One weekend in the cold, dark depths of January, the world’s best ice climbers make their annual pilgrimage to Saas Fee to fight for the title of a World Cup champion. But their north star isn’t the ring of 4,000m peaks which encircle this cute Swiss mountain resort, nor the impeccable multi-pitch ice in the nearby gorge. For them, the treasure lies deeper underground. It’s a chance to try arm power, wicked-looking ice axes and razor-sharp crampon points against an ephemeral overhanging obstacle course. And, then, party in car park.

Cute. Cool skiing. Car free. Saas Fee has it all. This is a buzzy mountain town - blending shabby-chic wooden chalets with minimalist modern hotels – and its cobbled streets are limited to the sounds of small electric carts, teetering skiers and gentle apres-ski wobbles. All other transport stops at the busterminal, where a spiralling concrete car park guards the entrance to the town, twisting down 10 levels. It quietly does its job for most of the year, but on this one weekend things go off the hook.

From the peace of ground level, head to the lifts, stab – 9 with your gloved finger, and you’ll step out into a different dimension. A parallel universe of pulsating euro-trance, power screams from athletes, raining ice tools and an energetic crowd fuelled, as far as I could discover, purely by glühwein, Helles beers and fondue hot dogs.  

The car park levels car park swirl around a central core, out of which sprouts a metal structure straight out of a Mad Max fantasy: the Ice Dome. This wildly overhanging mix of climbing wall panels and swinging obstacles is permanent, but the annual routesetting for the World Cup takes 45 tonnes of ice and a snow cannon. Push through the spectators lining the balconies of the levels, and you’ll get a birds eye view of the action - close enough to see the whites of the competitors’ eyes.

“The special thing about Saas Fee is you can see the climbers climb right past you. On finals night there’s a fantastic atmosphere as 4,000 people fill every level of the parking garage shouting for their favourite athletes,” explained Rob Adie, UIAA competitions manager.

Competitive ice climbing started in the mid-90s. The UIAA World Cup Tour started in 2002 and Rob has been organising ice climbing competitions for six seasons. Now it’s really starting to take off and attracts top athletes from other climbing disciplines, such as the incredibly named Swiss athlete and world number one Petra Klinger. She was Boulder World Champion in 2016 before switching to over to dominate the ice climbing circuit.

Over the three-day event, nearly 200 athletes from 20 different counties compete in lead difficulty and speed ice climbing. It takes a very special type of person to enjoy crimping up an overhang, 20 metres above the floor with a razor-sharp ice tool in their mouth. These ice warriors shared the same spirit – whether world number ones like Petra or the French leader Louna Ladevant or grassroots climbers just excited to be there.

There are now ambitious goals for the sport of ice climbing, explained Rob: “The development in the World Cup tour over the last few seasons has been huge and the athletes are really pushing development forward with their motivation. One of the main goals is developing ice climbing to a point that it can become part of the winter Olympic family but this is heavily dependent on who the hosts are for the 2030 games and beyond.”

The Saas Fee competition has been running for 23 years, but it hasn’t always looked so sophisticated. Local mountain guide Michel Schwartl was the first to sense the possibility of using the ice which crystallised around the car park each winter. “We were just looking for a place for some climbing,” he explained “Then someone suggested an old wall next to the parking building. It had ice coming out, we thought that was cool. Then we had a crazy idea, could we hold a competition here? I went to the local government and asked if we can use the space inside. I never thought they give us the space, but they said yes. I can remember the first year, we had no idea how many spectators would turn up. We ran out of beer, we had to go round local bars and beg them for more.”

There’s no danger of running out of beer these days. The closing party is more legendary than the competition itself. Popular with both athletes and local party animals, it’s true scene from the underworld: as beats thump and ice-cold bottled lagers are downed, the ice athletes throw themselves along climbing holds bolted to the concrete ceiling. “If they make it to the DJ booth then they win free beer,” grins Rob. Not many make it.

The next morning, Michel introduced us to something more peaceful but still pulse-raising: the Fee Schlucht via ferrata. This is a new-style via ferrata that takes you down the Fee Schlucht, off the old path up to Saas Fee. Constructed by local guides, this is a king of via ferratas. It starts off with attitude: with a heart-in-mouth tyrolean and then never loosens its grip. Suspension bridge follows suspension bridge and ever-escalating tyroleans and rope swings throw you around the gorge and into caves, before a final metal ladder leads to flat ground and a chance to breath. Because of the complexities of the route, you need to book it through the guides’ office in Saas Fee, however it is one of the very best gorge ferratas of its type, and accessible year-round.

To slow things down, the next day we headed to the Simplon Pass for a snowshoe tour. This snow-sure snow-shoeing (try saying that after après beers) is less dependent on the forces of gravity, and a chance to inhale some quiet air. At 2,000m there is usually snow here and plenty of itineraries explore the plateau around the pass. If you’re feeling keen, you can snap on your touring skis and ski over the mountains back to Saas Fee in eight hours, but most people come here to mix up the gentle trails with a rosti lunch at nearby restaurant Monte Leone.

Heading back into Saas Fee, the ice circus had moved on for another year, leaving the cobbled streets for the skiers. Nine 4,000m peaks ring the town – the highest concentration of high mountains in Switzerland. This terrain means that this is one of Europe’s most snow-sure resorts, with the majority of the skiing between 2,500m and 3,500m. A smooth lift system gives easy access to the top station of Mittelallalin (3,500m) and a thigh-burning ski down of nearly 2,000m if the snow allows. Clipping into our skis, it was time for our final trip down into Saas Fee – a town where the action never stops.

Find out more about UIAA Ice Climbing at https://iceclimbing.sport/

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