Originally built to house 110 horses as the 5th Duke of Devonshire's stables the venue boasts a 44.2m diameter dome, surpassing the Pantheon, St Peter's Basilica and St Paul's Cathedral. For the University of Derby sponsored Thunderdome event the 44.2m dome played host to both the dry tooling route and a nerve tingling slackline high above an expectant audience. After several days of installation and set-up the competition itself kicked off on the Saturday morning as it reduced a competitive field to 5 men and 4 women battling for the individual titles.
The route started up one of the 22 curved steel ribs before heading out onto a series of 6 giant wooden cubes slung from the underside of the beams; a start that proved so difficult that plans for a "free for all" public access on the Sunday had to be be pulled. Once onto the blocks the athletes traversed the route using pre-installed holds and polystyrene sheets for their axes whilst kicking into the wooden cubes with their cramponed shoes, clipping the rope into a series of carabiners as they progressed. With just 5 minutes per athlete the competition to qualify for the evening finals was tight, and while one climber stood out from the start behind the leader the margins between competitors were minute.
Slacklining the 44m diameter dome
By 6pm the field had been reduced to a mix of GB Ice Climbing Team members, Dutch ice stars, paraclimbers and international icon Tim Emmett with an extended 8 minute slot for each competitor making the 8pm finals. For the uninitiated, competition ice climbing indoors and "dry tooling" are pretty much interchangeable names for the same thing. While weather and ice formation can be unpredictable outdoors, even at the Alpine venues, the indoor facilities combine artificial blocks and holds that not only guarantee competitions can take place but also ensure a relatively level playing field with consistency of conditions for every athlete. Resembling traditional Scottish mixed climbing the athletes hook their axes onto manufactured holds placed strategically on the blocks and kick front points on their specialised boots into hardboard panels to progress upwards. As they climb higher the athletes clip their rope into a series of sling mounted carabiners, serving not only as protection from a big fall but also providing an instant reference point for comparing one against another; the more clips made the higher up the rankings you go.
Emma Powell in qualifying at the Thunderdome
With an extra 3 minutes per athlete in the final on an unchanged route the competition was fierce, but with the athletes competing in reverse ranking order from qualifying the best was saved for last with international ice star Tim Emmett making the final clip on the top block with a minute to spare. Second spot in the Men's competition went to Dennis Van Hoek with paraclimber Dave "Flash" Bowes putting in a remarkable performance to come fourth behind Emmett Van Hoek and rising GB Team climber Harry Holmes. In the women's competition Anna Wells claimed top spot despite strong competition from Dutch star Marianne van der Steen and GB Team members Emma Powell and Katy Forrester.
Tim Emmett makes the final clip on the final block
2nd place went to Dutch climber Dennis Van Hoek
GB Paraclimber Dave "Flash" Bowes claimed a superb 4th spot on debut
Results
Men:
1st Tim Emmett
2nd Dennis Van Hoek
3rd Harry Holmes
4th Dave Bowes
5th Will Woodhead
Women:
1st Anna Wells
2nd Marianne van der Steen
3rd Emma Powell
4th Katy Forrester
Women's winner Anna Wells
Marianne van der Steen took second place
Emma Powell moving between blocks
It may have been Buxton's debut as an ice climbing, or dry tooling, competition butwhat a spectacular debut. As an indoor arena it has everything required of a top World Cup venue and put simply if Saas Fe can host a round of the World Cup then thewhy not Buxton? With its architecture it could have been purpose built, offering accessibility, height and more than enough capacity to hold both the essential infrastructure of a public adress system and camera positions and the capacity for a large audience. Andy Turner and his team, along with Derby University, put in an amazing amount of work to host the competition but what they came up with is a venue to match anything the World Cup circuit has to offer. Hopefully both the BMC and UIAA will look again at the potential for a British round of the WC and Buxton will join the likes of Bozeman, Saas Fe, Rabenstein, Champagny, Cheongsong and Kirov.