The kick-off evening for WICS 2023 featured a different kind of bouldering competition – Set&Send. With its was novel format the comp provided spotlight on routesetting as a major part of comps along with the athletes performance. Climbers and routesetters teamed up to work together on setting the problems on three signature Walltopia boulders featuring the latest panel designs from the company – the wooden boulder, the bamboo boulder and the stone boulder.

The boulders’ geometry is designed with simplicity and versatility in mind as a part of the modules of the harmonized system allowing any climbing gym featuring the same modules to replicate the problems (route setters copyright applies). The boulders’ visual appearance and finish was created by Margarita Kozhuharova – a long-time Walltopia climbing wall designer. With natural aesthetics approach in mind, the climbing wall design plays with veneers, dual texture and LED lights to create intriguing appeal and challenging climbing experience. There are three walls divided into 5 climbing sectors: Wooden Boulder with light and dark finish, Bamboo Boulder with tiger bamboo and light bamboo veneers and Stone Boulder with natural stone covering casted from real granite rocks. The silhouette lines continue on the flooring by Climbmat

The setters had the morning and early afternoon to set and the climbers could help. Every team could forerun their own problems but not the other team’s problems. They could, however, watch them set and forerun, so the climbing was not onsight. While this setting concept was not the greatest idea in terms of power saving of the climbers, it contributed to the friendly athmosphere of everyone having a climbing session together.

The comp started at sundown to make sure climbers didn’t have to perform in the summer heat. Lots were drawn for the sequence of climbing and the climbers of each team – male and female climbed along. The teams took turns on each problem with the “owner” of each boulder climbing last so that they don’t show the beta. Even though the boulders were not onsight and there was forerunning, the excellent setting and world top climbing skills offered unexpected outcome and diverse climbing!
The comp was a fun experience for both participants and the audience which didn’t stop cheering! The athletes gave a beyond-excellent performance with unexpected outcomes of the climb attempts and the upshot was not clear until the very last send! The final result is as follows: