And then there were two

Hey there,

I know it’s been a while, but I am back with a regular newsletter.

I plan to send it out each Sunday, but it may be a little irregular as I get back into creating it each week.

The Pro Climbing League breaks cover

The biggest piece of recent news has been the announcement of the Pro Climbing League (PCL) created by Charlie Boscoe and Danaan Markey. Both have been deeply involved in the climbing community for decades. Both have commentated at IFSC World Cups. Charlie has literally written the guidebook for Chamonix alpine climbing, and Danaan is a former coach for the German bouldering World Cup team.

Charlie and Danaan are focused on creating a simple, easy-to-understand event, in which key moments when an athlete wins are obvious. The whole event will be held on just one day, instead of being spread across three days, and features a new format. Although the format is similar to the Adidas Rockstar final round, Charlie and Danaan promise harder and more interesting boulders, focused on testing which climber is the best instead of seeing who can flash the boulder fastest. It is also like the Arco Rock Master Duel Lead format, though athletes compete on the same route for each round.

In the Pro Climbing League, athletes are pitted head-to-head on exact copies of the boulders side by side. This is different from the traditional IFSC/World Climbing bouldering format, which focuses on pitting athletes against the wall, on boulders and not directly against each other at the same time.

The first event in the league will be held in London on 28th February at Magazine London, near the O2 Arena on the bank of the River Thames, a venue that can hold 1,500 to 3,000 people indoors. The event will be streamed for free on Red Bull TV, and tickets go on sale on 8th January.

Olympic gold medalists Janja Garnbret and Toby Roberts have both been confirmed as attending, as has Erin McNeice. Two of the sixteen spots will be awarded through a local climbing series in London. The qualifying round will happen at The Font Wandsworth on 7th February, with the seeding round on 27th February just before the event.

I am excited to see innovation in this space, especially as the Les Grips event from last year has disappeared completely. Punk Rock Masters had to push their event from 2025 to 2026, and Studio Bloc Masters won’t be running next year.

You can find out more about the League in a podcast I did with Charlie and Danaan on how the league came about, their vision for the series, and the format.

Should Competition Climbing be an indoor sport?

In 2025, two World Cups had rounds cancelled due to adverse weather. The first was in Denver when a thunderstorm rolled in and cancelled the Speed finals. Then in Prague, the women’s final was cancelled due to high winds, which the physical structure of the wall was not designed to sustain.

Over the last 8 years, 6 events have had a round cancelled, and one had a major alteration to the final round.

I talked with Piero Rebaudengo, Secretary General for the World Climbing, about what World Climbing is doing about it.

He said they are looking at two different paths:

1. Whether competition climbing should be only an indoor sport instead of having indoor and outdoor venues.
2. Change the rules to be stricter on roof coverings, protection from the wind, and rules relating to athlete safety..

Moving competition climbing indoors comes with its own challenges. Lead, Speed, and Para Climbing all need a climbing wall at least 15 metres tall to compete on.

Piero shared why it is hard for climbing to use many other indoor venues: “Indoor competition in some regions is probably more difficult because of the height of the gym. We have two walls up to 15 metres. In a big gym, this is not a problem. In a regular gym, there are not too many all over the world, [that are] more than 15 [or] 20 metres high.

Because of the [venue] needs of indoor sports, like team sport or even individual sport, like tennis, most are not taller than 14 meters... For us, 14 meters is not enough... most of these indoor facilities are not more than 14 metres.

This is a problem that we can solve with the regulation. We reduce the wall. Maybe not. It is easy to say that we find the solution. It is not so easy to find the real solution.”

Climbing will feature both indoor and outdoor venues during this Olympic cycle up to 2028 and this won't be changed. Any changes to Sport Climbing being an indoor-only sport won't happen until after 2028. Both the Olympic and Paralympic venues will be outdoors in Long Beach for LA28.

In the short term, World Climbing aims to improve its contingency plan for bad weather. Piero said, “Do we have a contingency plan? Yes, but probably we have to work more on a contingency plan for the future because of the history, statistics and other decisions in the end. Because ... it is happening more than in the past.”

In 2025, only five climbing and para climbing World Cups were held indoors. They were in:

• Wujiang (Lead and Speed),
• Salt Lake City (Para Climbing and Bouldering),
• Bern (Bouldering), and
• Laval (Para Climbing).

12 World Cups were outdoors, including the iconic venues of Innsbruck and Chamonix. Moving climbing and para climbing indoors may solve problems with the weather, but it creates new ones with finding venues and locations.

I ran a poll on Instagram (only viewable in the app) about whether people wanted to see competition held only indoors or both indoors and outdoors. 79% of the 447 responses wanted climbing to be both indoors and outdoors.

Personally, I feel very conflicted about it. Indoor venues have the benefit and certainty of always running, and have their own close intimate feeling as the audience's cheers echo around the room.

However, hearing 18,000 people cheer on the athletes, like at Chamonix with Mont Blanc in the background, is something I would miss.

News

• The IFSC announced their rebranding to World Climbing just a day after the International Gymnastics Federation announced their re-brand to World Gymnastics. World Climbing is the 11th international federation recognised by the IOC called World X. The World Cup Series will become the World Climbing Series and the branding will be rolled out over the next year. The rebrand has been received poorly by many (including most of Reddit), with some criticising the name and the logo. The rebrand feels like another move deeper into the Olympic fold.
• Kilter becomes the official board for World Climbing. There will be a Kilter board in isolation zones at selected competitions until the end of 2028. The World Climbing press release also says, “World Climbing and Kilter will work closely with athletes and stakeholders to gather feedback on Kilter Board use in high-performance training and assess its potential application within elite competition settings.”
• Natalia Grossman won her first international bouldering competition in Armenia, Colombia, at the South American Cup on 27th November. She has been returning to competition climbing after tearing her ACL in March earlier this year. She won the last North American Cup in Lead in Salt Lake City back in August.
• The South East Asian Games happened in December. The multi-sport event is held every two years and this year was only the second time climbing has been in the South East Asian Games. The last time climbing was in the South East Asian games was back in 2011. Indonesia took home most of the medals, winning 8 medals across Lead, Speed and Boulder, including golds in Lead and Speed for both men and women. Thailand won 7 medals across the 3 disciplines, including golds in Boulder for both men and women. Singapore won two medals and the Philippines won one medal.
• Studio Bloc Masters won’t be run next year. Studio Bloc Masters has run eight times since starting in 2017. Alongside Dockmasters and CWIF, Studio Bloc Masters offered the rare chance to climb next to World Cup winners in a competition.

Media

A symptom of my recent burnout was my lack of motivation to engage with much climbing media.

However, here are a few that jumped out.

• A documentary focusing on Sorato Anraku was uploaded after the World Championship on YouTube with English subtitles. The video is suspended under a rights claim from NHK, Japan’s national public service broadcaster.
• Jinni interviewed two of the USA athletes on the That's Not Real Climbing Podcast who competed in the IFSC Nations Grand Finale in Fukuoka, Japan. It is really cool to see the collaborative aspect of climbing being incorporated into competition formats.
• Jonathan Sin has moved to Japan and has put out three great videos about what it is like to live and climb full-time in Tokyo.
• New Red Bull Series Natural Heights is made up of four episodes, with two focused on competition climbing. The first episode follows Janja at the World Championship on her way to winning another two gold medals. There are also videos following Jakob Schubert’s ascent of BIG, Ukrainian Nika Potapova's journey to become a pro climber, and Alberto Ginés López talking about the Red Bull multi-pitch competition on the Verzasca Dam.
• Natalia Grossman talked to Neely at Training Beta on her return after injury. Natalia talks very frankly about the mental challenges she has faced since returning to competition climbing.

Competition Tickets

Here is a list of some of the pre-World Climbing Series competitions running in the spring. I will start adding more World Climbing and other regional events to this list next week. 

If there is any event you know of that you think should be featured, please let me know!

Dockmasters 2026

When: 17–18 January 2026
Where: Boulderhal Energiehaven, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Where to buy tickets: You can buy tickets  from the Dockmasters' website. Spectator tickets are sold out. You can still buy tickets to take part in the Recreational competition.
Live Stream: The final will be live streamed on the Boulderhal Energiehaven - Bouldering gym YouTube Channel. Pete Woods and Matt Groom will be commentating on the live stream.

British Boulder Championships

When: 24–25 January 2026
Where: The Big Depot Climbing Centre, UK
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: The event is usually live streamed on YouTube on BMC TV.

British Lead Championships

When: 21–22 February 2026
Where: The Big Depot Climbing Centre, UK
Where to buy tickets: TBC
Live Stream: The event is usually live streamed on YouTube on BMC TV.

Pro Climbing League - London

When: 28 February 206
Where: Magazine London, UK
Where to buy tickets: Tickets go on sale from 8th January at the Pro Climbing League website. You can sign up for early access.
Live Stream: The event will be streamed live on Red Bull TV.

The (final) Rab CWIF 2026

When: 21–22 March 2026
Where: The Climbing Works, Sheffield, UK
Where to buy tickets: To be announced. Usually available from early February to compete and watch. This will be the last CWIF.
Live Stream: The semi-final and finals will be live streamed on YouTube on the Climbing Works YouTube channel.

Bern World Cup 2026

When: 22–24 May 2026
Where: Bern, Switzerland
Where to buy tickets: You can buy tickets here.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographic restrictions.

Prague World Cup 2026

When: 3–7 June 2026
Where: Prague, Czechia
Where to buy tickets: You can buy tickets here.
Live Stream: Available on TV and the World Climbing YouTube page, subject to geographic restrictions.

LA2028 Olympic Games

When: 14–29 July 2028
Where: LA, USA
Where to buy tickets: Registration for the first ticket draw opens on January 14.