Competition climbing
A climbing competition ("comps") is usually held indoors on purpose built climbing walls. There are three main types of climbing competition:
- Difficulty: competitors climb the same route(s) one after the other. The winner is the one who reaches the highest point(s) on the climb(s); if several competitors reach the top (or the same high point) the time taken may be used to determine the winner. In many 'on sight' competitions, the climbs are 'weighted', meaning that the climber's score on the first climb may bo only worth 10-15% of his overall score, while his last climb may be worth as much as 45-60%. This is because oftentimes, routes increase in difficulty, respectively from first to last. Often, in more important, higher-level, 'Post Season' competitions,isolation is used to ensure that the competitors cannot see the problems before climbing them. Alternatively, some difficulty competitions involve a number of routes. Each route is assigned a point value based on difficulty. Competitors climb as many routes as they want, and their score is derived from their top few completed routes (with the exact number of routes differing between competitions). If a tie-breaker is needed, the numbers of "falls" (attempts) is counted. Some competitions limit the number of attempts, others do not. There are several categories of competitive climbing for US climbers; locals, regionals, divisionals, nationals and ultimately world championship competitions. One must qualify to attend regionals, divisionals, and nationals.
- Speed: on two identical routes, competitors race each other to the top. The first to reach the top wins.
- Bouldering: Competitors work through a series of boulder problems on either a time limit, or an attempt limit for each problem. Points are awarded for completing each problem. In a tie-break situation or where limited attempts are allowed then points are awarded for the fewest number of attempts required to complete the problem. Bouldering competitions at higher levels usually use Isolation as well as the roped competitions. In the USA, ABS (American Bouldering Series) organizes regional, divisional, and national comps.
Sometimes climbers must climb the route on sight. This means that they are not allowed to see other climbers on the route, or receive any form of advice (beta) from other climbers, and have only a limited amount of time to visually inspect the route from ground level. (Otherwise later climbers would be able to learn from previous competitors' mistakes, giving them a considerable advantage.)
In addition to competitions, festivals such as the Phoenix Boulder Blast and the International Climbing Festival (held in Lander, Wyoming) are a gathering place for rock climbers from around the world. They feature trade shows for climbing specific merchandise, clinics from world-renowned climbers, and parties.
There can be open competitive climbing or youth climbing. Youth climbing is competitions for children under 18 years of age. These competitions are separated into category's such as 11 and under, 12-13, 14-15, etc. Competitions can be held anywhere across the country, for that reason, competitions are divided into divisions. There are five divisions. In the end, there is a national competition that invites the top 5 climbers from each division to compete. There are about 30 girls and 30 boys invited to compete in national competitions. There are two sections to these competitions, the semifinals and the finals. Only the top ten people competing can make it into finals. At the end of the final round, the top four winners of every age category would be invited to compete in international competitions. In the United States, Youth Climbing is organized by USAC (USA climbing). The world championship competition is administered by the International Federation of Sport Climbing.