2023-08-08 05:58:36
The Climbing World Championships currently taking place in Bern attract a large audience. It must be said that the practice has evolved enormously in 20 years, going from a niche sport to a popular leisure activity, and from a mountain sport to an urban leisure activity.
There is a rush at the Postfinance Arena in Bern to attend the Climbing World Championships which opened last week and which will last until Saturday. At each final phase, some 10,000 spectators attend the competitions.
After 1995 and 2001, Switzerland is hosting this increasingly popular event for the third time. Still unthinkable ten years ago, the general public is now ready to shell out money for a ticket, as they do to see an ice hockey or football match.
4.4% of the population practice rock climbing
It must be said that climbing enthusiasts are always more numerous in Switzerland. According to the latest federal statistics, 4.4% of the population practice this discipline, more than snowboarding or tennis.
An Italian competitor at the Climbing World Cup, August 6, 2023 in Bern. [Anthony Anex – Keystone]As proof of this enthusiasm, the number of climbing rooms has exploded in Switzerland, since the first of its kind opened in French-speaking Switzerland in 2005 in Bulle. There are now about thirty of them.
Daniel Rebetez, manager of a network of venues and member of the organizing committee of the World Championships in Bern, confirms this real boom in La Matinale.
“We opened our first climbing center in 2011. We immediately had very good attendance, but there were still people from the area who practiced in the mountains. And what we’ve seen in the last ten years is that there is really a growth at the public level, particularly in the bouldering room.”
The great simplicity of this sport explains, according to him, its enthusiasm. “In downtown Lausanne, for example, we have an infrastructure that works very well, with a lot of people who come to practice almost urban climbing. We just need a pair of climbing shoes and chalk on hands, there are not many rules. This ease makes this sport accessible to everyone.” To meet this demand and further develop the practice, it will be necessary, according to him, to consider the opening of new rooms in the future.
It should be noted that new infrastructures are already under construction, such as in Bienne where a room reserved for the national team will open in 2025.
Too many rooms?
A person on the climbing wall of the Halles sportvies de Beaulieu, in Lausanne. [Keystone – Jean-Christophe Bott)]In some areas, on the contrary, we deplore too many climbing rooms, so that some regions would be at saturation point. At least that is what the head of the “Cube” at Mont-sur-Lausanne notes.
“In the Lake Geneva region, we are reaching saturation point. We have felt a big difference since the opening of a room right next to us. Gradually, since January, people have not subscribed again” , underlines Laurent Grandjean, who had to carry out layoffs. According to him, to regain its attendance, it will be necessary to do more than rely on the climbing boom: take care of the reception of customers and not be satisfied with “a turnstile at the entrance”.
Julie Rausis/fgn
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