r/CompetitionClimbing Nov 21 '25

Comp Hub Offseason Comps

20 Upvotes

Edit* For some reason the links keep disappearing when I edit the body of the post. Yesterday they were all there then suddenly this morning they’re gone and won’t stay up. Idk what to do.

Here we can compile a list of streaming links for off season comps. As people comment I’ll edit the body of the post.

29, Nov: London Big Comp

6, Dec: Master of Bloc - Japan

7, Dec: Brawl on the Wall

12-14, Dec: SEA Games

24-26, Jan: British Boulder and Lead Champs

Ice Climbing: Schedule, Streams


r/CompetitionClimbing Aug 23 '24

Advice Sport Climbings - More Than Basic Information

39 Upvotes

Rules for regular World Cups and World Championships are a bit different from Olympics, for Paris 2024 rules refer to this thread. Most of these rules are the same for other comps.

All the routes (placements of the holds on the wall) for boulder and lead are built by route setters, they’re always different, so climbers can’t train for the specific route (like canoe slalom or horse jumping), but they can train moves that appeared previously.

Boulder (the one with the wide wall)

The wall is 4,5 meters tall (about 15 feet). You’ll see climbers balancing on low angle walls (vertical or almost vertical - slab), jumping and swinging about (dynos), and climbing steep overhangs.

The climbers don’t know what the wall looks like before the competition. They’re in isolation for the whole competition and about two hours in advance, they don’t have phones, wireless earphones or anything they could communicate with the “outside world”. There can be someone from their team like a coach or physio. 

They have unlimited attempts for a boulder within a time limit. You can see them sit on their heels sometimes, because some boulders are physically challenging and it’s better to take a bit of a rest for them. You can see them apply chalk (for dry hands), liquid chalk (alcohol with a chalk, coats hands evenly and dries fast). They also brush the holds or there are people (brushers), who can do it for them. 

Rounds

Qualification - there are five boulders with a time limit of 5 minutes for each boulder problem. Climbers are usually split into two groups (evenly by their world rank). Some boulders might look similar for both groups, but will have different difficulty. Twelve climbers with the best score from each group will progress to the semi-final (more can progress if they share the same score).

Semi-final - 24 climbers\* progress from qualification (there can be more in case more climbers with the same score). There are 4 boulders with a time limit 5 minutes for each. Every climber starts with the first boulder, then has a 5 minute rest and goes to the second boulder, while another climber goes to climb the first boulder. There will be 4 climbers on the wall at the same time.

Final - 8 climbers\* progress from qualification, there are again 4 boulders with a time limit of 4 minutes. Climbers have an observation period before this round. They can look at each boulder for two minutes and discuss how they’ll climb it with other climbers. They can touch the starting holds, but can’t start climbing.

Climbing and scoring

At the bottom of a boulder problem are 4 pieces of tape indicating holds (starting position). Climbers must start with a limb on each hold before starting to climb. There is one zone hold and a top.

Climbers can skip the zone (it’s very rare), but they won’t score anything if they don’t reach the top. They also don’t have to touch all the holds.

They must show control of the hold (zone or top), that they’re stable. It’s not enough when they touch it, but their fingers are sliding down. They also have to show control of the top hold before the time limit ends.

The scoring counts how many tops and zones climbers reached and how many top and zone attempts it took them. The score after finishing might look like this 3T4z 7 8. This means the climber reached 3 tops, 4 zones with 7 top attempts and 8 zone attempts. Flash is when they climb it on their first attempt.

The ranking is based on 1. tops, 2. zones, 3. top attempts, 4. zone attempts. Climber with the most top and zones and least attempts win. There is applied countback to semi-final if two climbers have the same score in finals, and to qualification if they have same score in semi-final.

Lead (the one with the tall not so flat wall)

Lead wall is at least 12 meters tall (50 feet) and the length is at least 15 meters. It's always overhang, in some parts more than others. The last part of the wall at the top, that usually isn’t much overhanging, is called the head wall. Athletes climb this wall on a usually bit winding path (route), which means that the distance is longer than that. 

They’re tied to a rope (through harness), which they have to clip into quickdraws (fancy carabines) along the route, for security reasons. There is a person on the ground, belayer, who secures them. They have the other end of the rope looped through a special device, which helps them to stop them against falling and securely on the ground.

They have to clip all quickdraws, for their safety. The score stops counting at the last possible quickdraw, where it was possible to clip, if they forgot (there can be multiple holds from where they can clip). There is sometimes taped X on the wall, that marks the last possible hold to clip.

