There’s only one event in the world where, since more than thirty years, the best climbers of the world challenge one another, in a mix of great sport and show: Arco’s Rock Master.
All the great champions did lift this precious trophy to the sky, while the applauding audience stands there, every year, filling the meadow beneath the steep side. This wall, overtime, has become an icon within the world of climbing.
RockMaster, year by year, has learnt how to renew itself, always proposing spectacular combinations. In the last few years it has been calling for two main events: Ko Boulder Contest and the RockMaster Duel, both of which are reserved to a strict number of top climbers.
LEAD DUEL (ROCK MASTER)
Athletes are competing on two parallel routes, equally difficult. The first one to get on top wins. After a first qualification trial, that decides who’s going to duel against whom in the first round, climbers compete in a series of duels, with direct elimination, until the last final on vs. one battle for the title.
A highly spectacular mix of difficulty and velocity and a 25 m wall to climb in a little more than a minute. Strategy, determination, rapidity, explosiveness, action, and will to fight until the last moment: these are the ingredients of a legendary duel between Jakob Schubert and Adam Ondra at Rock Master, in 2016. Ondra won that year, and in 2017 he climbed in less than a minute, winning against the Italian Marcello Bombardi. He won once again in 2018, against Sean Mccoll. As for the ladies’, Janja Garnbret, from Slovenia, is a climbing “Wonder Woman”: she dominated in 2016 and 2018.
There’s something new this year: climbers will have the chance to try the route the day before the race. They will look for the right solutions for climbing the distance in less time.
KO BOULDER (ROCK MASTER)
8 climbers, 4 boulders. The day before the competition athletes may test the blocks. Routesetters are going to arrange extremely spectacular, but also very challenging movements. The competition is made of five rounds: for each one, climbers have three chances to figure the boulder, to reach and grab the top hold. Points will be assigned right after each round, considering the highest reached hold and the number of attempts. In case of a tie, the points of the previous rounds will make the difference.
Every round sees the elimination of two athletes, until only three remaining climbers will face the final battle.