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 The
end of the Ice Climbing WC Series has arrived. The circuit, consisting of
six events, finishes on the ice walls of Are (Sweden). Regarding the
results, the final event decides the general men's World Cup ranking,
until that moment led by Canadian Will Gadd, with a remarkable margin on
French François Lombard. The games were made instead in the women's field,
where the beautiful Canadian Kim has literally dominated the season,
winning all the competitions of the series.
Possible bagarre in the men's field therefore, particularly because the
ranking composition wasn't yet definitive and Lombard, rival of Gadd in
the fight for the title, is used to combat until the last moment, after
twelve years of climbing competitions, several victories and a climbing
World Cup ('94) in his files. In fact it has been exactly like this.
Luckily for the Canadian the twelfth place luckily reached gives him the
decisive points for the victory in the general ranking. His second victory
this year isn't enough for François Lombard to recuperate in the last
minute a trophy compromised by a few less than brilliant performances in
the preceding events. At the end only 6 points split the two competitors,
6 points on a total of 410, the result of the Canadian climber. Always in
the men's field second place for the sympathetic and very strong Mauro
"Bubu" Bole, just back from a raid in Colorado, where he
succeeded on the hardest routes in record times, like the repetition of
Amphibian, M9+, without dragonne and specially Reptile, M10 on sight. The
strong and sympathetic guy from Trieste is always more fit, and the
quality of his training begins to transpire clearly, and the results are
to be seen also in the competition world. Without doubt Bubu, if he will
continue to compete, will be one of the pretenders to the title next year.
Same for the all-round climber Daniel Dulac, last year 4° in the general
Bouldering World Cup ranking and today at the top also in ice climbing.
Besides the success in the World Cup general ranking, a few news also in
the women's field, where the French Isabelle Carrier interrupts the
impressive hegemony of Canadian Kim Csizmania. The strong Canadian ice
climber, may be distracted by other performances like the first women
ascent of X Files, the historical Stevie Haston route and first M10 in the
history, appeared a little tired, and not at the height of her usual
performances. At the end of the season 2000 it is time of additions and
balances. The balance of this first trial is definitely positive, first
because, regarding the circumstances, it has been a great success, and for
everybody: spectators, athletes and organizations. And like in all things,
also here there was the influence of a certain amount of luck, absolutely
necessary to explain the episode of Courchevel, where a collapse of the
climbing wall early in the morning of the final day has risked to
transform the French event in a tragedy that would have represented an
incredible boomerang for the future of the ice climbing sport. All the
other events took place instead without problems, both from the point of
view of organization/logistic and the sportive performance. Clearly, like
for all new things, it is possible to improve, and exactly this is the
main goal of the direction of IWC (Ice World Cup), to rationalize at the
most rules and competition formulas for the next season. Nothing has been
decided yet. They will discuss about this issue in April and therefore
only in late spring it will be possible to know choices and calendar for
next year.
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