The final UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup medals of the 2025 season were awarded this weekend in Edmonton, Canada. While the lead World Tour titles went to athletes from Switzerland and the speed titles to athletes from Mongolia, a total of 24 different athletes from 11 countries earned medals across the season.
This year’s competition in Edmonton was held in a different location to the inaugural event in 2024. However, the city skyline again offered an alluring urban backdrop to a now semi-permanent ice climbing and drytooling structure. The event was organised by Offbeat Entertainment (YEG Ice Fest) and supported by Explore Edmonton and the Alpine Club of Canada. In the days following the event, a series of initiatives were launched enabling the general public to test themselves on the competition structure.
World Tour 2025. Men’s Lead podium. Photo credit: UIAA/Slobodan Mišković
Owing to extreme warm weather impacting the stability of the ice on the wall, organizers had to adapt the speed competition. At short notice, it was held on a plywood structure meaning the event could not be classed as a World Cup competition. Instead it was graded as an ‘International Masters’ event.
The 2024-2025 UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour is partnered by Outdoor Research.
Lead: World champions prevail
Edmonton is clearly a happy venue for Younggeon Lee and Woonseon Shin (main photo). The two South Korean athletes were crowned world champions in the city last year and would take the World Cup gold medals in Canada this year too. However, the men and women’s finals would offer quite contrasting experiences on the 21.6m high structure.
The women’s competition came down to speed. Going in to the finals, Switzerland Sina Goetz had the opportunity to complete a perfect season having won all four World Cups to date. Ultimately, despite topping the route, she would be denied by 24 seconds. Indeed the three female medallists who topped the route in the semi-final and final and finished in the same order. Shin’s time of 5 minutes, 54 seconds was 14 seconds ahead of silver medallist, Catalina Shirley. Gold, Shin’s first since Edmonton last year, was enough for her to make the World Tour podium with Marianne van der Steen, fourth in Edmonton, finishing third overall.
Overall World Tour rankings:
- Sina Goetz, Switzerland, 400 pts
- Woonseon Shin, South Korea, 292 pts
- Marianne van der Steen, Netherlands, 266 pts
The men’s route proved somewhat more technical and a test of perseverance with several athletes losing their ice axes in a pair of stubborn rings. Competition was tight – the top seven athletes reached virtually the same juncture. Younggeon Lee, able to at least partially negotiate the section with the tricky rings, would narrowly take the gold ahead of Switzerland’s Benjamin Bosshard and Jonathan Arthur Brown, silver and bronze respectively.
Bosshard’s silver was enough to take his first ever World Tour title ahead of Lee. Former world champion Louna Ladevant could only finish seventh in Edmonton, but it proved sufficient to finish third on the end of season podium.
Overall World Tour rankings:
- Benjamin Bosshard, Switzerland, 345 pts
- Younggeon Lee, South Korea, 330 pts
- Louna Ladevant, France, 278 pts
As detailed above, the speed event was classed as an International Masters competition meaning the World Tour titles were calculated based on results from the four earlier World Cups.
Speed: Kosek and Nyamdoo climb fastest
Olga Kosek capped her most impressive ever season on the UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour by taking the speed gold in a blistering time of 5:54 seconds. It was the Polish climber’s third medal of the season, adding to World Cup bronzes claimed in lead (Champagny) and speed (Longmont). Her time was enough to defeat reigning world champion Aneta Louzecka, 6:22 and Catalina Shirley, 6:33. It was the first time this season that the Mongolian team failed to make the podium. As the event did not meet the threshold for the overall World Tour rankings, the positions going into the weekend remained unchanged. Mongolia’s Selenge Nyamdoo took the seasonal title ahead of Catalina Shirley and reigning world champion Aneta Louzecka.
Overall World Tour rankings:
- Selenge Nyamdoo, Mongolia, 300 pts
- Catalina Shirley, USA, 260 pts
- Aneta Louzecka, Czechia, 185 pts
World Tour 2025. Women’s Speed podium. Photo credit: UIAA/Slobodan Mišković
Kherlen Nyamdoo, Selenge’s older brother, made it another excellent weekend for the family. His ascent of 4.11 proved too much for Iran’s Mohsen Beheshti Rad, 4.25 and Nyamdoo’s compatriot Mandakhbayar Chuluunbaatar, 4.31. However, the change in format meant that the overall points were calculated on the previous events leaving Chuluunbaatar as World Tour winner ahead of Safdarian, Iran, and his compatriot Nyamdoo.
Overall World Tour rankings:
- Mandakhbayar Chuluunbaatar, Mongolia, 260 pts
- Mohammadreza Safdarian, Iran, 255 pts
- Kherlen Nyamdoo, Mongolia, 245 pts
Before the 2024-2025 UIAA Ice Climbing season officially closes, there is one more act. The city of Sunderland, England, will host the final UIAA Ice Climbing Continental Open of the season on Saturday 8 March. Further details to follow.
—
Assets for Media and Fans
Short-form content, highlights, podium posts and updates are available on the UIAA social media channels, notably Facebook and Instagram.
Event photos are available on the UIAA Flickr channel.
Live results are available from the UIAA Ice Climbing website.
A selection of ‘best of’ photos for media, prepared for the 2024-2025 season, can be found here.
Press releases will be available for all World Cup events, both previews (-3 days before) and reviews (day +1). Please subscribe to receive press releases directly to your inbox.
Please visit iceclimbing.sport for all event information, details on event programmes and timings, athlete registrations, live results and more.
UIAA ICE CLIMBING WORLD TOUR PARTNER
Photo credit: Slobodan Mišković / UIAA
