Rob Adie is the man responsible for organizing the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup Tour.
🧊 About the episode
What are those funny folks in tights doing on the YouTubez, kicking into the whozimiwuchits and spitting off those metal thingamajigs?
If you, like me, have ever had questions about Ice Climbing World Cups, this is your episode of Ice Ice Beta… because today we chat with, Rob Adie, the man responsible for organizing the UIAA World Cup Tour.
He’s sort of a one-man band. To help paint the picture, last year, Rob managed 12 events across 3 continents featuring over 150 athletes from 28 countries. (And I want to note, that’s considered a down year). There’s a lot that goes into putting something like that together, obviously, and you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll cover it today.
In this episode, we chat about a range of topics, including:
- 🧊 Rob’s journey from climbing wall designer to competition organizer
- 🧊 The evolution of ice climbing comps
- 🧊 All the intricacies of managing the World Cup Tour, especially in light of climate change
- 🧊 Ice climbing's Olympic ambitions
- 🧊 The ebb and flow of the sport’s growth
- 🧊 And how the community spirit drives the success of ice climbing competitions
“What we're aiming for is, is this mix of traditional mountain resort events and the city center events where we can kind of really bring it to the masses. So next season, 2026, we're looking at six World Cups, two on each continent: two in Asia, two in Europe, two in North America.
I can't confirm. We're still working on getting a couple of events sorted. So I can't kind of divulge too much more than that just yet, but, uh, watch this space in the next few weeks.”
🧊 Resources and links
The UIAA will be announcing their calendar for the upcoming World Cup Tour shortly. You can check in at iceclimbing.sport when it’s live.
The org is also launching a YouTube series, “On Thin Ice”, which follows competitors from last year’s World Cup circuit. It should start at the end of the month, and if the trailer is any indication, it’ll be a fun watch.
Lastly, if you’d like to follow along with all the World Cup going-ons, their IG is @uiaa_iceclimbing.
You can connect with Rob:
🧊 Credits
📸 Cover photo by Sarah Lilley (@saralilleey)
Intro music by Hannah Noelle Enomoto (thanks, sis!). This episode was edited by Andrew Salomone of salomonesound.com.
🧊 Sponsors:
A huge thanks to Aniiu Gloves and Furnace Industries for supporting this show!
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