The 2025 UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour kicks off on 10 January with the opening World Cup of the season in Cheongsong, South Korea. A powerful over 150 athletes from over 25 member federation international locations are anticipated to compete throughout the two-month season which is able to see 5 World Cups staged in 5 completely different international locations and on three continents. The Ice Climbing World Tour, run by the UIAA for the reason that early 2000s, is partnered by Out of doors Analysis.
Continuity and evolution will likely be on the fore. The opening three phases of the World Cup will happen in venues acquainted to athletes. All three supply contrasting experiences. Set within the secluded Korean mountains and organised by the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF), Cheongsong at all times gives a extremely technical routes and can moreover stage the Asian Championships.
For the twenty fifth yr in a row, the Swiss resort of Saas-Payment hosts a UIAA-sanctioned occasion, a formidable feat for the organizers, supported by the Swiss Alpine Membership. Saas-Payment is a novel venue, the place a really partisan and sizeable crowd are in a position to observe the motion from many alternative vantage factors.
The second and closing European cease is in Champagny-en-Vanoise, supported by UIAA member affiliation FFCAAM. Champagny is sometimes called a ‘winter wonderland’ and with the French Alps internet hosting the 2030 Winter Olympic Video games, it presents a chance for competitors mountain climbing to showcase its potential in a future Olympic setting.
The World Tour concludes in North America. Over the previous decade, visits to North America have turn out to be extra frequent. Colorado, from Ouray to Denver, has turn out to be a favorite cease. This yr the honour goes to the city of Longmont, situated within the Boulder and Weld counties. The occasion will present the right alternative to showcase the burgeoning improvement of US crew supported by the American Alpine Membership. The AAC will host the occasion in partnership with the Longmont Climbing Collective.
The internet hosting of UIAA mountain climbing occasions haven’t been confined to mountain areas over latest years. For the third time, the World Tour will go to a downtown city space with Edmonton, Canada following on from its internet hosting of final yr’s World Championships with the ultimate World Cup of the season, mixed with the North American Championships. The occasion, set towards town’s enterprise district, is supported by the hosts Offbeat Leisure and the Alpine Membership of Canada and anticipated to attract an enormous public.
2024 UIAA Ice Climbing World Youth Championships in Champagny-en-Vanoise (France). Picture: UIAA / Julia ROGER-VEYER
The World Tour format is comparatively easy. At every of the 5 World Cups, medals are granted to the highest three female and male athletes within the lead and pace disciplines. The World Tour winners are the athletes who accumulate essentially the most factors throughout the 5 World Cups. The defending champions are: Lee Younggeon and Woonseon Shin of South Korea in lead and Mongolia’s Mandakhbayar Chuluunbaatar and Aneta Louzecka, Czech Republic, in pace. Numerous UIAA member associations have made a major dedication to the event of their mountain climbing groups. This yr a large contingent of athletes are anticipated from the next international locations: France, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mongolia, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Spain, the UK and the USA.
There have additionally been some seminal modifications to the organisation of competitors mountain climbing. On the 2024 UIAA Normal Meeting, a devoted Working Unit ‘World Ice Climbing’ was created. The newly shaped World Ice Climbing contains a board of elected specialists supported by two athlete representatives.
“The permitted new construction of mountain climbing goes to allow the people who find themselves specialists on this subject to work with a better diploma of independence. This can be a main step in permitting the game to develop.”
Peter Muir, UIAA President
Full particulars on the creation of World Ice Climbing can be found right here.
One other key second of the season is the annual World Youth Championships the place athletes throughout U16, U18 and U20 age classes will compete for world titles. The 2025 version takes place in Ouray, Colorado from 7-9 February. That is the primary time that the Youth World Championships has been hosted outdoors of Europe. Moreover, the Continental Open season is already underway with 4 occasions having taken place in Europe in November-December 2024 and the ultimate two competitions of the season scheduled for Ouray, USA in late January and Sunderland, England, in early March.
“What a season we’ve got lined up! It’s taken quite a lot of exhausting work to construct the World Tour again as much as the place we have been in 2019 – however the 2025 season will likely be superb, with occasions on three continents. We’re actually wanting ahead to utilizing this season to develop the game by way of bringing in new athletes, federations and followers of the game. It will likely be a seminal season for Ice Climbing particularly with the creation of World Ice Climbing to steer the game ahead in direction of a brilliant future!”
Rob Adie, UIAA Sports activities Occasions Coordinator
Belongings for Media and Followers
The semi-finals and finals of all lead and finals of all pace competitions will likely be livestreamed on the UIAA YouTube channel. Please subscribe to obtain reminders about streaming occasions. Livestream particulars for many occasions are actually obtainable.
The UIAA documentary sequence On Skinny Ice, monitoring the most effective moments of the 2024 season and providing a behind the scenes perspective of the game, is accessible to view on the UIAA YouTube channel. 5 episodes have been launched.
Quick-form content material, highlights, podium posts and updates will likely be obtainable on the UIAA social media channels, notably Fb and Instagram.
Occasion photographs will likely be obtainable on the UIAA Flickr channel.
A choice of ‘better of’ photographs for media, ready for the 2024-2025 season, might be discovered right here.
Press releases will likely be obtainable for all World Cup occasions, each previews (-3 days earlier than) and opinions (day +1). Please subscribe to obtain press releases on to your inbox.
Please go to iceclimbing.sport for all occasion data, particulars on occasion programmes and timings, athlete registrations, stay outcomes and extra.
UIAA ICE CLIMBING WORLD TOUR PARTNER
Major photograph: 2024 UIAA Ice Climbing World Championships in Edmonton (Canada). Credit score: UIAA/Slobodan Mišković