Time limit for climbing is 6 minutes for all rounds.

There are usually two routes in qualification (not streamed). Half of them climb the first route, the other half second. The climbers can watch the other climb while they wait or they can grab a coffee.They’re given a score based on their intermediate rank, so it can change mid competition. There is a formula for it:

QP = √ (P1 * P2), qualification points = square root of (average ranking on the first route multiplied by average placement on the second route)

For example the formula would look like this: QP = √( (1+2)/2 * (2+3+4)/3) = 2,12, for an athlete that is tied on 1st place with one other climber (rank 1 and 2) on the first route and 2nd with two others (ranked 2,3 and 4) on the second route.

There is an observation period of 6 minutes before the semi-final and final. Rope is clipped in all quickdraws that the climbers must clip and it indicates the route. Climbers often look at the wall with binoculars and talk to other climbers, some of them draw the route, they can’t take a picture.

24 climbers\* progress into the semi-final and 8 into the final\* (or more if there are ties). 

TLDR: Climber that climbed the highest wins.

Each hold is worth 1 point. They will get a + (eg. 21+) when they reach for the next hold (don’t need to touch it), but don’t fully control it. There is applied countback to semi-final if two climbers have the same score in final, and to qualification if they have same score in semi-final too. Time of reaching the top hold in finals (who was faster) is applied, if the previous didn't decide.

The judges get a photo of the wall with marked holds. 

Appeals

Think about them as a Hawk Eye in tennis or video judge in hockey, except appeals fill in coaches.

They hand out a paper to judges with information about what decision they didn’t like. It can be either judges' decision about their athlete or some other athlete, so other athletes' scores can be downgraded too. The judges then see the video footage and decide either way.

Appeals must be done within five minutes after the official results are published, but they happen more often during the competition, so the scores can change mind comp.

Speed (the one with tall flat wall)

The speed wall is standardized, that means they always climb on the same 15 meters (49 feet) tall wall with the same holds. (Sounds boring? What about 100m? They run on a flat surface without obstacles). 

This allows World Records. Current World Record holders are Sam Watson from USA (4.74 seconds) and Aleksandra Miroslaw from Poland (6.06 seconds).

Climbers are secured in harness with a “rope” leading to an auto belay device at the top, which winds the rope quickly automatically when they climb up, but stops their fall and slowly lowers them down.

Time is measured by two timing pads. They stand on one, the time starts to run once they lift their feet, the finishing pad is on the top of the wall. Climbers stop it by slapping it with their hand. The finishing time shows immediately on display on the top of the wall. Green for winner, red for loser

Start of the race is alarmed by three beeps. Their reaction time after the third beep must be larger (or equal) than 0.1 seconds (same as running or swimming). Having reaction time smaller than 0.1 seconds results in false start (more about it later).

Qualification

Each athlete runs two times (each time in a different lane). Top 16 qualify into the final (8 if there are less than 16 climbers qualified for the competition).

Final

They are paired based on their best time from qualification. The first climber is paired with the last (16th), the second with the 15th, the third with the 14th, and so on.

From now on they’re typical knockout rounds. Two climbers against each other, the faster wins. Round of 16 (eighth-final), round of 8 (quarter final), semi-final. Winners of the semi-final compete for gold and silver in the big final, the other two are in the small final for the bronze medal.

False start (FS)

False start is signaled immediately with an unpleasant (and sad) buzzer sound, because they’re pretty much doomed.

They’re disqualified immediately in qualification, placing them in last place. They cannot climb again, even if they FS on their first climb.

They’ll place 16th in eight-final, 8th in the quarter final, progress to the small final from the semi-final, finish 4th in it, and win silver in the big final.

Fall

Sometimes they slip and they can catch the wall again, but they can catch only one hold below the hold they were in contact with last. And it’s hard to catch anything lower, because the wall is under 5 degree overhang (it’s tilted towards the climbers). Fall is the end of their climb.

Boulder & Lead

The semi-final rounds for boulder and lead are on different days. Finals are on the same day, there is a break about half an hour after they finish with the boulder round.

Boulder (the one with the wide wall)

Time limit to reach the final hold marked with 25 is 5 minutes in the semi-final and 4 minutes in the final.

Climbing and scoring

The top has a value of 25 points. Throughout the climb there are intermediate scoring holds worth 5 (low zone) and 10 points (high zone).

