River valley park hosts climbing competition this weekend

Climbers from across North America will compete at Louise McKinney Riverfront Park this weekend. CTV News Edmonton’s Noah Rishaug has the story.

A group of athletes hope to reach their peaks this weekend in Edmonton’s river valley.

The North American Cup Series has made its return to Louise McKinney Riverfront Park for three days starting Friday.

Edmonton is the fourth of five stops in this year’s high-level competition series for advanced and elite athletes from the Americas to continue their development outside of World Cup competition. It is slated to wrap up at the end of July in Salt Lake City.

The Edmonton stop features two individual disciplines of climbing: lead climbing, a technique used to anchor the climber as they ascend, and speed climbing, a timed-race discipline that sees two climbs compete to see who can get to the top of a 15-metre-high wall the fastest.

Adam Luiciuk, the event’s producer, said the Cup Series stop is “a stepping stone for all the local and international athletes across North America between a national championship and a World Cup.”

“This is very much the sport side of climbing. There are set routes. They’re climbing, competing to see which ones can climb the highest, climb the fastest.”

An organizer said the final round of the competition could be cancelled if it rains on Saturday.

It’s the second year in a row that the competition has been staged in the Alberta capital. The series started in 2021.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Noah Rishaug