Climbing · Worth knowing

Kazuki Nakata from Japan won the U17 Men's lead climbing competition at the World Climbing Youth Championship in Arco 2026, with a score of 1.87. Taketo Saiki (Japan, 2.65) finished second and Haku Ishida (Japan, 3.54) took third place. The results show Japanese climbers dominated the top positions, with strong performances also from South Korean athletes Zerun Much (4.77) and Hayool Lee (5.29) placing fourth and fifth respectively.

chanjin JUNG from South Korea won the World Climbing Youth Championship in Arco 2026 with a score of 124.7, followed by sebastian DURAND from the USA in second place (124.3) and linus QVARNSTRÖM from Sweden in third place (109.9). The competition featured athletes from over 50 countries competing across various climbing disciplines, with top finishers including lucas TRANDAFIR from Germany and jihoo LEE from South Korea rounding out the top five positions.

Connor Herson completed the first ascent of Drifter's Escape (9a+) in Squamish, a 20-meter crack that took approximately 20 sessions over two seasons to send. The route features primarily 8a crack climbing with 8A boulder cruxes and is protected mainly with small cams (0.2 or smaller), making it the fifth pitch of an old aid route with two existing bolts. Herson, who made his first 8a headline in 2018 at age 14 with an 8c+ ascent and has since sent multiple 8c+ trad routes including Empath, emphasized the ascent was a personal project on incredible rock rather than a claim to a particular style, noting he balanced the climbing challenge while starting college with intentions to maintain both academics and climbing pursuits.