and spend time with old friends. I'll immerse myself for a weekend in the Sheffield climbing community and enjoy the closest thing the UK has to a World Cup.
If you can head down to one of these competitions, you won't be disappointed.
News
- Veddriq Leonardo is leading the World Games Athlete of the Year 2024 award. Voting closes on January 31st.
- Iulia Kaplina (previous Speed World Record holder) announced her retirement from competing on Instagram after the IFSC rejected her application to compete as a neutral athlete in 2025. Russian and Belarusian athletes need to apply for a neutral license from the IFSC following the IOC's guidelines to compete at IFSC events.
- Boulderhal Energiehaven announced more athletes who are competing at Dockmasters next weekend, including 2023 World Champion Mickael Mawem.
- The IFSC renewed their partnership with EP Climbing up to 2028. EP Climbing has been a partner with the IFSC since the IFSC was founded back in 2007. EP Climbing supplied competition and training walls for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, including the creation of the Titan Wall.
- Martina Demmel shared her story about how she is recovering from disordered eating while being a professional climber.
Media Recommendations
Here are my 5 favourite indoor/competition climbing media recommendations from the past week.
A touching portrait of Ice Speed World Champion Aneta Loužecká by Matt Groom which explores how she fits in training and competing around her full time job as a Zoo keeper.
Kyra Condie shares a fun board climbing video on her new YouTube channel. Kyra climbs with her friend Dr Hannah Smith with a focus on getting as many v-points as possible on the Kilter board. Laughter and sandbagging are here in spades.
A beautiful short video describing the story of Muro, a different type of climbing gym in Peckham, London. The gym is inspired by the spray walls in Japanese with a focus on creating a different type of wall for the community.
This week Jinni talks with Niklas Wiechmann (Beta Routesetting) and Jake Mason (Bouldering Bobats) from Another Setting Podcast. They discuss how routesetting changes across the world, the problems with the standardisation of competitions, and the moves to leave behind in 2024.
Hannah Morris released the second part to her Creator Cup video from last year where the team takes on a series of challenging dynamic climbs.
International 2025 Competition Tickets
- 25-26th January: Dockmasters 2025. Tickets are on sale, but running low.
- 15-16th March: Studio Block Masters 2025. Registration opens on 1st February.
- 22 –23rd March: CWIF 2025. Registration starts on 1st February, spectator tickets go on sale on March 3rd at 12pm.
- 23 – 29th June: Innsbruck 2025 World Cup. Tickets go on sale early spring.
- 7 – 8th June: Prague World Cup. Tickets are on sale
Competitions to Watch
The British Bouldering Championship and Dockmasters are happening this week end. Both have been live-streamed in the past, so hopefully they will be the first competition of the year we can watch.
The Dockmasters live stream will be on Boulderhal Energiehaven YouTube channel.
The British Bouldering Championship will hopefully be live streamed on the BMC TV YouTube channel.
