Competitions: how bouldering comps work

Bouldering competitions look chaotic from the outside: dozens of people milling around a wall, score cards in hand, chalk in the air. Underneath there is usually a simple structure. Climbers get a set of problems, a time window and a way of recording what they climbed, and a scoring system turns that into a ranking.

This section explains those structures in general terms. We cover how comps are scored, from grade points and Fibonacci-style tables to the tops-and-zones systems used at the top level, plus formats, categories and how to prepare for a first event.

We are not an event organiser, and nothing here is the official rule book for any series. Rules change from season to season and from event to event. If you want to enter a competition, check the organisers' site. For the national indoor bouldering series that is the official series site, and the national federation, Climbing New Zealand, lists sport climbing competitions and pathways.