The UIAA Ice Climbing Continental Cup in Brno is a popular competition. Demonstration comes from the list of registered with climbers with a season record number of athletes, 117, and national federations, 17, currently registered for the senior events. This weekend marks the third round of the 2025-2026 UIAA Ice Climbing Continental Cup season following competitions in Switzerland and in Slovakia.
A number of countries bring impressive depth to the event staged in the second largest city in Czechia and hosted by the Czech Climbing Federation. This includes Canada (9), Liechtenstein (7), Poland (13), Spain (11), Switzerland (13), United Kingdom (12) and the United States (8). Unsurprisingly there is a strong contingent from the local team with 13 Czech athletes registered. To note, an additional 41 athletes will compete in the youth categories, meaning nearly 160 climbers will attend the weekend.
The entire event takes place on Saturday 6 December with qualification running from 08:30 – 16:00 in the lead (difficulty)-only competition. Finals take place from 18:40 – 20:30 and will be livestreamed on the UIAA YouTube Channel from the link provided below.
All six of the athletes currently on the Continental Tour season podium will compete this weekend as the season starts to take shape. For local athletes Aneta Louzecka and Oliver Hamerský, both sitting in third place, a gold medal performance could propel them to the top of the leaderboard. However, the field is rich with talent. The emerging team of young Spanish climbers will look at continuing a recent tradition of medal showings on the continental circuit; Marianne van der Steen (Netherlands), Olga Kosek (Poland) return to action in the women’s competition where United States’ Catalina Shirley will be determined to keep a run going of four straight UIAA-sanctioned events on the podium. In the men’s competition, last year’s winner in Brno, Jonathan Arthur Brown of Switzerland, will be amongst a strong field seeking to medal.
Current Continental Season Rankings (after two rounds)
Women: (1) M Salmon-Thomas (FRA), 180 points; (2) I Serrar (FRA), 108 pts; (3) A Louzecka (CZE), 102 pts
Men: (1) V Devin (FRA), 137 points, (2) A Gantner (LIE) 111 pts, (3) O Hamerský (CZE), 105 pts
Further Resources
Event Programme
Event Page
Registrations
Live Results
Photo credit: Hugo Vincent Photography / O’Bloc from Round 1 of the season in Bern, Switzerland
