He won the ’98 European Championship, onsighted over 30 E7’s and ticked an 8c in 2 hours. But what’s Ian Vickers up to now? Gareth Parry takes a look.

It’s now 2003 and we’re sitting in Ian’s latest venture BoulderUK, looking back at his achievements. The 1998 European Championship win was the culmination of a promising competition climbing career, in eight years Ian won four British Leading Championship titles, a British Bouldering title and an X-Games title.

Ian began climbing at the age of 12 and his earliest climbing memories involved trips to the Lancashire quarries with his long time climbing companion Dave Cronshaw. “In those days there were still lots of new routes to be done in the quarries and Dave always had a new line up his sleeve,” says Ian. This early involvement with local exploration and having such a good teacher as Dave led to a rapid rise in Ian’s ability through the traditional grades.

Rather than a climbing wall background, Ian worked his way methodically through the grades, feeling it was key to be fully competent within a grade before moving on. Ticking his first E6 Piranha at just 15. Hundreds of E4, E5 and E6’s later at 17 it was time to try sport, very quickly flashing Main Overhang, a Kilnsey 7c+ that is still rarely flashed even now. Ian’s ability as an all round climber became legendary, onsighting over 30 E7’s, hundreds of 8a’s, numerous 8a+’s, and even 8b.
His fitness at the time of the European title win was astonishing, mainly from an intense drive to train, and he’d devised a punishing schedule.

A quick warm up on his loft board would be followed by a mornings traversing at Craig-y-Longridge, where up to three consecutive no rest ascents of the 8b+ traverse was enough for anybody! In the afternoon it was either crimpy problems at the Old Blackburn YMCA wall, off to the Broughton board for some 8c circuits, or if the weather was good Kilnsey.

This was a popular time at Kilnsey and as most routes had clips in, he could go from one end of the crag to the other constantly repeating the 8a’s and 8a+’s he’d climbed before. And although rarely into redpointing, he turned his hand quite successfully to it and ticked Tony Mitchell’s 8c True North in an astonishing two hours, stunning everyone at the crag. Graham Desroy was there that day and recalls the ascent; “Ian was as fit as a butchers dog at the time. He was obviously focused and knew what he wanted. Two short sessions to work the moves led to a very impressive first redpoint ascent. In typical Vickers style he hadn’t worked the top easy bit into Urgent Action and thinking the clips were in set off. As he pulled through onto the slab it dawned on him the last two clips were missing. A quick down climb to remove the last clip and move it higher completed the most impressive ascent I have ever seen”.

During the last few years Ian has continued focusing on climbing hard in good style, but as far as earning money competitions were never going to be a way forward. Nowadays the life as a pro climber is quite different, and support from his sponsors Boreal, Entre-prises and The North Face are combined with route setting and his new venture BoulderUK. Generally recognised as the UK’s best route setter. Ian is usually the man with the inspiration to constantly churn out exciting comp problems and interesting wall routes all over the country. An internationally qualified route setter, he has yet again been chosen to test the routes and boulder problems at the UIAA-ICC World Championships in Chamonix.

After five months of work Ian’s new venture BoulderUK is also now open. The Blackburn based bouldering facility built to Ian’s design is rapidly gaining a reputation for how a modern climbing facility should be run. “The climbing wall is the completion of a dream. Support from The North Face, Entre-prises and Snow+Rock.com has allowed us to provide what climbers really want. We can run a facility that is purely focused on providing good regularly changed problems for climbers who want to improve and are the only wall in the country who have professional climbers on hand to offer help and advice.”

Looking forward Ian will still be seen out on the crags of the UK and Europe continuing with the impressive ascents for which he is known, but at last he will have an outlet through which he can pass on his ability to the next generation.

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