The Event

The opening UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup of the 2023-2024 season, partnered by Outdoor Research, will take place in Cheongsong from 12-14 January. The South Korean venue has been a regular host of World Cups and Asian Championships throughout the past decade.

Finals

The speed qualification and finals take place on Saturday 13 January and the lead semi-finals and finals on Sunday 14 January. Both competitions will be livestreamed (see below). The full event programme can be found here.

Athletes and National Teams

A total of 88 athletes from 16 countries are currently registered. Host nation South Korea has the largest contingent with 25 athletes. To also note the sizeable participation from the United States and Japan.

None of the male lead podium finishers from a year ago are expected to compete in Cheongsong presenting an opportunity for some new medallists to emerge. Having local knowledge and having trained on the structure, the team from the Korean Alpine Federation will be strong favourites to shine. Elsewhere, the form demonstrated during the winter’s European circuit suggests Spanish athletes Javier Cano Blázquez and Jorge Veiga Rodriguez, Great Britain’s Will Morris and Switzerland’s Benjamin Bosshard and Jonathan Brown should all be in contention.

Woonseon Shin walks out to climb in the 2023 Lead Final in Cheongsong

In the women’s lead competition, last year’s silver medallist Woonseon Shin, a past winner at the event, and Switzerland’s Sina Goetz who took bronze, will be amongst those expected to start the World Cup season strongly. Ireland’s Eimir McSwiggan brings strong experience from climbing in Korea while Marianne van der Steen, the Netherlands, as explored in the recent On Thin Ice series, will seek to claim a first World Cup podium following another dominant European Cup season.

In the men’s speed event, both last year’s gold medallist, Mohsen Beheshti Rad of Iran, and Mongolia’s Kherlen Nyamdoo, third in 2023, will spearhead a discipline where form is harder to call.  All three podium finishers from the 2023 women’s speed competition are present – South Korea’s Lee Sughee, Aneta Louzecka of the Czech Republic and Catalina Shirley of the USA.

Breakdown of athletes per national federation:

Canada (2), Czech Republic (1), Finland (2), France (2), Great Britain (5), Hong Kong, China (3), Iran (3), Ireland (1), Japan (10), Mongolia (7), Netherlands (2), Poland (4), South Korea (25), Spain (3), Switzerland (4), United States (14)

How to follow

A livestream of the competition will be available from the UIAA YouTube channel. Please subscribe for updates.

Start times:

Speed final, Saturday 13 January, 1800 local time, 1000 CET, 0900 UTC, 0400 ET,  0100 PT
Lead semi-final, Sunday 14 January, 0830 local time, 0030 CET, 2330 UTC (*), 1930 ET (*), 1630 PT (*)
Lead final, Sunday 14 January, 1500 local time, 0700 CET, 0600 UTC, 0200 ET, 2300 PT (*)

For time zone details please click here.
(*) indicates day before

Embed codes and links for the livestreams can be found here:

Further Information

Preview and review press releases are distributed for all world-level events. To subscribe to press releases please click here.

Photos, free of restrictions for editorial use, are posted for each competition on the UIAA Flickr channel. A selection of season preview images for media use can be found here.

Follow the UIAA social media channels, notably Instagram and Facebook, to access short-form content and live updates from competitions.

Live results are available for all events here. Visit the UIAA Ice Climbing website for individual event programmes and registrations.

Photos: UIAA/Rhea Kang