The 2025 UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour heads to North America this weekend for the first of three events on the continent. The annual UIAA Ice Climbing World Youth Championships in Ouray, Colorado takes centre stage from 7-9 February.
Saturday 8 February is reserved for the qualification rounds for both the U16, U18 and U20 lead and speed competitions. Sunday 9 February sees the finals of all events. The Championships will welcome athletes from Czechia, Liechtenstein, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and hosts the United States. The full programme can be found here. Click here for a list of registered athletes. For details on livestreaming and video highlights please refer to the UIAA YouTube channel and social media accounts for updates.
The event will be hosted by the Ouray Ice Park, supported by the American Alpine Club (AAC), and for the first time the UIAA Ice Climbing World Youth Championships will take place outside of Europe. Ouray is revered as one of the premier ice climbing locations in the world. The park features over 200 routes and is home to numerous frozen waterfalls and ice formations. The venue also has a rich pedigree in hosting ice climbing and mixed climbing events.
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. 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. Ouray will undoubtedly be hosting some of the stars of the future.
Following the World Youth Championships, the final two rounds of the senior World Cup season take place in North America; firstly in Longmont, Colorado from 21 to 23 February and then in Edmonton, Canada from 27 February to 1 March.
Assets for Media and Fans
Speed Finals Livestream – Saturday 8 February – 1015 Mountain Time
Lead Finals Livestream – Sunday 9 February – 1100 Mountain Time
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: UIAA Ice Climbing World Youth Championships 2024 – Champagny-en-Vanoise, France. Photo: UIAA/Julia ROGER-VEYER
