Press Release:
Beginning September 1, 2015 USA Climbing’s Regional and Divisional structure will be reformatted and their geographic boundaries redrawn, which is reflected in the map below. The new boundaries are broken down such that the US will be composed of 8 Divisions and 16 Regions. Region 101 and 102 will make up Division 1, Region 201 and 202 will make up Division 2, Region 801 and Region 802 will make up Division 8, etc. The new Regional and Divisional structure will also affect the number of invitations given to youth competitors moving from one Championship event to the next.
Why a regional realignment is necessary
In the United States, the sport of competition climbing is growing and evolving rapidly and we need
to keep up with the increasing demand. Due to this growth, we are currently experiencing an unequal distribution of competitors within Regions and Divisions across the country.
Additionally, the realignment will ensure that the number of competitors at championship events across the country will be more balanced, allowing for tighter distributions at both the Regional and Divisional level.
Over the next three years, USA Climbing will be closely monitoring the further growth of our
membership and championship participation rates in order to restructure again, if necessary.
The new structure will also allow the vast majority of our competitors to enjoy an 8-hour (or less)
drive time to all competitions within their Region.
Invitations to USA Climbing Championship events
The top ten (10) competitors in each gender/category will receive an invitation from Youth Regional
Championships to Youth Divisional Championships.
The top six (6) competitors in each gender/category will receive an invitation from Youth Divisional
Championships to Youth National Championships.
We estimate that this will increase the total number of Youth National Championship competitors by approximately 37%, and we are ready to accommodate this increase in numbers at our National
Championship events.
*Special cases, including National Champions, Continental Champions, World Champions and Foreign
Nationals will add additional invitations to their respective categories.
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