Campitello di Fassa to host the IFSC European Climbing Championships 2017

After having organised national climbing competitors for decades, at the end of June and beginning of July 2017 the small town Campitello di Fassa in Val di Fassa, Dolomites, will host one of the most important climbing competitions on the old continent: the European Championships Lead and Speed.

The path that has led to this prestigious event has been long, at times tortuous, and began in 1997 when a small group of friends formed the Fassa Climbing club that, a year later, organised the first competition on the purposefully built climbing wall. Since then this town has hosed the annual "Dolomites Master" and various stages of the Italian Lead, Boulder and Speed Cup, becoming a reference point for many competition climbers. In 2010 things ground to an abrupt stop when a fire completely destroyed the climbing wall. Not to be outdone, in 2014 the club inaugurated a huge and beautiful new indoor facility, at Ischia close to the Col Rodella cable car. The new climbing wall was named ADEL, in honour of the four mountain rescuers who lost their lives during a rescue mission in an an avalanche on 26 December 2009 in Val Lasties: Alessandro Dantone, Diego Perathoner, Erwin Riz and Luca Prinoth.

With the new facility the club started to host competitions once again and now the time has come for the most important event of all. The European Championship which will take place from 29 June to 1 July 2017 and hosts two disciplines, difficulty (lead) and speed. As far as the Lead event is concerned, the massive overhang will certainly provide a spectacular competition, while the Speed ​​wall is only one of 16 worldwide currently certified for the world speed record.

The announcement of the European Championship, which since 1992 takes place once every two years, is obviously great news for Italian climbing movement, and not only. It’s worth noting that in addition to a numerous World Cup stages, in the past Italy has hosted other major events: in June 2004 Lecco hosted the the European Championship Lead, Speed ​​and Boulder, while in 2011 Arco hosted the World Championship of the three disciplines. Now this IFSC European Climbing Championships 2017 in Campitello promises to be both important and compelling, especially in view of sport climbing's first participation at the Olympics in Tokyo 2020.