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There are three main types of climbing competition.

  • Difficulty: competitors climb the same route one after the other. The winner is the one who reaches the highest point on the climb; if several competitors reach the top (or the same high point) the time taken may be used to determine the winner. Alternatively, some difficulty competitions involve a number of routes. Each route is assigned a point value based on difficulty. Competitors climb as many routes as they want, and their score is derived from their top few completed routes (with the exact number of routes differing between competitions). If a tie-breaker is needed, the numbers of "falls" (attempts) is counted. Some competitions limit the number of attempts, others do not.


  • Speed: on two identical routes, competitors race each other to the top. The first to reach the top wins.


  • Bouldering: Competitors work through a series of boulder problems on either a time limit, or an attempt limit for each problem. Points are awarded for completing each problem. In a tie-break situation or where limited attempts are allowed then points are awarded for the fewest number of attempts required to complete the problem. Bouldering competitions at higher levels usually have '' Isolation '' to ensure that the competitors cannot see the problems before climbing them.


Sometimes climbers must climb the route '' On Sight ''. This means that they are not allowed to see other climbers on the route, or receive any form of advice (beta) from other climbers, and have only a limited amount of time to visually inspect the route from ground level. (Otherwise later climbers would be able to learn from previous competitors' mistakes, giving them a considerable advantage.)

In addition to competitions, festivals such as the Phoenix Boulder Blast and the International Climbing Festival (held in Lander, Wyoming ) are a gathering place for rock climbers from around the world. They feature trade shows for climbing specific merchandise, clinics from world-renowned climbers, and parties.

There can be open competitive climbing or youth climbing.
Youth climbing is competitions for children under 18 years of age. These competitions are separated into category's such as 11 and under, 12-13, 14-15, etc. Competitions can be held anywhere across the country, for that reason, competitions are divided into divisions. There are five divisions. In the end, there is a national competition that invites the top 5 climbers from each division to compete. There are about 20 girls and 20 boys invited to compete in national competitions. There are two sections to these competitions, the preliminaries and the finals. Only the top ten people competing can make it into finals. For girls in 2004, Maddy Grupper placed 13th so she did not get invited to compete in nationals whereas hhasha Dej placed 3ed and got invited to compete in finals. At the end of the final round, the top three winners of every age category would be invited to compete in international competitions.