Gold medals in the Malbun sun went to athletes from seven different countries, the USA (2), Switzerland (4), Spain (2), Great Britain (1), Czechia (1), Mongolia (1) and hosts Liechtenstein (1). The event, held in the idyllic winter conditions, was supported by UIAA member association Liechtensteiner Alpenverein. Malbun has hosted UIAA events in the past – notably a European Cup in 2022.

Star turns included athletes who medalled in both disciplines such as Conner Bailey and Mathias Olsen of the United States, Ana Veiga Rodriguez and Maite Vila Lopez of Spain and Mia Coia of Great Britain. Over 70 athletes from 11 countries competed in the event which provides athletes competing in U16, U18 and U20 age categories to experience a world-class competition environment and infrastructure.

Results & Livestream Replays

U16, men, lead: (1) C Bailey (USA), (2) M Olsen (USA), (3) A Huta (CZE)
U16, women, lead: (1) A Veiga Rodriguez (ESP), (2) R Vesela (CZE), (3) R Van der Lee (NED)

U18, men, lead: (1) B Ziegler (SUI), (2) K Blasi (SUI), (3) D Romero Lazaro (ESP)
U18, women, lead: (1) J Zollinger (SUI), (2) M Coia (GBR), (3) T O’Carroll (GBR)

U20, men, lead: (1) L Perez Nieto (ESP), (2) Y Real White (ESP), (3) M Lienerth (CZE)
U20, women, lead: (1) L Eusepi (SUI), (2) J Tjon (NED), (3) M Vila Lopez (ESP)

U16, men, speed: (1) M Olsen (USA), (2) C Bailey (USA), (3) J Dziubczynski (USA)
U16, women, speed: (1) U Flury (LIE), (2) A Veiga Rodriguez (ESP), (3) EE Batchuluun (MGL)

U18, men, speed: (1) NM Dolf (SUI), (2) G Escudero Calvo (ESP), (3) D Unnasch (USA)
U18, women, speed: (1) M Coia (GBR), (2) C Calvin del Fresno (ESP), (3) M Purevsuren (MGL)

U20, men, speed: (1) V Novozamsky (CZE), (2) LE Dolf (SUI), (3) L Perez Nieto (ESP)
U20, women, speed: (1) A Janbota (MLG), (2) AD Stastna (CZE), (3) M Vila Lopez (ESP)

Team Rankings:
Lead: (1) Spain, (2) Switzerland, (3) USA
Speed: (1) Spain, (2) USA, (3) Czechia

Photos from the event can be found here.

Continental Cup

Spanish success continued into the Continental Cup which took place after the World Youth Championships. Having claimed his first World Cup level medal in Saas-Fee last week, Jorge Veiga Rodriguez won gold topping the route in 4 minutes, 55 seconds, a mere four seconds ahead of second place Jonathan Brown, Switzerland. Bronze went to fellow Swiss athlete Paul Zurbrugg. Rodriguez and Brown are now one and two in the overall season standings.

Swiss athlete Celina Bosshard won a tight women’s event with Marianne van der Steen of the Netherlands coming in second and Ladina Heller, Switzerland, in third. Silver allowed van der Steen to extend her lead in the season rankings.

The event in Malbun was the fifth of seventh competitions which form the UIAA Ice Climbing Continental Cup series. Sunderland, England is the destination for the penultimate round which takes place on 6-8 February.

Current Continental Season Rankings (after five rounds)

Women: (1) M Van der Steen (NED), 317 points; (2) A Louzecka (CZE), 288 pts; (3) L Beck (LIE) 240 pts
Men: (1) J V Rodriguez (ESP), 259 points; (2) JA Brown (SUI) 245 pts; (3) A Gantner (LIE) 231 pts

Photos from the event can be found here.

Further Resources

Event Programme
Event Pages – Continental Cup – World Youth Championships
Registrations
Live Results

Photo credit: UIAA Ice Climbing World Youth Championships in Malbun. UIAA/Mangeng Photography

UIAA Ice Climbing World Youth Championships
On Friday 30 January and Saturday 31 January, the World Youth Championships will be held with categories for U16, U18 and U20 climbers competing in both lead (difficulty) and in speed.

