Winning picks

Team USA with coaches Garcia (left) and Kevin Lindal in France, where they took third in the recent UIAA Ice Climbing Championships./Courtesy photo

Four local climbers took a spot on the podium at the 2017 UIAA Youth Ice Climbing World Championships held Feb. 10-11 in La Plagne-Champagny en Vanoise, France.

The young climbers – Cat Shirley (U16); Georgia Withcel and Liam Foster (U190); and Hannah Langford (U22) – were part of the USA Youth Ice Climbing Team. The team is coached by local climber extraordinaire Marcus Garcia (of Rock Lounge fame).

Team USA placed third, while the Russians and Swiss took first and second, respectively.
The championships drew 71 athletes from nine countries to compete in lead and speed events among three age groups, U16, U19 and U22.

Seven competitors represent Team USA. Other members of the team include Kennan Griscom and Cody Stevenson (Boulder, U16) and Luke Negley (Colorado Springs, U19.)

In addition to France, the USA is the only other country that hosts a Youth Championship and UIAA Youth World Cup (held in December at Ska Brewing.)

More than raising notoriety for Durango and the sport of ice climbing in general, the events are vital toward making ice climbing an official competition of the Winter Olympic Games, a longheld goal of Garcia’s.

“Without the youth involvement, there is no future for the sport or means to develop the next generation of Olympic caliber athletes,” he said.

The UIAA – aka International Climbing and Climbing Federation (don’t ask, it’s a Euro thing) – was founded in 1932. The American Alpine Club joined that same year. Since then, it has grown to a global presence with 80 member as- sociations representing 3 million people. The or- ganization’s mission is to promote the growth and protection of climbing and mountaineering, advance safe and ethical mountain practices, and promote responsible access, culture and environmental protection.