Climbing is what happens when you take a gym rat’s obsession with grip strength, remove the floor, and let gravity do its thing. There’s no bench to lie on, no belt to tighten, and no place to hide a weak link. You have to get your body up a wall using holds that sometimes look so bleak the edge of a credit card looks like it might offer more purchase. And if you screw up, you better hope your rope is knotted correctly.
That was on full display at the World Climbing Series bouldering finale in Salt Lake City, October 16-18. In the men’s final, Israel’s Yonatan Katz won gold on only his second start in the senior international series. He went into the final problem behind Britain’s Maximillian Milne and came out the winner after pulling off a move nobody else in the final had managed.
World Climbing Series Salt Lake City Results Breakdown
Here’s how it happened. The last boulder was a nasty coordination problem. Before Katz stepped up, the other finalists who had attempted it hadn’t even reached the scoring zone, a designated hold partway up the route. On his fourth try, Katz got past the zone and reached the top. He finished with 69.7 points. Milne couldn’t answer on his turn and took silver with 59.7. Japan’s Rei Kawamata was third with 54.2. For a sport that looks, to outsiders, like a bunch of people climbing a wall, there was a hell of a lot of drama hanging off those holds.
The women’s final the next day had its own story. France’s Oriane Bertone won with 84.6 points after being the only finalist to complete the first boulder. Britain’s Erin McNeice finished second with 69.7, barely ahead of Japan’s Mao Nakamura at 69.6. McNeice didn’t win that night, but she won the season-long Boulder title. She’d opened the series in 11th place and followed it with a gold and four silvers.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Sorato Anraku had already locked up the men’s overall championship after winning five of the six bouldering events. Then he failed to advance from qualification in Salt Lake City. Even the guy who dominated the season can get humbled by a fresh set of plastic holds. If bodybuilding judges replaced their comparison rounds with problems that changed every week, we’d see a few interesting faces backstage.
Bouldering is done on relatively short walls with thick mats instead of ropes. The athlete has to solve a sequence of moves, reach designated holds, and control the top. Strength matters, obviously. So does the ability to position your hips, push through your feet, generate momentum, and decide what to do before your forearms turn into concrete. Some moves are slow and surgical. Others look like a gymnast being thrown into a hardware store. The best climbers aren’t simply pulling themselves upward. They’re figuring out how to make the least-wasteful movement possible under pressure.
The Wall Rewards Skill and Technique More than It Does Muscle
There’s a lesson in there for anybody who trains. A giant back and a crushing handshake don’t automatically make you good at something that requires timing, balance, and technical skill. Nor does being smaller make you weak. Climbing exposes the difference between owning strength and knowing how to use it. And if you’re tempted to try it, start with an introductory session, not an advanced overhang and a heroic declaration. A 2026 review of 45 climbing-injury studies found frequent problems involving fingers, hands, shoulders, and ankles. Those little finger pulleys weren’t designed to absorb your entire ego on day one.
I like sports that punish bullshit. Climbing is high on that list. There’s no score for looking intimidating while you chalk your hands, and no bonus for explaining how strong you’d be if the holds were bigger. Katz won because he solved a problem that had stopped the others. McNeice took the season because she kept delivering. The wall doesn’t care about your résumé, your physique, or your excuses. It only cares whether you can get to the top.