The Championships are set to welcome over 70 athletes from Czechia, Great Britain, Germany, Iran, Japan, hosts Liechtenstein, Mongolia, Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

The full programme can be found here. Click here for a list of registered athletes.

The World Youth Championships has long provided a platform for young athletes to test themselves against international climbers on world-class structures and supported by a full UIAA World Cup level support from scoring to routesetting to judging. In last year’s event in Ouray, USA, six nations claimed gold medals.

Livestreaming will come from the speed finals – Friday 30 January at 19:30 local time and from the lead finals – Saturday 31 January at 11:00 local time.

A number of athletes who medalled at youth competitions have since gone on to forge impressive careers on the senior World Tour, notably the likes of Catalina Shirley, Louna Ladevant, Sina Goetz, Lea Beck, Yannick Glatthard, Aneta Louzecka and Vivien Labarile. Last year standout performances came from a number of emerging athletes notably from Team Spain who claimed three of the gold medals.

Continental Cup

The Continental Cup, to take place on Sunday 1 February, is set to welcome over 70 athletes from Canada, Czechia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, hosts Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the large contingent from the United States. A full list of registered athletes can be found here. Livestream will be available from the lead final, 17:00-19:00 local time.

Of the athletes currently in the Continental Tour podium positions, the Czechia duo of Aneta Louzecka and Oliver Hamerský, the Netherlands’ Marianne van der Steen and local athlete Andreas Ganter are set to compete.

Current Continental Season Rankings (after four rounds)

Women: (1) M Van der Steen (NED), 237 points, (2) A Louzecka (CZE), 237 pts, (3) M Salmon-Thomas (FRA), 221.5 pts
Men: (1) O Hamerský (CZE), 206 pts, (2) A Gantner (LIE), 176 pts, (3) V Devin (FRA), 166.5 pts

Further Resources

Event Programme
Event Pages – Continental Cup – World Youth Championships
Registrations
Live Results

Photo credit: UIAA European Cup in Malbun, 2022. UIAA/Remo Gstöhl

Four Continental Cups in Europe have whetted the appetite and provided athletes with a chance to find their competition form in events which have consistently attracted an impressive field of over 100 athletes from up to 25 different UIAA member associations.

One of the exciting developments for the current season is the UIAA’s partnership with Fixe as Official Technical Partner. Further details on this relationship and what it means for the season are detailed below.

The World Tour will see four World Cups staged in as many countries and on three continents. The World Tour winners will be the athletes who accumulate the most points across the difficulty (lead) and speed disciplines across the season. Once again, the quality of the national teams and climbers set to compete is impressive.

The Events: Four World Cups, four countries, four winners

The format for the four World Cups is relatively simple. Each will have a difficulty and speed event organised with qualifications, semi-finals and final stages. The top three athletes in each discipline win World Cup medals – gold, silver and bronze. Points are awarded at each World Cup stop. The overall World Tour winners, at the season’s end, are those who accumulate the most points across all competitions, rewarding consistency and an ability to shine on very different structures and routes and in frequent subzero temperatures.

The season kicks off in Cheongsong, South Korea, a host of UIAA-sanctioned events for over 15 years. The event is organised in collaboration with the always superbly hospitable Korean Alpine Federation (KAF).

Photo credit: UIAA/Julia Roger-Veyer

Two weeks later, the World Tour makes its stop in Europe and specifically the unique venue of Saas-Fee in the Swiss Alps. Generating a festival atmosphere, especially for the difficulty finals, Saas-Fee’s unique spiral vantage points ensure spectators get close to athletes like no other venue. Supported by the Swiss Alpine Club and the local organisers who have been dedicated to the event for over twenty years, Saas-Fee will also host the European Championships.

North America has become a frequent host of UIAA World Cups over the past five years. Two competitions will be held this year, firstly a second visit to Longmont, Colorado, supported by USA Ice Climbing. Longmont will also stage the North American Championships. As it did last year, the downtown venue in Edmonton, Canada will host the deciding round of the season where the World Tour winners will be crowned. The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) support Offbeat Entertainment with the hosting of this event.

Between the Saas-Fee World Cup and the two North American competitions, the annual UIAA Ice Climbing World Youth Championships will be held in Malbun, Liechtenstein from 29-31 January organised by the Liechtenstein Alpenverein (LAV).

