Youth World Championships in Ice Climbing

This weekend, January 12 and 13, 2013, the first youth world championship in ice climbing took place in Saas Grund, Switzerland. UIAA organized the championship in two age categories, U18 and U22, specifically in lead and speed climbing. Our representative Janez Svoljšak achieved an excellent 3rd place!

UIAA_ICE_logoCategory U18 covers competitors aged 12 to 17 years (born 1996 to 2001), U22 covers 18-21 year olds (born 1992-1995). In the latter, our representative of the Slovenian national team in competitive ice climbing Janez Svoljšak (AO PD Kranj) competed.



In Switzerland, in Saas Grund – which took place simultaneously as the first UIAA World Cup event in competitive ice climbing (Korea), where our representative Tjaša Kosič competed – 48 young ice climbers from 10 countries of the world gathered. Here UIAA organized the youth world championship for the first time, specifically organized by the UIAA Youth Commission (YC UIAA). The jury president was the international judge and head of the PZS Alpine Commission Subcommission for Competitive Ice Climbing Žiga Šter.



In the men's U22 competition, 19 competitors from seven countries participated, with the most numerous teams from Switzerland and France. Among the 8 finalists, at the evening final in lead climbing, Janez Svoljšak held third place after third in qualifications and received the bronze medal of the first youth world championship. Besides Slovenia, the medal winners in U22 lead were also France with silver for Garbolin Octave and Switzerland with gold for Kevin Huser.



Routes took place in a combination of rock, ice, and artificial holds. For qualifications, the combined results of two routes counted, which were relatively easy since eight competitors reached the top of both. Due to the wall height, the time for climbing in the final was limited to 5 minutes, so most competitors ran out of time before reaching the top of the route, which only the winner achieved.



STATEMENT:

Janez Svoljšak on his achievement of noble bronze said: "The competition was great, at the start of the first qualification route I was still a bit nervous, in the second route everything went smoothly. In the final I climbed well, unfortunately due to the lower wall only 5 minutes were available for climbing and I ran out of time 4 moves below the top."

Janez's goals for this competitive season: "I want to gain as much experience as possible at competitions and qualify for semifinals as often as possible. I will compete in lead. I train mostly at home and at ice climbing crags (mostly Podljubelj). I train mostly alone. I devoted the most emphasis in training to strength, a bit less to technique. I will participate in all UIAA 2013 World Cup events, except the one in Korea, because it overlapped time-wise with the youth world championship in Switzerland. Wishes for this year are to perform as best as possible at competitions and to climb 8b+ in sport rock climbing."



The youth world championship was also introduced as part of UIAA's efforts, the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation, to include competitive ice climbing in the family of Olympic sports. The ice climbing competition is also officially included in the cultural program of the Sochi 2014 Olympics.



"UIAA is striving to promote ice climbing also as part of the official program of winter Olympics," said Israfil Ashurly, president of the UIAA Youth Commission (YC UIAA). "The youth world championship in competitive ice climbing is thus an important step in this direction. Who knows, perhaps the young athletes who participated in the world championship in Saas Grund will be tomorrow's strongest ice climbers fighting for Olympic gold," Ashurly added.