Tons of steel, piles of holds. The wall for the World Cup at Letná is taking shape

A roofed podium with a body wall on which the racing lines will be created, a pre-assembled tribune for five hundred seated spectators, facilities for competitors and the public. He’s getting all of that these days at the Summer Final Contours.

The key element – the wall – must be ready by Sunday, so that six professional installers can pounce on it, giving the racing scene its final shape.

“Dozens of trucks brought the material to the site, we have to hand the wall over to the builders on May 28, so they can fine-tune their ideas about the shape of the lines within five days. It happens that the setter builds a path all day and in the evening finds that it is unusable. Night shifts are no exception,” SP project manager Jiří Fousek says with a smile.

Builders transfer their imaginations to a wall with a width of twenty and a height of 4.5 meters, the maximum slope according to the rules is 40 degrees with an overhang of 3.5 meters. They then have around fifteen hundred holds at their disposal. “Part of the grips were supplied by the international federation and some were purchased for roughly two million crowns,” explains Fousek.

What kind of “boulder problems” will the team of setters come up with for the competitors? they will lose as part of teamwork,” said Adam Ondra, the biggest Czech hope for the Prague race.

At the same time, the Czech No. 1 personally participated in the creation of the wall. “I messed up a bit. Of course, I won’t influence what roads the builders end up building. But in the future, the wall will be used for other competitions in the Czech Republic, and I gave feedback to make it as variable and interesting as possible and to be able to serve for many years to come,” explained the three-time world champion in difficulty climbing, whose collection also includes the title from of bouldering from 2014.

The Prague stop of the Bouldering World Cup will start with qualifications on Friday, June 2. Saturday is reserved for the men’s semi-finals and final, and on Sunday the women will fight for the original trophy. Tickets are still on sale until May 28 at cheaper prices.