World Cups
UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup (Difficulty & Speed) Cheongsong, Korea 9-11 January 2026
UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup & European Championships (Difficulty & Speed) Saas-Fee, Switzerland 22-24 January 2026
UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup & N. American Championships (Difficulty & Speed) Longmont, USA 20-22 February 2026
UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup (Difficulty & Speed) Edmonton, Canada 26-28 February 2026

The Athletes: Need for speed and overcoming the difficulties

Photo credit: UIAA/Julia Roger-Veyer

Registrations from some UIAA member associations are still pending. However, the line-up of athletes for the World Cup events is already impressive. Typically over 200 climbers from some 25 countries compete across the different events.

In difficulty, last year’s World Tour winners both came from Switzerland with Benjamin Bosshard and Sina Goetz triumphant for the first time. However, the depth of competition is impressive and, in all probability, multiple athletes will win World Cup golds across the season. Recent World Tour winners like Younggeon Lee of South Korea and Louna Ladevant of France are expected to feature as is South Korea’s imperious and multiple World Champion Woonseon Shin.

If the Continental season is a good indicator of form, then the French team is looking strong with Virgile Devin and Marion Salmon-Thomas putting in determined performances and the United States’s rising star Catalina Shirley likely to be in contention both in difficulty and in speed.

Mongolia did the double in speed last year with Mandakhbayar Chuluunbaatar and Selenge Nyamdoo winning the men and women’s titles respectively. Chuluunbaatar going back-to-back after emerging victorious in 2024. The speed discipline, which is either set up as climber versus the clock or climber versus climber format, is especially unforgiving. One nano second of hesitation can compromise an entire climb. The Iranian team, notably Mohsen Beheshti Rad and Mohammadreza Safdarian, will be strong contenders while in recent seasons athletes from Czechia, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the United States have regularly podiumed.

A number of national federations have invested significantly in youth development, coaching and pathway programmes and may well be rewarded this season with medals. Spain is one example, increasingly dominant on the youth circuit, a number of athletes are ready to shine at senior level.

The New Technical Partner: Fixe
In August 2025, Fixe was confirmed as the Official Technical Partner of the UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour. The technical staff and teams at each World Cup event will use Fixe ropes, carabiners, anchors, harnesses, and helmets, with the brand covering all organisational needs in these product categories. Additionally, the world’s top ice climbers will use Fixe ropes, carabiners, and quickdraws throughout the circuit.

One exciting announcement is the new 9.5 Saas-Fee rope, Fixe’s official choice for the 2025-26 season.

“We are very happy and grateful with the partnership and for our position as technical partner. For this reason, we have decided to create and manufacture a new rope design, specifically for mountain guides. And we would like to make its official presentation when the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup competition is held in its namesake event – Saas-Fee.”
Toni Domingo, Fixe Marketing and Back Office Manager

Indeed during the weekend in Saas-fee, Fixe will carry out a number of initiatives for spectators including a speed carabiner-clipping challenge, similar to the one presented here, with many prizes to be awarded:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Fixe (@fixe.climb)

In addition to those initiatives, Fixe will award the most popular athlete on the entire circuit with a special trophy: a unique rope on the market, in a colour never before manufactured. This will be delivered at the final competition of the season in Edmonton, Canada. Social media followers will be responsible for deciding and voting which athlete will be selected. Please follow the UIAA and Fixe social media channels to participate.

Photo credit: UIAA/Kaspar Kellerhals

UIAA Quotes
“Everything points to a great season ahead. With the support of Fixe, we will see a number of technical aspects further enhanced and improved. I would like to thank all of the organisers for their hard work in preparing the events and for their commitment to hosting top-level competitions, giving athletes the chance to perform to their best levels. We can look forward to an enthralling World Tour for those watching at the venues and the hundreds of thousands following online.”
André von Rotz, UIAA CEO

“This is the first full season overseen by the World Ice Climbing Board. It seems that ice climbing is going from strength to strength as we push forward with our project to get the sport into the 2030 Winter Olympics in France. Our now regular World Cups on three continents should be great and as always it is fantastic to see the Continental Senior and Youth Series develop even further this year with some excellent looking events offering even more competition opportunities for even more athletes.”
JoAnne Carilli Stevenson, Chair, World Ice Climbing Board

Photo credit: UIAA/Slobodan Mišković

Update: 2030 Olympic Winter Games
The UIAA and World Ice Climbing acknowledge the IOC’s decision to adjust the timeline regarding the French Alps 2030 Olympic Winter Games discipline and additional sports programme. The verdicts related to additional sports will now be taken in June 2026, alongside confirmation of the events and athlete quotas. The UIAA reaffirms its candidacy for the inclusion of ice climbing as an additional sport for 2030. Further details here.

