A rousing atmosphere, freezing temperatures and some stellar performances heralded the start of the 2025-2026 UIAA Ice Climbing season in the Swiss capital, Bern.
A total of 76 athletes (52 men, 24 women) from 15 member associations – Canada, Czechia, Finland, France, Iran, Japan, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, the UK and the United States competed in the lead (difficulty)-only competition held at the O’BLOC Climbing Centre, a host of UIAA-sanctioned Continental Cup events since 2019.
Under the event’s evocative lighting and festival feel, both the men and women’s competitions saw the final eight athletes compete for the medals. The routes were relatively short and punchy with four minutes allocated for the women and three minutes and thirty seconds for the men. In the women’s competition gold went to Marianne van der Steen, Netherlands, a regular medallist both at continental and world level over recent seasons. The Dutch team also took the bronze medal with Annick Teepe starting where she finished last season, on the podium. Marion Salmon-Thomas, France, bagged silver, adding to the bronze she secured in her very last competition, which was the event in Bern last year.
A familiar face and former world champion, France’s Louna Ladevant, won the men’s competition as the only climber to top the route. Ladevant had not competed in Bern since 2019 and a gold performance so early in the season bodes well for the world level events starting in January. Silver went to Oliver Hamerský, a medallist on the senior level for the first time. Hamerský, 19, has competed at youth level over recent seasons. With the continental level events partially conceived to provide athletes transitioning from the youth to senior competitions with a pathway, his success pays testament to this vision. Host country Switzerland’s only medal of the weekend came via consistent performer Jonathan Arthur Brown who claimed bronze.
The continental level events come thick and fast with athletes already focusing on next week’s competition in Zilina, Slovakia on Saturday 29 November.
The 2025-2026 UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour welcomes Fixe as the Official Technical Partner. The technical staff and teams at each UIAA ice climbing event will use Fixe ropes, carabiners, anchors, harnesses, and helmets. Additionally, the world’s top ice climbers will use Fixe ropes, carabiners, and belay stations throughout the circuit. Further details related to Fixe initiatives will be communicated across the season.
Photos from the competition in Bern will be available shortly.
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Main photo: Louna Ladevant climbs to gold. Credit: Hugo Vincent
