Competitive climbing has been around for nearly forty years, even making it into the Olympics officially, in 2016. Despite this, few new climbers know much about them and fewer still know how to get started. That’s a shame, because climbing competitions offer a number of ways to learn new skills, boost your performance and even meet new partners who share your passion.
In this article we will look at how competing can improve your climbing and enhance your experience. But, before we get into that, let’s first look at the different kinds of comps out there and how they work.
Origins of the Climbing Comp
The first recorded climbing competitions took place in the mid-1980s in Europe. This was before the advent of artificial walls. So, the first events were held outdoors on actual cliffs!
The format was what we now call an “on-sight” competition and the rules were simple: Each competitor got one attempt on a single climbing route to see how far they could get. Whoever got the highest on the route before falling, or letting go, won.
All of these early comps were on longer routes (50 – 100 feet), requiring ropes for safety (typically lead climbing), and were targeted at what we would now call “pro” or elite climbers. But, the first artificial climbing walls, which came at the end of the decade, changed all that.
Indoor Climbing Comps
Indoor climbing made comps more flexible and fairer, allowing organizers to set new routes for every event, removing the “home-court” advantage for local cliffs while increasing the diversity of styles and techniques needed for success.
Most importantly, indoor climbing made comps far more accessible. Outdoor competitions were dependent on good weather. Excessive summer heat and icy winters can quickly kill a cliff-based event. And nothing stops a send faster than a wet hold. As such, rain was a frequent problem for those early comps.
But indoor climbing gyms were all-weather facilities, enabling organizers to host comps year-round in any conditions. This led to a dramatic increase in the number of events as well as the number of people interested in participating in them. The increase in availability, coupled with the flexibility of professionally set routes, meant that climbing competitions were no longer reserved for the experts–amateurs, and even beginners, could now compete at their local gyms all year round.
And with that, the sport of competitive climbing was born!
Competitive Climbing Structure
Nowadays, it seems like you can find a comp running at some gym or another on almost any weekend. While the number of formats has grown over the years, most of these events are variations on a few standard themes.
The first of these is referred to as “Difficulty” climbing, or Sport Climbing, and is just a transplant of the original outdoor on-sight format into an indoor facility.
The basic structure of these comps is that each competitor has a small number of routes (usually between one and three) to try and score points on. These are longer climbs (30-55 feet) which require the use of ropes for safety. For younger climbers, and most adult amateurs, the climbs are top-roped, though lead climbing is frequently an option for more experienced competitors.
Onsighting or Flashing: Only One Chance to Score
Two things make this format unique: first, competitors only get one attempt to reach the highest point on the route they can. Each handhold you grasp gives you a point up to the maximum when you latch the final one. If you fall, or weight the rope, your try is over! This format is intended to mimic a style of ascent called an onsight, or a flash, which is when you send a route on your first try, without a fall.
Onsighting Format
This is where sport climbing comps provide a unique opportunity to test and hone your climbing skills. An onsight – which is sending a route on your first try cold, i.e., without any prior information about it – is universally considered to be the most difficult style of ascent. This is because, in addition to a basic set of skills and fitness, an onsight requires the ability to improvise and the stamina to hold on while you figure out where to go – and sometimes to climb back down when you’ve gone the wrong way!
The trouble with this style of ascent, is that you can’t onsight the same route twice. Once you’ve made an attempt, even if you fall one foot off the ground, that’s it. Your next attempt can’t be an onsight, which makes practicing onsighting a bit tricky. You need to try a brand-new route every time!
Enter the Difficulty competition. At these events, brand new routes are set for each category, and competitors try each one cold. As a result, you get an opportunity to test your onsight skills, and learn from your performance, in a way that is difficult to do day-to-day in the gym – or even at the crag.
Flash Format
If an onsight event sounds a bit too intense, then you are in luck. A flash format comp uses the same basic rules as an onsight with one important exception- you get to watch someone climb your routes before you do. If you are unfamiliar with the terminology, a flash is considered one step down in prestige from an onsight.