How to follow the World Cups
For each World Cup event, a preview and review press release will be made available. Subscribe here to UIAA ice climbing press releases.

Livestreaming will be made available on the UIAA YouTube channel for all semi-finals and finals and certain qualification rounds.

On the UIAA Facebook and Instagram channels, shortform content including video clips and behind the scenes highlights will be posted as well as updates about livestreaming timings as well as podium winner posts and ‘climbs of the weekend’ clips.

Live results are available from the UIAA Results service.

The UIAA Ice Climbing website provides full information about each event including programmes and provisional timings.

Photos from competitions will available on the UIAA Flickr Channel. A ‘best of’ gallery for media wishing to preview the 2025-2026 season is available here.

Main photo credit: UIAA/Julia Roger-Veyer

The world-level events in the UIAA Ice Climbing calendar commence on 9 January 2026, with the continental circuit kicking off in the middle of November. It promises to be an another enthralling season as the UIAA pushes towards the dream of ice climbing becoming part of the 2030 Winter Olympics – a decision on the sports programme for the Games should be made during the 2026 winter season.

Over 200 athletes from over 25 member associations are set to contest the coveted UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup lead and speed titles. Five venues on three different continents will offer unique ice towers, exciting routes and supreme technical challenges.

World Cups & World Youth Championships
Five events, Five countries, three continents

The season opener will again be held in Cheongsong, South Korea from 9-11 January. The municipality of Cheongsong and the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) have been a longstanding organiser of UIAA Ice Climbing World Cups and recently committed to hosting events until the year 2030.

After a weekend’s gap to allow athletes to rest after the change in continents, the World Tour heads to Europe for the second round at another of its regular venues. Saas-Fee, Switzerland (22-24 January) has been an ever-present host of UIAA-sanctioned events since 2002 with its distinct ice dome offering a unique structure for competition. Built within the resort entry point, the venue in the Swiss Alps regularly attracts large crowds particularly for Saturday evening’s lead competition. The competition is organised by the experienced team in Saas-Fee and the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC).

The third world level event of the season will be the World Youth Championships which makes a welcome return to the idyllic wintery setting of Malbun, Liechtenstein (29-31 January), which first held the event back in 2018. The competition, which will also host a Continental Cup for senior athletes on the 1 February, is organised in by the Liechtensteiner Alpenverein (LAV).

Another rest weekend will follow to allow athletes to change continents again to return to last year’s debut venue for the World Cup series in Colorado. Longmont will play host to the third round of the World Cup from 20-22 February. The event will be hosted again by the Longmont Climbing Collective and supported by the American Alpine Club (AAC).

The final stop in the series will be a third visit to Edmonton, Canada – 27 February-1 March – hosted by Offbeat Entertain and supported by the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) – right in the city centre. This follows on from the inaugural event at the venue held earlier this year. As part of this initiative, the general public will be able to test themselves on the ice wall on the Sunday after the competition. Edmonton will crown the World Tour winners.

Event pages – including livestreaming information, event programmes and registration details – will be available in due course on iceclimbing.sport

Quotes
“We’re thrilled to launch the 2026 UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour calendar, returning to iconic venues and expanding our Continental Cup presence across Europe and North America. With the support of our new partners (to be announced in due course), it promises unforgettable moments for both athletes and fans.”
JoAnne Carilli-Stevenson, World Ice Climbing Board Chair

“It’s great to be working with established and experienced World Cup and Continental Cup organisers on the 2026 World Tour. I am especially looking forward to a return to Malbun, Liechtenstein for the World Youth Championships – this was my first event on the World Tour back in 2018! The youth have lots of opportunities to compete this season and I really hope we can grow the future of the sport.
Rob Adie, UIAA Sport Events Coordinator

Reigning World Tour winners
The reigning World Tour overall winners from 2025 are Benjamin Bosshard / Switzerland (men’s lead), Sina Goetz / Switzerland (women’s lead), Mandakhbayar Chuluunbaatar / Mongolia (men’s speed) and Selenge Nyamdoo / Mongolia (women’s speed).

