Peaking in the car park

Canada's Will Gadd gets to grip with the car park wall. swissinfo.ch

Towering peaks, yawning crevasses and treacherous glaciers may be the playgrounds of your average recreational ice climber, but for the very best it seems only a Swiss car park will do.

This weekend sees the canton Valais resort of Saas-Fee host its third ice climbing World Cup event in the depths of the village’s ten-storey car park. Originally built to keep the streets of Saas-Fee car-free, it took a few years for the park’s sporting potential to show.

“One year we just happened to notice that water was trickling down the car park walls and freezing there,” explains World Cup organiser Michael Schwarzl. “We thought it would be great for climbing lessons. Then when the World Cup tour began we realised that the wall was steep enough for us to create a really demanding course.”

Building a route to test the world’s best climbers appears to be a harder task than the climb itself. Up to three months work goes into preparing the Saas-Fee wall. Wooden panels and steel sections are first put in to form the overhangs. Then the organisers need four to six weeks of freezing cold weather to form the icy surface.

Although more complicated to construct, the unique indoor setting of the Saas-Fee event actually helps the organisers cover their SFr 80,000 budget since the weather cannot affect proceedings.

“The other events on the tour can often be threatened by bad weather such as strong winds or heavy snowfall,” Schwarzl points out. “Some have been called off in the past. But we don’t have to worry about that. We can also use spotlights and the whole structure is a lot safer.”

Safer, but not any easier. Although indoor climbing lacks the danger of climbing in nature, the artificial constructions are designed to offer much greater technical challenges.

“When you’re out climbing in the mountains you cannot fall,” says Canadian World Cup star Will Gadd. “Because if you do, you’ll get hurt or maimed in even the best case scenario. Here they’ve got a lot of good protection to stop you getting hurt, so you can really push it hard here. That allows us to showcase some of the trickiest aspects of the sport that perhaps you couldn’t do in the outside world.”

Then there’s the slight difference of having around five hundred spectators watching your every move.

“Yeah, it’s funny,” Gadd laughs. “When you’re out climbing, you’re normally watched by your partner and a couple of goats – on a good day! And here we are stuffed into this car park with a lot of people watching. But it makes for a great atmosphere and if you come here to check it out you get a great view because you’re right there at the climbers level.”

And, of course, you don’t have to walk very far to get back to your car afterwards.

by Mark Ledsom, Saas-Fee