The North Face Climb Festival London: report and photos

• Sunday 21st July 2024

David Simmonite reports on a very entertaining and inspiring climbing festival.

Amongst the angular tower blocks and clean-cut lines of London’s centre of commerce, Canary Wharf, sat a sweeping overhanging tower reaching a height of 17m above the dark waters of South Dock. This would be the main attraction for the first The North Face Climb Festival to be held in the UK, following similar events they have held in New York, Chicago and Singapore.

It was essentially a deep water solo competition featuring some of the world's top climbers and those willing to have a go, with 30% of the 120 competitors travelling from outside of the UK. This two-day festival also had athlete talks, music, food and drink and more to offer to those who turned up in their droves, proving to be a real draw for people from far and wide. The Renewed Repair Workshop proved to be a particular hit with over 180 items repaired and demand that exceeded capacity.

Floated out to the middle of the dock on a barge, the wall curved outwards, starting steeply and becoming steeper to the 10m mark before easing ever so slightly to a sprint for the top. This wasn’t just a test of climbing prowess and endurance but also of nerves – after all, a fall from above 10m was daunting but higher, well... The height didn’t seem to be an issue, scores took the fall from various heights and others opted to jump from the top rather than lower off using the auto belay gym ring. It undoubtedly fitted the ‘Never Mind the Drop’ tagline flagged up on The North Face’s pre-event publicity.

The first day of the competition, a Friday, was the qualification day with the female and male competitors climbing the wall in pairs on identical routes on either side of the wall’s face. The audience began to gather and packed out the adjacent Harbour Quay Gardens to watch the action unfold. The atmosphere grew as did the number of splashdowns with safety divers ready to aid climbers out of the water.

To say it was exciting would be an understatement – watching climbers in tandem, some matching each other's actions move for move – almost mirror-like – was riveting. The atmosphere was heightened by hosts Cedar Wright, Nina Williams and upcoming Olympian Molly Thompson-Smith. Friday’s comp scene finished with a lively dyno comp with again climbers in tandem leaping from hold to hold as fast as possible to the 10m mark. You had to see it to believe it – ‘Totally wild’ is how one person summed it up.

During the festival, some of London’s brightest young artists, including Ross From Friends (who finished the festival after the competition final), Laurence Guy, Anu and JJESS, performed rousing sets to keep the vibe high. At any time there was a chance to try out the bouldering wall and have fun or hone your skills with The North Face athletes such as James Pearson and Nina Williams. If you didn’t fancy pulling on your shoes you could take inspiration from the talks and visual shows at the Base Camp by a collection of The North Face athletes including Jacopo Larcher, Caroline Ciavaldini and Rotimi Odukoya, the founder of black climbing community Clmbxr.

Saturday dawned on what was to be the seeding rounds for the competition followed by the final. Walking down to the venue there was an expectant buzz in the air and the queues to get in were already forming around the block. The event was so popular that it reached its maximum limit on finals day. Over the two days, there were an estimated 17,000 attendees and a max crowd of over 7,500 people on Saturday afternoon.

The semi-finals were a real blast with many strong climbers heading to the depths and slimming the field down to the last group of hard-core finalists. The already heady atmosphere gained new heights and, cheered on by 7,500 spectators, the field was whittled down via a series of head-to-heads to a final race against the clock in both categories. In the women’s Julija Kruder (Slovenia) topped out in 46 seconds just edging out Quinn Mason (USA) in their head-to-head with Louise Flockhart (UK) taking third place in 59 seconds. For the men’s category, American Nathaniel Coleman took the glory in just 38 seconds ahead of Slovenian Jernej Kruder (48 seconds) and the UK climber, Sam Butterworth (60 seconds).

The packed crowds were certainly entertained at this festival with a diverse mix of climbers and non-climbers all recounting positive experiences. Hopefully, The North Face will build on this success and the fun will continue next year. After all, they know how to put on a show.