What is Competition Ice Climbing?

Episode 1 of Mountain Voices transports you to the thrilling setting of the UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour. The annual series pits athletes against challenging, technical routes and sends them up vertical walls of ice at lightning speeds. The venues are scenic but temperatures challenging. Climbers must master their tools and diverse competition walls. Gordon McArthur (Canada) and Eimir McSwiggan (Ireland) provide an insight into what it takes to be an elite competition ice climber, how to get involved and what keeps them coming back. Rob Adie, Competition Manager at the UIAA – International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation – explains the format of the sport, its recent evolution and ambition to be part of the competition programme at a future Olympic Winter Games. There’s tales of blood on the ice, when to execute a Figure 4 and how ice climbing differs from sport climbing.

Mountain Voices is a podcast series from the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation

Presented and produced by Tarquin Cooper

Co-produced by Peter Bourne

Edited by Tom Tushaw

Mountain voices brings together views and opinions from the world of climbing and mountaineering. They are not necessarily those of the UIAA.

theuiaa.org/mountainvoices

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.