Idaho climbers will face off in weekend bouldering competition. Here’s how to watch

This weekend, an Idaho rock climbing gym will host the first Idaho Bouldering Championship, where local climbers will face off for the competition’s top spot.

The championship will be held at Asana Climbing Gym, 4977 N Glenwood St. in Garden City, at 6 p.m. on Dec. 17. Asana partnered with The Commons Climbing Gym for the new venture. Though both gyms regularly hold climbing competitions, Asana head route setting manager Brannon Frank said it’s the first time they’ve held an event specifically for Idaho competitors.

The championship is a departure from past competitions in which top climbers face off at the end of the day. Instead, the event is focused solely on the top performers from recent Asana and Commons contests — six male and six female. Next year, Frank said, they hope to include a third Treasure Valley climbing gym, Vertical View, in the championship.

Bouldering is a type of rock climbing that involves ascending a wall as high as 15 feet without any ropes or harnesses attached to the climber. In recent years, it has exploded in popularity, even being featured in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo last year.

Together, route setters from both gyms will craft a series of climbing challenges for competitors, who must try the never-before-seen routes in front of the audience.

“Just like any sport, you’ll see the human struggle on display,” Frank told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. “You’re going to see people struggle to move upwards.”

How bouldering competition works

Each competitor will have four boulders — different routes — to climb, with four minutes per boulder. Competitors must start the route, or “problem,” with their limbs on designated starting points, denoted by white pieces of tape on the route, and must try to reach the peak (the top of the route) and zone area (about halfway up the route).

Each climber will be scored by the number of peaks and zones they reach. If competitors tie, scoring will look at the number of attempts it took them to reach the peak, then the number of attempts it took them to reach the zone.

“The athlete who solves the most problems in the lowest number of attempts wins,” according to the International Federation of Sport Climbing’s scoring explanation.

In between each try, competitors will be kept in isolation so they aren’t able to begin solving the problem early.

“They’ve never seen these boulders, so they have no idea what they’ll be faced with,” Frank said.

Frank said he and fellow route setters try to create routes that will challenge the athletes — physically, mentally, technically — but also be entertaining for the audience to watch.

Spectators can expect to see a variety of routes. In competitions, Frank said, setters will try to incorporate different qualities to challenge each athlete and ensure they aren’t playing to one person’s strengths. One route might be “bold and jumpy,” requiring power and strength, while another might be more delicate and call for precision. Another could be “funky,” testing a competitor’s creativity and ability to climb using unconventional positions and techniques.

The variety also ensures the competition doesn’t play to a single climber’s strengths.

“We try to envision what we want to see on the boulder,” Frank said. “We want the audience to have fun and see amazing things, and we want to see a clear winner and split the field.”

Idaho Bouldering Championship sees young competitors

All of the Idaho Bouldering Championship’s 12 competitors are Idahoans. Frank said the competition was created as a way to allow Idaho athletes a place to stand out from climbers around the West who often travel to Boise for competitions.

The male competitors are Joey Catama, Seiji Huff, Kieron Waibel, Ian Link, Nick Flynn and Jimmy Catama. The female competitors are Sasha Truax, Lily Saperston, Kellina Breakfield, Devan Pilling, Alina Cofod and Robin Crotteau.

Of the 12 competitors, most are between 16 and 18 years old, Frank said. Still, they have long lists of climbing accomplishments already, including spots on national climbing teams.

In response to a questionnaire Asana sent to the climbers to help the audience learn more about them, some of the competitors said they were excited to introduce more people to the sport through the championship.

“It would be super cool to know that I am the reason for a few people in Idaho to try out climbing for the first time, love it and continue to climb,” Huff wrote.

Saperston and Pilling said they’d worked hard to overcome competition anxiety and physical injuries in their climbing careers and looked forward to pushing past those limitations in the championship.

“It means a lot to me to see what I can do mentally as much as physically,” Pilling wrote.

And, of course, there’s plenty of good-natured competitive spirit between the competitors, many of whom know each other through the tight-knit Boise climbing community.

“I want to beat my brother and win,” wrote Jimmy Catama about his brother, Vertical View climbing team coach Joey Catama. “All that matters. Unlimited superiority.”

How to watch

Spectators can purchase tickets for the Saturday competition online. A link to the ticket website is also available at asanaclimbinggym.com.

Tickets cost $10 ahead of the event or $15 at the door. Doors open at 5 p.m. and climbing begins at 6 p.m. Frank said Asana’s bar will be open and serving beer, cider, wine, hard seltzer and other refreshments.

The director of Asana’s aerial arts program will perform an aerial silks routine during intermission.

This story was originally published December 12, 2022 at 11:00 AM.

Nicole Blanchard

Idaho Statesman

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Nicole Blanchard is part of the Idaho Statesman’s investigative and watchdog reporting teams. She also covers Idaho Outdoors and frequents the trails around Idaho. Nicole grew up in Idaho, graduated from Idaho State University and Northwestern University with a master’s degree in journalism. Support my work with a digital subscription