Round 4 of the 2025 UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour takes place in Longmont, Colorado from 21-23 February. Following a three-week break from competition, senior athletes face the final two rounds of the season on back-to-back weekends in North America. After a first visit to Longmont, the World Tour verdicts will be decided a week later in Edmonton, Canada.
Evocatively named after a local peak and nestled in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains National Park, Longmont is a welcome addition to the UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour. It is the latest venue in the United States to host a UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup following Durango, Bozeman and Denver. The event will be organised by the Longmont Climbing Collective, supported by the American Alpine Club (AAC).
Action starts on Saturday 22 February with the lead qualification and entire speed competition. On Sunday 23 February, the lead semi-finals and finals will be staged. The full event programme can be found here. For a timezone convertor please click here.
Nearly 90 athletes from the following member associations have registered: Canada (9), Czechia (1), France (4), Iran (1), Ireland (1), Japan (7), Liechtenstein (5), Mongolia (9), the Netherlands (2), Poland (6), South Korea (2), Spain (1), Switzerland (5), United Kingdom (6), and the hosts United States (27). A full list of registered athletes is here.
Lead Preview: Who can stop Sina Goetz?
Sina Goetz of Switzerland has won all three of the women’s lead World Cups in the 2025 season, demonstrating flawless performances on three very different routes. Longmont is likely to be the final opportunity for her nearest rivals to deny her the World Tour title going into the final round in Edmonton. Woonseon Shin and Marianne van der Steen are best poised to reduce Goetz’s sizeable gap although Catalina Shirley, currently in fourth place, will seek to lead a gold medal charge from Team USA. A gold for Goetz will allow her to dream of a 500-point season in Edmonton.
Current World Tour standings:
(1) S Goetz (SUI), 300 points; (2) W Shin (KOR), 192 pts; (3) M Van der Steen (NED) 182 pts
Livestream Lead Semi Finals. Sunday 23 February. 10:00 local time (MST).
The men’s competition is more wide open. South Korea’s Younggeon Lee leads. He has not been as imperious as Goetz but having medalled in all three competitions has been the most consistent performer. However with Lee set to be absent in Longmont, opportunities open up for those in pursuit. This includes Benjamin Bosshard of Switzerland, fresh from a first World Cup gold medal in Champagny, as well as Louna Ladevant – a star performer in Saas-Fee but off the podium in Cheongsong and in Champagny. Currently in fifth place, Tristan Ladevant also has podium ambitions while USA’s Keenan Griscom, silver medallist at last years Worlds, makes his first World Cup appearance of the season. The prodigious 21-year old recently won the UIAA Ice Climbing Continental Open in Ouray. Lead routes in Longmont will not be steep but are likely to be technical.
Livestream Lead Finals. Sunday 23 February. 16:00 local time (MST).
Current World Tour standings:
(1) Y Lee (KOR), 230 points; (2) B Bosshard (SUI), 216 pts, (3) L Ladevant (FRA) 177 pts
Speed: Mongolia’s mission
Iran’s Mohammadreza Safdarian won the opening two rounds of the speed competition but found himself off the podium in Champagny-en-Vanoise. Winner of that event, Mongolia’s Mandakhbayar Chuluunbaatar closed the gap on the reigning world champion to set up a tantalising head-to-head over a duel format this weekend. Mongolia’s other top five male speed climber Kherlen Nyamdoo will likely push them close.
Current World Tour standings:
(1) M Safdarian (IRN), 255 points; (2) M Chuluunbaatar (MGL), 217 pts; (3) M Beheshti Rad (IRN) 200 pts
Livestream Speed Finals. Saturday 22 February. 18:30 local time (MST).
Mongolia’s Selenge Nyamdoo leads the women’s speed competition but has her nearest rivals – Catalina Shirley and world champion Aneta Louzecka as well as Poland Olga Kosek all registered and primed to take advantage of any mishap in an always unpredictable competition.
Current World Tour standings:
(1) S Nyamdoo (MGL), 280 points; (2) C Shirley (USA), 231 pts; (3) A Louzecka (CZE) 175 pts
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: UIAA/Julia Roger-Veyer
