The annual Ice Climbing Worldcup in the underground parking lot in Saas Fee took place on January 22nd and 23rd 2010. Samuel and I have not been able to achieve the level of the past years` success. Although it was obvious for the two of us that we wouldn`t be able to repeat our performance of 2008, where I won the whole Ice Climbing Worldcup. We unfortunately couldn`t meet the audiences` expectations. During the past year we had mainly been concentrating on the Jasemba Expedition which required a lot of motivation and energie and did not allow us to carefully prepare for the Saas-Fee Ice Climbing Worldcup. Nevertheless we did participate and enjoyed meeting the other competitors and some old friends. We are proud of our friends Patrik Aufdenblatten and Andreas Steindl who climbed the 4th and the 12th endvalues.
Samuel and I do have some doubts concerning the Ice Climbing Worldcup. Does this discipline have the potential to become a competitive sport just as rock climbing does? Are there enough young climbers? Is the audience still able to identify themselves with the Ice Climbing watching the athletes compete on a man-made wall? We don’t know. But time will show…Participating in the Ice Climbing Worldcup allowed us to get to know the equipment`s abilities. In the future we will mainly focus on alpine projects. This doesn`t mean that Samuel and I will never compete anymore though.Simon Anthamatten
More informations: www.iceclimbingworldcup.ch
Pictures: Vasco Counthino
