Ice Climbing attracts mature athletes from all ‘round the world. The average age is 31 – and the average years of experience is about 15!
Guess ya kinda need to know what you’re doin’ when you’re hangin’ off a cliff somewhere by yourself ... Don’t they get frostbite on their fingers…??

Seung Kwon Chung, from Korea – who took the Silver in Difficulty last year – and who has already climbed Mt. Everest!

Stevic Haston, snowboarder from Great Britain was last year’s Bronze. He was quoted as saying that he and his wife, Laurence Govault – also in for the competition – wanted to be the first peeps to snowboard down Mt Everest……….

The agenda was different this year – they dropped the whole Speed thing and stuck just to the Difficulty part. To make that more challenging – the 50-foot tower was modified to include both Ice and Rock conditions.

Starting with an overhanging 35 ft ice section – followed by a 7 ft piece of plastic at a 45 degree angle with artificial hold – a couple of major icicles - and ending with a Headwall of ice to the top! What kinda a view could this guy possibly have...??

The way it worked – the climbers all hung out in a staging area without a view. When they came out for their turn – they had 40 seconds to figure their route and begin their climb.

The climb was over when they either reached the top, totally screwed up – like fell – ran outta time – or pulled a “Technical”, which is like interference – ya know – not their fault. Acts of God or bad weather didn’t count as “Technicals”.

The final round score was a "mathematical mystery" – which consisted of the greatest distances covered according to this imaginary grid of horizontal and vertical lines with extra points for “Useful Movements”….

Incase of a tie – the number of “Strikes” - anytime climber touches the ice to try something – and the actual “Climb Time” comes into play to determine the winner.

This was the first Winter X comp. for Gary Ryan, 34, from Manchester GB. He temporarily shelved his interest in Motorcycles and Snowboarding to come out and try the Ice thing. Completely relaxed as an “unknown” – he gracefully scrambled up the small holes – did 6 figure 4’s – and made it right up to the headwalls before his tools blew. He took 3^rd.

Raphael Slawinski, 31 form Canada, took 41 strikes to “effortlessly” (or at least that’s how it looked) went right up to the lower holds – one long move to the Headwall – and finished second, taking the Silver.

Once again, Will Grad had a flawless run – which tied Slawinski’s in skill – but his 38 Strikes over Slawinski’s 41, gave him the Gold.

In the Women's Diffculty '99, both Kim Csizmazia, 31 of Salt Lake City, UT and Jum-Sook Kim, 32, from Korea, attained a height of 46 feet. However - Csizmazia held on to her championship with a lower strike count and took home the Gold again!

Jennifer Stewart of St. Paul, Minnesota grabbed the Bronze.

Now back to

XTREME CENTRAL
a different kinda "Civilization".....
or