The basics are the same: you still only get one try, and wherever you fall, that’s your score. But unlike an onsight – where you can’t have any information about the route before you try it – in a flash, you can watch someone else climb it, even trade information on sequences and individual moves if you’d like. Flashes are a bit less intimidating the onsights, but still allow you to test your route reading and improvisational skills in ways that are difficult to do within the normal turnover of your local gym.
Best of all, flash events do not require climbers to isolate (which onsight events do, to ensure that no competitor knows anything about the route until their attempt). This means you get to watch everyone -friends and opponents alike – while you are waiting to climb. Not only does this allow you to learn from other climber’s attempts, it creates a highly motivating environment, with not just spectators but teammates and fellow competitors cheering you on.
The Most Popular Climbing Comp
If onsights and flashes don’t seem your thing, you’re in luck. The second, and by far the most popular climbing competitions are the redpoint event. The key difference here is that, at these comps, you get more than one try to score on each route. And unlike the onsight and flash formats, which are almost exclusively roped events on longer routes, redpoint formats are where bouldering comes in.
Redpoint Format
To be clear, you will find roped comps that use a redpoint format. But essentially all bouldering comps are redpoint. And, while there is essentially one set of rules for onsight/flash, there are a number of different rule sets for redpoint comps. Unfortunately, a discussion of all the various options for this format is beyond the scope of this article. But all such events are based around a core set of general rules.
Each climber is given multiple attempts to score on a route or boulder problem; second, in most events, scoring is based on completing a problem (sometimes referred to a “top”) rather than on the highest point reached.
This structure is by far the most common format for amateur competitions, in large part because it’s extremely popular and relatively easy for gyms to run. Your typical bouldering competition would consist of a set of anywhere from 50-100 problems evenly spread through the grades from VB (Beginner) to V10 and above (for the Experts).
All categories climb at the same time, having three to four hours to choose and send the hardest problems they can. Each problem has a point value reflecting its difficulty level and your final score is the sum of your best five sends. Ties are broken by flashes (like in the Burn Series) or by the total number of attempts for each send – fewer falls meaning a higher score.
Over the years I’ve seen a dozen variations on this theme, all with minor differences in the scoring rules – from different ways to point problems and track falls, to using high-points to break ties. But all such events allow you to test and refine your skills in a similar way.
Comps Make You a Better Climber
Learn From Your Mistakes
Redpoint comps hone your ability to learn from your mistakes, helping you to adapt to new challenges more quickly and more reliably. Having multiple attempts allows you to concentrate on piecing a problem together, to figure out sequences that take less effort per move rather than ones that just barely get you to the top. This process of making your climbing more effective and more efficient is a critical step for taking your climbing to the next level.
More Social
Redpoint events, like our Burn Series, are generally considered more social and a bit less stressful than Onsight/Flash comps, primarily due to the multiple attempts and lack of need for isolation. So, in addition to learning from your own attempts, you get the option to watch your fellow competitors work the very same problems (or routes) as you – often in rapid succession. This provides an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and successes, allowing you to glean valuable beta, even while you are between tries.
Better Under Pressure
All climbing comps, regardless of format, help you learn to perform better under pressure. Limited time-frames encourage more efficient climbing and the development of mental tricks to figure out effective sequences and translate them rapidly to the wall.
Pushed Out of Comfort Zone
In addition, competition-specific routesetting, and the desire to score points, can push you out of your comfort -zone, leading you to try problems that require skills or styles you might otherwise neglect in your day-to-day sessions.
Motivation
Finally, the social nature of most climbing competitions is a great source of motivation. There is nothing quite like the cheers of a crowd to give you an extra burst of energy to stick that last hard move, or leave the bench for one more try. I’ve watched many climbers over the years literally reach new heights riding waves of encouragement from a dozen screaming friends.
Find a Comp in Your Area!
There are, of course, many other formats for climbing competitions which we have not discussed, and are beyond our current scope. But, in general, all of them allow you to isolate and focus on specific skills that are critical to improving your overall climbing ability. Add to that the unique motivation that comes from scoring points and the enthusiasm of the crowd and you may find that, after your first event, you’ll be looking to register for your next comp ASAP.
On the east coast? Check out our oldest climbing comp The Burn Bouldering Series originating at PRG (Philadelphia Rock Gyms) and expanding to our New York and North Carolina gyms.
