Welcome to Behind The Wall, a weekly newsletter published every Saturday.
Each week, I highlight the favourite things I’ve watched, read and listened to from the world of indoor and competition climbing. I also track where you can buy competition tickets during the World Cup season.
This week, Testpiece Climbing and Tension Climbing talk about boards in a two-piece collaboration. Zach Richardson explains in depth, from a behind-the-scenes view, his success at the North American Cup in Vail. Hannah Morris takes a look at how climbing walls have changed over the decades.
Climbing Gold talks to Sierra Blair about how she embraced social media on her way to becoming a professional climber and how she dealt with the hate she got from the community for something that is now expected of professional athletes.
We’ve also got a second episode of the 20-Hold Speed Climbing podcast, where Albert Ok and Peter Schnabel talk about conditions and how they affect Speed Climbing.
I know there is lots of great content that I don’t know about. Let me know at behindthewall@inside-climbing.com, and I’ll give you a shout-out if I feature it.
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Watch
- UK’s OLDEST Bouldering Gym Vs UK’s NEWEST Bouldering Gym — Hannah Morris Bouldering. Hannah Morris visits Miles End, the oldest commercial climbing wall in the country and how it compares to the latest Climbing Hangar wall in Edinburgh.
- Slab Battle Part 2 — TAMY Climbing. The TAMY Slab battle from last week continues on the slightly overhanging wall with another set of boulders for Tomoa Narasaki, Daiki Sano, Sohta Amagasa, and Keita Dohi.
- We Compare the Boards: Testpiece Comes to Tension — Tension Climbing. Board Comparison with Testpiece Climbing as Tension: get Josh and Tim to try boulders on the Tension Board 2, which feel like the Moonboard and Kilter Board, and compare them to Tension Board-specific boulders.
- The Art of Route Setting: Testing Phase — EpicTV. Epic TV goes behind the scenes to look at the testing of the qualification boulders for Studio Bloc Masters 2024.
- How to set a toe hook catch - Niki & Jake Mason try another route setting tutorial — Beta Routesetting. Niki and Jake give a tutorial in setting an “easy” toe-hook catch boulder at Studio Block Masters 2024.
- “My once in a lifetime competition”. Zach Richardson shares an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at his success at the Vail North American Cup Series last weekend in an hour-long video.
Listen
- Hold 2: Preparing for OQS, Comp PR, and Facilities. 20 Holds Episode 2: Albert Ok and Peter Schnabel talk about the effect of conditions and how beta has evolved around hold 2 as holds have improved and athletes have migrated to the Tomoa Skip.
- Sierra Blair: Ahead of the Curve — Climbing Gold. Sierra Blair talks about how she became a professional climber through social media and how she dealt with the hate she got from the climbing community for it.
- Ultimate Board Climbing Deep Dive with the Tension Crew — Testpiece Climbing Podcast. Everything Boards with Will Anglin, Michael Rosato, and Quinn Spadafora on the Testpiece Climbing podcast. They discuss the history of boards, ethics and best practices around boards, and what the future of board climbing could be.
International Climbing Competition Tickets
The competition season has started, so here is the rundown of where you can find World Cup and OQS tickets.
- Budapest (Hungary) Olympic Qualifier Series Event: You will not need a ticket to enter the Budapest OQS event according to the Olympics OQS FAQ (at the bottom of the page). The schedule for the event is available.
- Innsbruck (Austria) Boulder, Lead and Paraclimbing World Cups June 24 – 30. World Cup Pass Tickets sold out within a few hours. Single-day tickets will be available on May 1. You will only need tickets for the Boulder finals and Lead semi-finals and finals. Some tickets are still available.
- Chamonix (France) Lead and Speed World Cup July 12 – 14. The event will be free to attend. There are VIP tickets on offer.
- Briançon (France) Lead and Speed World Cup July 16 – 19. The event will be free to attend.
- Olympic Ticket resale platform. Some tickets for the Olympics are coming up through the official resale platform.
- European Championship in Villars (Switzerland) August 23 – September 1. Tickets are yet to be announced.
- Koper (Slovenia) September 6 – 7. Tickets are yet to be announced.
- Prague (Czechia) World Cup September 20 – 22. VIP tickets are sold out, and seated tickets are almost sold out, but standing tickets are still available
- Seoul World Cup October 2 – 6. Tickets are yet to be announced.
That’s a Wrap
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Behind the Wall. Let me know what you think at behindthewall@insideclimbing.com or DM me on Instagram.
See you next week!
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