The 2024 edition of the Climbing Works International Festival is almost upon us, and as usual, there's plenty across the weekend to look forward to!
SATURDAY 16TH MARCH 2024
QUALIFIERS
Qualification begins tomorrow, and will contain thirty boulders from Font 5+ all the way up to Font 'Very Hard', with the top twenty male and female competitors qualifying for the semi-finals!
Across the two qualification sessions, competitors will have the chance to climb alongside some of the world's top climbers, including 9b+ sport climber and 8C boulderer Alex Megos, 2022 overall World Cup winner Yoshiyuki Ogata, Olympian Sean McColl, and multi-time Ukrainian National Champion in both Boulder and Lead, Jenya Kazbekova - as well as her mum Natalia, who won a round of the World Cup back in the 90s, and competed on the World Cup Circuit until 2007.
Boulders will be set by IFSC Chief Route Setter Garrett Gregor, who was not only part of Percy Bishton's setting team at the Tokyo Olympics, but who will be head setter at the Olympic Games in Paris later this year!
If you're keen to have a play on the boulders, but not sure on competing, then you can register for the Party Session on the Saturday evening. Qualification for the semi-finals is off the cards, but there will be an additional ten fun boulders set specifically for the Party Session, as well as a prize for the team with the best fancy dress outfits!
SUNDAY 17TH MARCH 2024
Sunday is when the competition really begins to heat up, with both the semi-finals and the finals happening across the day.
Semis will feature the top twenty male and female competitors from across the qualifiers, and will take place using an IFSC senior bouldering World Cup Format on four boulders on the Rab Competition Wall, with the six best scoring athletes heading through to the final.
If you can't make it to watch in person, then you can watch along on the livestream below, which goes live at 11:45am.
As for the finals, it's a similar format, with the top six women and the top six men each battling it out over four boulders to become the 2024 CWIF Champion!
Again, if you can't make it down in person, the livestream of the final is available below, and goes live at 17:45.
If you're keen to watch online, but want more of an atmosphere, then head down to the Winter Gardens for a watch party! Semi-finals will be open to all, but if you want to watch finals there then you'll need to buy a ticket - more details available here.
On top of all that, there will be deals from Scarpa - 20% off RRP! - as well as Friction Labs, Climbskin, Edelweiss, Grivel, and Climbers Against Cancer, as well as food from Sunshine Pizza Oven and Flippin 'eck Pancake Bar. There will also be a number of talks and sessions running on Sunday, including a Yoga session, a talk on management of finger injuries from James Walker of The Climbing Clinic, and a talk from Lattice's Tom Randall on Training Methods for Intermediate Climbers.
The CWIF couldn't happen without support from these great brands:
Level 1 Sponsors: Rab, Scarpa, Secur-it, Rockcity and Beta Setting
Level 2 Sponsors: Staxxx, Expression Holds, EP Holds, X-Cult, Axis, Lapis, Squadra Holds, Bleastone, Sheffield Festival of the Outdoors Outdoor City, UKClimbing, Vezi, Flux Holds
The Climbing Works will proudly be raising funds for Climbers Against Cancer as well as Mountain Rescue Edale.
Comments
There was a great buzz on Day 1, so today should be immense! Come along and say "Hi" at the Climbers Against Cancer https://www.climbersagainstcancer.org/ stand and bag yourself some brilliant CAC goodies at a bargain price!