On 9 January, in the icy climes of the Korean Alps, the 2025-2026 UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour is raised up a notch with the start of the world level events.
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
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
