This weekend, 8-10 February, the second stage of the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup was held in Busteni, Romania. The winners were Woon-Seon Shin from South Korea in the Women’s Difficulty discipline and Markus Bendler, Austria, in the Men’s Difficulty.
The big surprise of the event was Woon-Seon Shin, who managed to climb almost the whole of the challenging route. When announced as the winner, she was crying because she just couldn’t believe it.
The favourite Petra Müller finished the route in 4th place while Jenny Lavarda, who won last year’s event in Busteni, finished in 3rd. Natalya
Kulikova from Russia, the most experienced athlete of the Russian team, finished in second place.
Alexey Tomliov had taken the lead in the semi finals of the Men’s Difficulty competition, but lost his place when he made an error in the final. Simon Anthamatten, another favorite, made the same mistake as Alexey and broke his axe when returning to the previous hold.
Evgeny Kryvosheytsev from the Ukraine finished in the 3rd place. Samuel Anthamatten made an aggressive ascent and managed to move fast from the middle part of the route to the crux. However he didn’t find a good solution for the
move and finished the route with one move more than Evgeny, taking the second place.
Markus Bendler from Austria, now a member of the Romanian Alpine Club, succeeded to climb to the top of the route confirming that he is in the best shape this season. Full results here!
The best ice climbing athletes in the world put on a great show for the spectators. Those who could not make it to Romania were able to watch the event live over the internet.
60 athletes from 10 countries (Switzerland, Austria, Russia, Bulgaria, South Korea, the
Ukraine, Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Italy) competed for prizes totaling 6000 Euros.
The speed competitions were canceled because of the weather conditions on the day before the event. The ice wall was damaged, but the event organisers are hoping to rebuild it before next weekend’s Ice Climbing World Speed Record event.
The organisers congratulate all the athletes for good performances and for taking part, and are looking forward to welcoming them next year. The routes were made by Attilio Munari and Massimo Da Pozzo.
Next weekend Busteni will host the first ever world record competition in ice climbing and an International Championships competition. The third and final stage of the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup will take place 21-23 February in Saas Fee, Switzerland.
The Busteni events are organised by the Romanian Alpine Club (CAR) in cooperation with the Municipality of Busteni. Check out the event page for more photos.