World Championships
The next UIAA Ice Climbing World Championships will be held in 2027. This follows a decision from the World Ice Climbing Board to return to hosting Championships in odd years and for the UIAA and World Ice Climbing Board to work on developments and enhancements to the pinnacle event in the sport.

Continental Opens
A total of seven Continental Opens are being hosted in the 2025-26 season in Slovakia, Switzerland, Czechia, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, the USA, England and Finland. Young climbers will also have the opportunity to test themselves in more competition environments with events being organised at most of this season’s Continental Opens.

Provisional 2025-2026 Calendar

World Cups
9-11 January – Cheongsong, South Korea
22-24 January – Saas-Fee, Switzerland
20-22 February – Longmont, USA
26-28 February – Edmonton, Canada

World Youth Championships
29-31January – Malbun, Liechtenstein

Continental Cups & Youth Events
22 November – Bern, Switzerland
29 November – Zilina, Slovakia – Youth Categories
6 December – Brno, Czechia – Youth Categories
13 December – Utrecht, Netherlands – Youth Categories
1 February – Malbun, Liechtenstein – Youth Categories
6-8 February – Sunderland, England – Youth Categories
7 March – Oulu, Finland – Youth Categories

The full calendar of events can also be viewed here.

Main photo credit: UIAA/Slobodan Mišković

Round 5, the penultimate of the season, took place on 22 January in Malbun, Lichtenstein, the smallest country to ever host a UIAA Ice Climbing event.

Expertly organised by UIAA member federation Liechtensteiner Alpenverein LAV, the lead-only competition welcomed 57 athletes, 22 female and 35 male from 14 countries.

Women: Switzerland’s Sina Goetz made it two out of two in Malbun, winning the women’s competition. Having also taken gold in the season opener in Bern, Goetz maintained her 100% record this season, an impressive marker ahead of next weekend’s UIAA Ice Climbing World Championships on ‘home’ territory. Goetz topped the final route quicker than compatriot Petra Klingler who made an impressive return to ice climbing competition having taken part in the Tokyo 2020 Sport Climbing event. Another Swiss woman, Vivien Labarile, claimed bronze to ensure that Team Switzerland making a strong statement ahead of next weekend. In the contest for the overall European season crown, Enni Bertling (358 points) leads Marianne van der Steen (327) of the Netherlands. They will battle it out in Bertling’s home country of Finland in a few weeks for the European season title.

Men: Through Nikolay Primerov (silver) and Jonathan Brown (bronze), Switzerland claimed another two medals in the men’s competition. However, French youngster Louna Ladevant dominated the competition to claim gold. Ladevant is the reigning UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour champion in lead, a crown he won in Saas-Fee in 2020. Seventh place for Ladveant’s compatriot Virgile Devin to extend his lead in the season rankings over Dennis van Hoek of the Netherlands. Devin holds a commanding 77-point lead going into the event in Oulu.

A replay of the livestream can be found below. Photos (credit: UIAA/Remo Gstöhl) from the event are available here. Results can be found on the UIAA Ice Climbing website. Results, taking into account the performance of non-European athletes, can be viewed here (men, women).

UIAA ICE CLIMBING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AND WORLD YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS

Next weekend witnesses the pinnacle moment of the 2021-22 UIAA Ice Climbing Season partnered by Outdoor Research. Saas-Fee, in the Swiss Alps, will host the UIAA Ice Climbing World Championships and World Youth Championships, the first time that the two events have taken place at the same time. Both lead and speed disciplines will be staged. A preview press release including livestream details will be available on Wednesday 26 January.

The sixth and final round of the European Cup season in Oulu, under the organisation of FINICE, takes place from 18-20 February.

TITLE SPONSOR UIAA ICE CLIMBING WORLD TOUR