Worldcup 2013 and 2014 Olympics

...and there it is. The 2013 Worldcup schedule.

The UIAA announced the schedule for 2013 with some new things and some old things.

Old: Worldcup in Busteni (why?) I'm surprised. If you read my post about the last Worldcup there, you can understand why I'm 'slightly' surprised. (See here, here and here)

New: Worldcup in Rabenstein (Italy). The enthusiasts of the local icewall there have done a good job last years organising a fun and proper competition and for that they're rewarded with a Worldcup! Congrats!

And this year there will be a championships again. They chose Kirov (Russia) as the location. So I guess I'll have to travel there this year (better start collecting money now...)

I'm not going to join all the Worldcups in the schedule this year and climb more outdoors. The 'ultimate' climb for me is a mixed/ice route on a natural wall. The Worldcup is fun (and sometimes not), but pureness is where my heart is.

The Schedule:

January 5-6 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup Cheongsong, South Korea

January 12 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Youth World Championship, Saas Grund, Switzerland

January 18-19 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup, Saas Fee, Switzerland

January 26-27 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup, Rabenstein, Italy

February 7-9 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup, Busteni, Romania

March 8-10 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup and Championships, Kirov, Russia


I often have bad comments about the Russian part of the iceclimbing Worldcup.
There are too many Russians taking part and the rules seem to be bend to allow them all, the routesetters in Busteni did a bad job, the Russian judge made some really bad mistakes, it's hard to communicate with most as their foreign (non-Russian) language is limited and one Russian seemed to have a crush on me (and that was just a bit too much).
But theres one Russian who is working incredibly hard (together with others I suppose) to get iceclimbing to a higher level.
He managed to get iceclimbing to the Olympics!
For the first time ever iceclimbing will be shown as sports on the Olympic games.
Not as official Olympic sports yet, but as every sports starts like this on the Olympics, it's a good starts to something higher :)
Sochi, Russia 2014 will be the place.
Very, very, very good job Pavel Shabalin!

Meanwhile it's way too warm here to think of climbing ice.

It's sunny, warm and I'm busy with my lost luggage, the trip to Iceland, my work and yesterday evening we joined with thousands of others the Wednesday night skate. 
It all was quite slow but fun!
Totally motivated to go out skating again :)

Wednesdaynightskate with Rens, Koen, Suus and Arvid :)
Photo taken by a motorbike policeman with brown teeth.