A pumping tech-house bassline provided the soundtrack for one of the world’s most exciting new climbing competitions as it touched down in Tottenham Hale.
The crowd went berserk as Manu Cornu, winner of a Climbing World Cup event in 2019, grasped for the final hold – and missed, glory slipping through his chalk-covered fingers.
Welcome to Team Boulder Arena (TBA5), the fifth edition of which added North London and Milan to this year’s competition as part of its international expansion.
The 10 October event in the capital attracted multiple Team GB athletes too, who battled among local amateurs and competitors from around the world for the €2,000 prize and an invite to the season finale in Paris.
The format saw two-person teams of climbers compete throughout the day in fast-paced, four-minute knockout rounds, where if you couldn’t complete a boulder, you were out.
The best teams returned for the finals, a four-wall gauntlet with more traditional competition rules that were equally simple for the observer – climb high, score more.
Louis Parkinson, a successful British climbing influencer with over 350,000 followers across Instagram and YouTube, MC’d the event.
He said: “I’ve never seen that format before.
“Having two people out on the mat so they can buzz off each other’s energy, they give each other beta, they can support each other, they take turns on the climbs, it’s so much more exciting.”
Not one climber completed the final men’s boulder, with Cornu coming closest to the blockbuster finish.
The Frenchman said: “The atmosphere was crazy. It was a good night.
“Especially when you climb like that, when you have a performance like my final.”
Cornu explained the benefits of the format, particularly how partners could identify moves that one might manage but the other could not.
He added: “It’s really easy to share the mat with some friends.”
The popularity of indoor climbing gyms has increased enormously in the UK over the past five years.
Association of British Climbing Walls data from November 2025 showed a majority of climbing gyms which opened since 2021 offered bouldering only.
Parkinson said: “London has some of the highest densities of indoor climbing gyms and everyone is so psyched about it, particularly for the comps.
“I think that’s why we have such a good turnout for this sort of thing.”
With the athletes so close in commercial gyms, professional competitions provide one of the most incredible spectacles of strength and technique, as spectators live every reach and pull on the wall.
But with the increase in popularity of indoor climbing, competition is fierce to get new customers through the doors – especially with monthly membership costs reaching £85 in London.
Oscar Banyard, 28, works for Kletterkalk, a German chalk company which sponsored the event.
He said: “Because there are so many gyms now, they’re having to really fight to keep their relevance and come up with new and interesting events.
“It has spread a competition that is creating some really unique experiences for people.”
The events all take place at Climbing District gyms, a Parisian company which has attached this competition to its brand as it has expanded across Europe.
Katie Brightwell, 28, who is a manager at City Gym in Stratford, believes London’s climbing market is beginning to experience the signs of a slowdown after years of expansion.
She said: “All of a sudden there’s 40 climbing gyms in London and we’ve started to see a downturn where things are closing.
“Growth models bank on growth. When stuff stops growing, they panic.
“People weren’t expecting it to plateau.”
Despite this, business for Climbing District and TBA5 appears to be booming.
And with the push towards team events, the social aspects of climbing are more apparent for all those thinking of taking up the sport.
Martha South, 24, a teacher in Suffolk, travelled to watch the event after the sport was introduced to her at school.
She said: “It’s one of those sports that, growing up, I didn’t really know about.
“When I was younger, you just went out climbing trees or whatever you could find in the park.
“It’s really nice that it’s coming in and being introduced in things like schools.”
There was rapturous applause as an all-French ensemble of men’s and women’s winners collected their prizes atop a slightly wobbly, hastily constructed podium on the crash mats.
With the finals reaching nearly 300,000 views on YouTube, TBA5 created a truly different sporting spectacle and a blueprint for modern climbing gyms to reach new and old climbing fans alike.
All eyes now move to the finale in Paris, as Team Boulder Arena caps off its first year of international expansion on 14 November.
Feature image: Louis Hadley
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