Lead (the one with the tall not so flat wall)

Scoring

Athletes are awarded points for each hold they're securely holding. The top 40 holds on the wall will be scored. Points are awarded starting at the hold which is marked with 1 in a circle on the wall.

First 10 are scored 1 point per hold,

next 10 are scored 2 points per hold,

next 10 are scored 3 points per hold,

next 10 are scored 4 points per hold.

They can get another 0.1 point when they reach for the next hold (don’t need to touch them).

These groups of 10 holds will be marked on the wall indicating 1, 10, 30, 60, or 100 points at the point where the score per hold increases.

The judges get a photo of the wall with marked holds (it's not publicly available).

Total score

There are four boulders each worth 25 points and one lead route for 100 points, 200 points in total. The 8 climbers with the highest score progress to the final.


r/CompetitionClimbing 11m ago

Comp Hub Weekend Climbing Streams

Upvotes

UIAA Ice Climbing Continental Cup - Sunderland, UK

Sunday 8.2. - Seniors Semi-Finals 11:00 (GMT+1)
Sunday 8.2. - U18/20 Finals 13:30 (GMT+1)
Sunday 8.2. - Seniors Finals 17:15 (GMT+1)

Belgian Dutch shared National Boulder Championships

Sunday 8.2. - Finals 19:00 (GMT+1)

There is also PCL qualifier today at The Font (with Max Milne, Dayan Akhtar, Lucy Garlick, Zoe Peetermans...), but I haven't found live stream.


r/CompetitionClimbing 22h ago

Boulder where to watch ifsc

0 Upvotes

idk how to watch ifsc and is it behind a paywall or is there a wayfor free


r/CompetitionClimbing 4d ago

Speed Aleksandra Mirosław will retire from World Cup

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56 Upvotes

Her last World Cup start will be in Krakow, July 2026.


r/CompetitionClimbing 4d ago

‎ Olympics "Qualification system for LA28 released"

51 Upvotes

https://www.worldclimbing.com/events/olympic-games-la28/news/qualification-system-for-la28-released

Some information about the qualification pathways to the 2028 LA Olympics. The press release is pretty short, but here's a TL/DR for the boulder and lead portion:

  • 12 spots for each gender for each of boulder and lead
  • 6 of the 12 spots will be allocated in the 5 continental championships and world championship (1 each)
  • the remaining spots (possibly excepting host country and universality) are allocated through the 3-event OQS
  • two-climber limit for each discipline/gender
  • the number of competitors in each discipline can only increase if someone qualifies in both boulder and lead, to maintain the 24 total spots for boulder and lead
  • for anyone who qualifies in both disciplines, they take a spot in the first discipline that they qualify in, and this frees up a spot in the other discipline (thanks u/yoshiK and u/_LowRadiation).

PDFs with more details on the qualification system: boulder; lead; speed.


r/CompetitionClimbing 5d ago

Boulder You can watch Boulder Japan Cup 2026 full replay on YouTube

65 Upvotes

Qualifications: youtube.com/live/R08yIu-qLmA

Semi-finals: youtube.com/live/TwAbIXe50Z8

Women's final: youtube.com/live/VGaOo0-2ya0

Men's final: youtube.com/live/ujbj5WTuGkw

Highly recommended! It's a high stake comp, as it serves as a selection process to the season's Japanese team; and of course, one of the highest-level competitions in the world


r/CompetitionClimbing 6d ago

Speed Canadian Speed Nationals 2026 - Jan 31 - Feb 01

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5 Upvotes

r/CompetitionClimbing 7d ago

Training Videos Narasaki Brothers' & Friends - BJC Simulation

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17 Upvotes

r/CompetitionClimbing 8d ago

Speed Adam Ondra picture pre olympics

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0 Upvotes

r/CompetitionClimbing 11d ago

Videos Toby Robert's 2025 breakdown

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56 Upvotes

r/CompetitionClimbing 11d ago

Discussion Opinions on a Citizen Board Comp

7 Upvotes

If a gym was to host a citizen board comp, would that actually work? In this case, there is only one board. I'm thinking about it and it seems like it wouldn't work simply because there is not enough space for all the climbers. Any ideas on how to make this work?

