Coronavirus Impacting Climbers and the Sport
Mount Everest closed, comps postponed and climbers head home
IFSC has postponed the Asian Continental Championships, Combined European Championship in Moscow and the Bouldering World Cup in Meiringen. IFSC Europe said that there will be no European comps in April and May. “Our goal is to hold some events later in the season, so we will try to postpone rather then cancel, whenever possible.”
The Danish Climbing Federation has decided to cancel the Nordic Championship in Copenhagen scheduled to this weekend. USA Climbing has postponed the Open National Championships. Kletterzentrum Innsbruck said they will only 100 rope climbers and 100 boulders at a time and climbers can only stay for four hours.
The Climbing Works International Festival in Sheffield this weekend will only be attended by climbers, no audience. The Olympics, which start in July, are still planned to go ahead on schedule.
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Stefano Ghisolfi in Quarintine
Top climber Stefano Ghisolfi was hoping to compete at the now-postponed European Championships in hopes of qualifying for the Olympics. Even if the comp was a go-ahead, Ghisolfi wouldn’t be able to compete because he’s under quarintine in Italy.
He said: The situation in Italy is quite critical now. We have to stay home and cannot travel outside our towns. We can go out only for primary needs, to buy food or go to work, but everything is going to be closed now. I and Sara already decided to stay home a few days ago, we train in our garage and wait until the situation gets better. Her immune system is not effective because of a kidney transplant, for this reason for her is important not to be in contact with the virus. The virus didn’t arrive yet in Arco, but it could so everybody is invited to stay home to avoid contact with other people outside the family.
For climbing, Asian championship has already been canceled and so it could be the European championship, I hope it will be postponed, but in any case, it will be impossible to arrive in Moscow from Italy, and in 10 days it probably will be hard for other countries to travel to Moscow.
I think is very important to follow these rules now for Italy, and other countries can learn from what happened here and try to avoid it before it spreads too much around Europe.
Everything is closed but I’m quite lucky I have a good wall in my garage so the only thing I can do is keep training but at home! Stretching in the morning and boulder, circuits or hangboard in the afternoon, and I will have time for reading books and work on my social media between the sessions. The problem of climbing outdoor is that if an accident happens, is it very dangerous to go to the hospital because of the virus, so for the moment, we will climb only at home. It is possible to go outside to walk or hike, in places where there are no people, close to home.
Americans Head Home
A number of Americans have been climbing in Europe winter, but with the U.S.A. stopping all flights from Europe, climbers are heading home before it’s too late.
Jon Siegrist wrote, “So bummed,” on his Instagram story, and his partner Shaina Savoy jokingly said, “Pondering the implications of just staying in Europe forever instead of combing home.”
Back in the U.S.A., the American Alpine Club has moved its annual dinner fundraiser to an online livestream. They said, “We feel strongly that this is the responsible decision to protect the folks in our community who may be most vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus.”
The 5Point Film Festival inCarbondale, Colorado, has rescheduled from April 22 to 26 to Oct. 14 to 18.
Mount Everest
Nepal announced on Friday that it’s shutting down all expeditions on Mount Everest for the rest of this year’s season. The move followed reports from climbers that the Chinese government has shut the Tibet side of the mountain.
“Expeditions to Mount Everest have been closed with immediate effect. Climbing permits are cancelled till the end of April,” Nepal’s Tourism Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari said.
“This is disappointing news for both our expedition leaders and our clients who have trained for months for this year’s climb,” said Lukas Furtenbach, the Founder and CEO of a guided expedition company. “We understand the dire consequences a covid-19 outbreak at basecamp would have. Sadly, we have to agree that this is a responsible call to make right now.”
Canadian Comps
Canadian comps will feel the impact of the virus, visit the CEC here for continual updates.
Outdoor Retailer
The summer Outdoor Retailer that will take place in Denver in June, said it’s monitoring the situation. In a statement on March 3 (before the major outbreak in the U.S.A.) they announced:
With the ongoing coverage surrounding the coronavirus outbreak and its potential effects, it is Outdoor Retailer’s and Emerald’s top priority to keep our community safe and informed. With Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2020 more than four months away, it is too early and the situation too dynamic to predict what will be happening in June.
We are actively planning the Summer show for June 23 to 25 in Denver. The Outdoor Retailer team is monitoring the situation daily and following the guidelines set-forth by our federal and local government and health agencies and are in close, ongoing contact with local Denver authorities.
In addition, we are working with other show teams within Emerald who are staging shows ahead of Outdoor Retailer to ensure the highest level of control measures and best practices are being implemented around the show and onsite. Our focus is to keep attendees, exhibitors and the greater outdoor community updated regularly.
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