UKC

The Climbing Works International Festival 2011

© dr-photogrpahy.co.uk

Much more than just a competition

Date: Weekend 5-6th March 2011

No competition entry fee, no isolation for the qualification round, a chance to climb alongside some of the best climbers in the world and climb on problems set by some of the world's best route setters. It is a completely unique and amazing festival of climbing.

In the qualifiers you can climb alongside some of the best boulderers in Europe  © The Climbing Works
In the qualifiers you can climb alongside some of the best boulderers in Europe
© The Climbing Works
photo
CWIF 2011 Sponsors

Returning for its 5th year, the CWIF is the biggest indoor bouldering competition in the UK. In 2010 we maxed out at 200 competitors with many, some desperate, last minute phone calls and pleas from people wanting to enter. We had an absorbing semi-final and an astonishing final where both the Male and Female competitions came down to the last problem.

In 2011 we're doing it all again. This year we've evolved the CWIF to become a 2 day competition, allowing us to increase our potential competitors to 350. We've got the crème de la crème of the European & British bouldering scene turning up to fight it out to be CWIF champion and their share of £4300 of prize money.

Our route setting team reads like a who's who of IFSC Chief Route Setters so the CWIF will be an excellent opportunity to get used to various climbing styles before the boys jet off to the various World Cup competitions this year. The Team are: our very own Percy Bishton (who will be Chief Route Setter (CRS) at the Log-Dragomer World Cup in May), some French nutter called Jacky Godoffe (CRS at the Canmore and Vail World Cups in May/June), Jamie Cassidy (CRS at the Eindhoven World Cup in June) plus of course Ian Vickers, Andy Long and Jason Pickles – who will all be setting at the World Cup in Sheffield in July.

WOOAAAH!!! That sounds pretty full-on?
Who can climb at The CWIF?
What's the format?
Can I come?

The CWIF is open to everyone - this is the beauty of the festival. You don't just watch from the sidelines wondering if you could crimp that hold, you get involved and climb the same problems alongside some of the best boulderers in Europe.

photo
Packed out crowd watching the Semi-Finals
© The Climbing Works
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Ben Thompson, aka as Ron Fawcett from the early 80’s. Part of the Ronette’s team from 2010. Photo: dr-photography.co.uk
© The Climbing Works

What is the Format?

The Saturday is the big day consisting of a qualifying circuit (2 sessions, 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon) that will decide the 16 men & women who will go into the Semi-finals to be held on Sunday (The Final will be held on Sunday evening).

You can make the qualifying session even more enjoyable and come as team (consists of 4 which must be mixed gender), add in a bit of fancy dress and you're well on your way to a great day out. We have a cash prize of £500 for the top scoring team and a special prize for best / most impressive dressed team.

Tell me more about the qualifiers?

The qualification circuit will be on the main part of The Climbing Works walls. This year we will also be adding some of the qualification problems onto our brand new competition wall (blogpost) that will be unveiled on the Saturday. You score your own scorecard and can climb individually or as part of a team. You will be assigned an am or pm qualifying session with the session lasting around 3 hrs in which time you can attempt the problems as many times as you wish in whatever order you want. There is no entry fee for the qualifying session. You just pay your normal entrance cost to climb at The Climbing Works on the day so if you are a Full Member it's completely free.

This year The CWIF will also be used as part of the qualification process for those wishing to be in the Senior British Bouldering Team. You can read more about this on this UKC article.

What about the Semi's and Finals on the Sunday?

The Semi's will consist of the top 16 male & female competitors from the qualifying session the day before. If you haven't made it through you can come watch (at no cost) the remaining 16 men & women battle it out on the competition wall. In between the semi's and finals we'll be having a huge FREE BBQ with locally supplied meat and veggie burgers. The majority of the rest of the wall will be open till 6pm so you will also be able to climb – we will have to close bits of the walls to set up the seating etc for the semi-final and final. Semi's: 12pm Finals: 6pm

In 2010 all our spectator seating was full and the floor was full. The extremely vocal crowd who where there saw some of the most impressive climbing we've had in any competition in the UK. We are working hard this year to increase our seating capacity as we're sure it's going to be one hell of a Sunday.

photo
Thomas Caleyron in The CWIF 2010 Final
© The Climbing Works

That sounds AMMMAAAAZZZING! How do I enter?

It's incredibly easy – just follow this registration link and fill in the relevant details.

We're nearly at 200 entrants (22th Feb) so places are filling up fast. Don't leave it too late as last year we ran out of spaces. If you are entering a team please remember that each member MUST register. You cannot register a team by yourself.

What else is going on?

This year The CWIF has teamed with the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival (ShAFF) to create a weekend of climbing and films that make Sheffield the place to be. The ShAFF programme has been designed so that any climbing films will be showed after the competition ends at The CWIF. Perfect! There will also be two after parties over the weekend. A ShAFF party will be held at the workstation on Saturday night while The CWIF after party will be held in the legendary Broadfield pub (a 10min walk from the wall) on the Sunday night with the Climbing works DJ's Gallop and Gusenator. As stated above we've also got a FREE BBQ on the Sunday between the Semi's and Finals. We'll also be raising money throughout the weekend for a charity of our choice – this year we will be raising money to either help Andy Earl or a charity of his choice. Last year we raised about £1500, let's see if we can beat that this year. One of the owners of The Works, Graeme, is a massive Sunderland fan and if people chuck enough money in the bucket he will even don a Newcastle shirt for the day.

I live in Australia and can't make it to Sheffield that weekend?

Well, that's unfortunate isn't it? You'll miss out on one amazing weekend but you will still be able to watch the Semi's and grand Final online as we have teamed up with Horizon productions to stream Sunday's climbing online. You'll be able to follow the semi's and final by going to www.climbingworks.com on the Sunday. But, unfortunately the BBQ can't do delivery!

Sponsors

The CWIF 2011 is supported by Scarpa, UKClimbing.com, Holdz and HRT Holds. These companies help make The CWIF what it is. Without this support, The CWIF would not be as much fun.

Find out more about The CWIF

The Climbing Works logo


For more information The Climbing Works



22 Feb, 2011
I couldn't see an actual competition date on there, is it just me?!
22 Feb, 2011
Aaaaarrrhgggghhh!!! I must be middle aged too - cos I couldn't see it either. But I had the 'youth' mode switched on and clicked the climbing works link. It's the first weekend in March - 5th & 6th! C-:
22 Feb, 2011
Added. Date: Weekend 5-6th March 2011
22 Feb, 2011
Not to slag off the raising money for charity thing but as a sunderland fan do not wear a newcastle shirt on the day! Not cool!
25 Feb, 2011
Andy is a Newcastle fan. He is recovering from a major stroke, which is definately not cool. If I can help him or others in a similar situation by wearing a black and white rag for a few hours then I reckon that is cool. Andy appreciates the torment that I will go through to help him/others.
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