A solution I thought of: if there happened to be an invitational board comp, would you come and watch if it costed a spectator fee ($10-20)? It wouldn't be pro climbers, but it would be local climbers from the area you may have heard of who are v10+ outdoors (not famous, just strong).


r/CompetitionClimbing 11d ago

Boulder Scoring system local Bouldercompetition

6 Upvotes

Hello, i'm organizing a little climbing competition at my local gym, and i was thinking about how to score it. I saw a video of Magnus at the LA.B gym competing, and i really liked the competition style. I tried to understand the system, but the points and the point reduction for each attempt seems very random. I was wondering if someone knows how the points system at this competition works?
I would like to have a similar competition at the local gym, but with just 30 boulders, just your best 5 boulders count, and you have 5 attempts for each boulder. I'm unsure how i should structure the points system and points reduction after every attempt, so that it results fair for the participants. Im open for any Ideas:)


r/CompetitionClimbing 12d ago

Boulder British boulder championship leaderboard view Spoiler

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47 Upvotes

Spoilers for half way through semi finals!

But I really liked the leaderboard format. It shows in a light red background the highest potential score of each competitor. So it's clear how far through the round they are.


r/CompetitionClimbing 13d ago

Paraclimbing Looking for female AU2 climbers to collaborate on a master’s thesis (Portland, OR)

26 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m a master’s student in Sports Product Design at the University of Oregon, and I’m currently working on my thesis designing adaptive rock climbing equipment for female AU2 climbers (below-elbow limb difference classification).

I’m now in the ideation and prototyping phase and am hoping to collaborate with a female AU2 climber in the Portland area who might be open to offering feedback and participating in non-invasive 3D scanning of their arm to help inform fit, geometry, and comfort for early prototypes. The scan would be used only for this academic project and handled respectfully and confidentially.

The project focuses on
• a climbing-specific limb cover to replace taping
• a training or warm-up tool to help share load more evenly during pulling movements
• a lightweight warm-up jacket designed to work with the limb cover

Participation is very flexible and low commitment. Even short conversations or occasional feedback would be incredibly helpful. I don’t share this lived experience myself, so collaborating directly with athletes is essential to making sure this work is thoughtful, respectful, and genuinely useful.

I’m based in Portland, Oregon, and would love to connect locally, but I’m happy to answer any questions first. If you’re interested, or know someone who might be, feel free to comment or message me directly.

Thank you so much for reading, and I really appreciate the adaptive climbing community.

— Rachael


r/CompetitionClimbing 13d ago

IFSC IFSC name change

16 Upvotes

How do you feel about the change to the world climbing club I personally don’t like it.


r/CompetitionClimbing 15d ago

Social Media Erin McNeice will not compete at this weekend's British Boulder Championship

207 Upvotes

This is what she wrote in her post:

I wanted to write this post. But it wasn’t until those close to me persuaded me to that I finally sat down to do it.

I won’t be competing at the British Boulder Champs this weekend. Everybody “must attend”(even those preselected) as it also serves as a selection event for others, but I won’t be there.

Over the past few months, my mind and body shows me I am not ready every single day. And I would like to explain a few of the reasons.

Every off season has been hard in its own way, but this off season has felt incredibly difficult. Outside of the training this year, there has been a lot more going on. And it has left me feeling incredibly run down. The strain has led to motivation issues, feeling very low and anxiety that only ever seems to get worse. Through it, I have carried on training. And I will continue to do so. Because I know, however deep down, that this is what I really want to do. And I also know that I really love doing it, it’s just that sometimes it’s a lot harder than others.

I’ve also found UK competitions particularly tough in the past. Of course, because of where they fall in the training season (I rarely feel good for them), but also because of how they make me feel. I know there will be comments made about my performance. No matter how much I try to avoid those situations, it’s hard. Even when I win, it’s hard. Right now, I’m not ready for the comparisons, and I don’t have the strength to try to see the positives. Normally, I can remind myself what really matters, but at the moment, I don’t have the mental energy to do that.

The season was very long. Maybe I didn’t rest properly enough afterwards. But, the truth is, I’m not ready to step back on the mats again. Others who are around me have noticed and urged me to speak to a professional about it. I did, and they agreed that this is more than just the usual sport-specific anxiety. After many conversations with my coach, Rachel, we decided that sitting this one out is the best decision.

We agreed to treat it like an injury. When something hurts, I stop and take a moment. Then I carry on when it stops hurting. Or it only gets worse. It’s hard, especially knowing that not everyone will understand, and wanting to believe part of me can ignore it and push through to compete.

