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Here is another World Cup Competition, this time is for ice climbers – Ice Climbing World Cup 2017.
The UIAA has organised the sport of ice climbing for the past 15 years and in that time has witnessed the incredible growth in popularity of the sport throughout the world. Ice climbing is a dynamic sport, combining determination, technique, speed, precision and excitement. The sport is increasingly appealing to young people, evident by the number of international climbers who take part in our World Youth Championships.
The recent competition,the pinnacle event in the UIAA ice climbing season, was held from 4-5 February, 2017 in Champagny-en-Vanoise, France. Prevailing from a field of over 125 athletes from 26 countries were Russian athletes Pavel Batushev and Maria Tolokonina.
The 24 metre-high ice tower in Champagny-en-Vanoise, designed by Stephane Husson, was built on the resort. It is an impressive structure with both ice and dry tooling sections.
“The 2017 UIAA Ice Climbing season has been the biggest yet,”
explains the UIAA President Frits Vrijlandt.
There are two ice climbing disciplines, Speed and Lead. In Speed, athletes race up an ice face for the best time. In Lead competitions the climbers’ ability to master a difficult route in a given time is tested.
Maria Tolokonina, 29, with climbs of 8.76 and 11.77 defeated compatriot Ekaterina Feoktistova by a combined 1.24 second margin in the final two duels. Victory marks the crowning achievement for Tolokonina after a tremendous past two seasons. She finished the 2016 UIAA Ice Climbing season as the female world number 1 in lead and speed, and closed the most recent season as joint world number 1 in speed.
The men’s final was always going to be close. Kartashev and Batushev, 29, were the top ranked athletes going into the competition. Batushev with times of 6.68 – the second fastest of the weekend – and 7.21 took gold by 1.20.
–La Plagne press release
The UIAA is fully committed to ensuring ice climbing becomes an official competition sport at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.
You can take a look into Ice Tower web cam here .
If you’ re heading to La Plagne, don’t forget to visit Ice Tower and try this Ice Experience. It’s open from December 20st till March 23rd and ticket costs 40 Euro.