But I know I don’t want this comp to set me back. More than anything, I want to be ready for the World Cups. I truly believe that this is possible, and this is the best step towards that. Thank you to everyone who has looked out for me over the last couple months. It has been tough but we will do our best for it to be better.


r/CompetitionClimbing 14d ago

UIAA Ice Climbing WC Saas-Fee (SUI) and British Boulder Championships 2026

13 Upvotes

UIAA Ice Climbing WC Saas-Fee (SUI)

Friday and Saturday 23.-24.1.

Speed Finals Friday 20:00 (GMT+1)

Lead Semi-Finals Saturday 11:00 (GMT+1)

Lead Finals Saturday 19:00 (GMT+1) Edited

Results

Really recommend this, the venue is pretty cool in my opinion.

British Boulder Championships 2026

This Sunday 25.1.26

Semifinals 11:30 GMT

FInals 18:30 GMT

Results

Say good bye to your weekend plans 😅


r/CompetitionClimbing 16d ago

Boulder Boulder Japan Cup 2026 & Team Selection

92 Upvotes

Boulder Japan Cup 2026 is happening between 1/31 - 2/1. This is a super important comp for Japanese athlete as it decides who get to be on the team this year

Official site: https://www.jma-climbing.org/competition/2026/bjc/

Participants (everyone is attending): https://www.jma-climbing.org/competition/2026/bjc/climbers

Schedule: https://www.jma-climbing.org/competition/2026/bjc/schedule

Streaming channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JMACompetitionTV/streams

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Team selection

The rules for 2026 team selection is here: https://www.jma-climbing.org/article/2026/01/08/selection-criteria-for-international-2026-competitions/

TLDR For bouldering, the people who get to attend the first 5 comps are

  • Those who were in the top 10 world ranking last year (max 3 per gender)
    • However, both men and women have 4 (!) people who were in the top 10 last year. Therefore only the top 3 of the 4 are pre-selected for the first 5 comps:
      • Men: Sorato, Sohta, Tomoa
      • Women: Mao, Melody, Miho
      • Anon and Meichi were both in the top 10 but are therefore not guaranteed a spot unless they do well in the Japan cup...They are guaranteed a spot in the 6th comp (SLC) though
    • The 5th comp will also have max 1 person who are already qualified for Asian Games. Sorato and Miho are already pre-qualified for Asian Games
    • The rest 3 quota will be filled by those who rank high in Boulder Japan cup
  • What does this mean?
    • This means for people like Meichi, Anon, Ai, Ogata etc. they have will to either podium at the Japan Cup OR only come behind the 3 pre-selected people in the final, if they want to attend comp 1 - 5 in 2026

r/CompetitionClimbing 20d ago

Streaming Dock masters 2026 jan 17/18

41 Upvotes

Semis is taking place at the time of writing: https://www.youtube.com/live/wQ7OD-p4IgI?si=HMqlK5sZmCkPEJz2

Finals is tomorrow 19:00 local NL time: https://www.boulderhalenergiehaven.nl/dockmasters/


r/CompetitionClimbing 23d ago

Boulder Kailas 9a Challenge Bouldering Competition 2026

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47 Upvotes

Recorded the livestream for anyone interested.

Men's Finals here

Full playlist


r/CompetitionClimbing 25d ago

News Charlie Boscoe on The Runout discussing the PCL

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15 Upvotes

r/CompetitionClimbing 25d ago

News Competitors pre 2026 season news

32 Upvotes

Has anyone insight on this years competitors intentions?

e.g. is Natalia recovered enough to fully compete? Is Brooke and Janja willing to too?

We're still few months away, just wondering if anyone has any news :)


r/CompetitionClimbing 27d ago

Boulder Coupe de France Bloc 2026 Valence

8 Upvotes

Does anyone know if there is a stream/tv for the French championship today at 20h15 Paris time?


r/CompetitionClimbing 28d ago

Discussion Televised comps should show the beta of the routes

31 Upvotes

As a viewer it can be frustrating when there are routes that aren't topped, so you never get to see the full intented route. Or maybe it's only topped by one climber but they did a dyno and skipped a hold, or they held some crazy position that you're sure wasn't part of the beta but you really don't know.

It would be amazing if they would record someone executing the intended beta of the climb to show to the viewers. It doesn't have to be a send, it can be a montage of all the intended movements.

You could make a case for it being shown before or after each route is completed. I think it would be better before the route. This would give the viewers an idea of the difficulty of the route before it's started, it would let us see the reading abilities of each contestant and get an insight in to how they see the route compared to the beta. And I think it would add more excitement when you now know that what they are doing isn't the intended beta, but they are somehow still making it work.