Crack Fest is fast becoming one of the most unique events on the climbing calendar, welcoming crack-heads from across the world to the UK's climbing capital; Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

2024 was the fourth edition of the brainchild of the Wide Boyz (Pete Whittaker & Tom Randall), which brings the traditional style of crack climbing into the modern world of indoor climbing in a manner considered Widely weird and wonderful.

Since its inception in 2020, Crack Fest has grown from 150 participants to 500, with 2024's event selling out in under thirteen minutes - a feat usually reserved for the Taylor Swift music concerts of the world!

The comp is a familiar scramble format, with twenty-five crack-themed boulders adorning the walls of Depot Sheffield for participants to get their fists, elbows, knees and toes torqued into. There are also five bonus challenges, where the weird and wacky crack style gets turbocharged, and lucky winners can receive exclusive prizes from a host of big-name sponsors.

A more recent addition involves challenge throwdowns (think 8 Mile Rap Battles for Crack Climbers...) with the Wide Boyz themselves, with competitors able to test their skills against Pete & Tom for the chance to win cold hard cash. Video highlights of these challenges from the 2023 edition of Crack Fest can be viewed on the Wide Boyz Instagram page.

Outside the cracks, what is it that makes Crack Fest so unique? Unlike common climbing competitions, the emphasis is even more on participation over winning, with competitors actively encouraging and helping each other in this weird and wacky world of crack. Camaraderie is familiar in climbing, but Crack Fest takes it to another level.

---

And so on Saturday the 23rd of March, 2024, competitors descended upon Sheffield from across the world, locally from the UK, as well as from Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic, and as far away as Australia, to sacrifice blood, sweat, and skin to vie for the ultimate prize - an eye-wateringly large gold fist trophy to be given pride of place in the winner's home until the time comes to defend the crown.

A buzz of excitement followed the opening of the doors as the morning session of 250 competitors filed in, overseen by the aforementioned giant gold fists of glory, hastily pulling on their eye-catching pink event tees and grimacing their way into their box fresh Wide Boyz crack gloves or home-made tape gloves.

The main talking point of the morning session was German participant Henry Block, who dominated the Unparallel shoe-sponsored Crack Machine challenge - a traverse along a crack system for as many repetitions as possible - by casually jamming their way through lap after lap of this challenge for almost half an hour! Even more impressive was when they were able to order, receive, and drink a cappuccino mid-lap without breaking a sweat! A feat even Pete and Tom would likely be envious of!

Other special challenges involved a stacked fist dead hang, a squeeze box test of endurance, an arm bar hang, and a classic of Crack Fest, a gear placing challenge on jams. All challenges included not just an effort to add to their scores for the day, but to win some of the Wide Boyz own money, with cash prizes incentivising competitors to directly challenge the Wide Boyz to see who could perform better - the seasoned pros or the passionate fans.

There was £80 up for grabs for each challenge if the competitors could beat the Wide Boyz, as well as the potential of more, as for each challenge won by a Wide Boy, the cash prize rolled over to double the winnings on the next one. These challenges were highly popular, with large crowds gathering, and can be watched via highlights on the Wide Boyz Instagram page.

Depot Climbing headsetter Andrew Cherry explained that when it comes to creating a crack circuit, it's not as straightforward to create a set for all abilities, because hand size can greatly affect the perceived difficulty level. Crack-themed boulders for the day ranged from V1 to V8, ensuring that there were climbs for all abilities, as Crack Fest attracts not just the crack specialist, but the aspiring jammer too.

Often the competition of the dark horse, rarely seeing established competition climbers dominating the scores, Crack Fest 2024 was no different! High-scoring competitors flashed up to twenty-three of the twenty-five qualifying boulders, some of whom were new to the crack climbing world, like Bittor Esparta who not only casually dispatched almost all of the qualifying boulders, but put in an impressive performance in finals too. Bittor told us of how his crack climbing experience to date was limited to top roping the two crack climbs he could find in Spain, and then coming to Sheffield to see what would happen; an impressive feat!

The afternoon session saw 250 fresh pairs of knuckles arrive raring to go, including two eventual finalists, Gordo Weight and Will Rupp, who both posted impressive scores of 241 and 234 out of 250 respectively.

Those newer to the world of crack had an opportunity to broaden their skills by taking part in one of six Crack Schools throughout the day, hosted by expert Wide Boyz Pete & Tom, with the help of instructors Mari Salvesen (2020 Crack Queen) and local Sheffield legend Katherine Schirrmacher.

Having grappled through twenty-five boulders and five special challenges, exhausted competitors retreated to the cafe to refuel on pizza while the Depot Climbing setting team worked their magic to quickly strip qualifying boulders from the competition wall and put up the pre-set finals spectacular.

Each year, the previous King & Queen are invited back to defend their crowns, however, the reigning King Ryan Gilbert was robbed of the opportunity to become a three-time champion having picked up an injury in the previous weekend's CWIF event across town at the Climbing Works. It was time for a new Crack King, but could last year's Queen Lucy Hammond follow in the footsteps of the previous Queen Melanie Talbot and retain her crown?

In previous years the final had involved a mirrored race up crack systems in a first-past-the-post race to the top, but 2024 saw a switch up to a more traditional challenge. Finalists vying for the crown were required to not only see how far they could traverse a wall of cracks in varying stages of difficulty, but to place a 'Hi, My Name is...' sticker at their chosen farthest point, adding in the jeopardy of being able to rest on a jam.

This final feat of jamming technique started with a V3 crack system, leading up the V grades to end in moves in the V8+ region; stiff even for the seasoned fist-jamming veteran! But every finalist put on a good show and kept the crowd roaring encouragement as they watched the double jeopardy of having to climb further than the rest, whilst keeping back some energy to put their sticker on the wall.

Drama came in the form of Crack Fest debutant Lobke Schutte, who was called up to take part in the finals from the crowd of spectators after a late dropout, and Kirsty Mcghie-Fraser, whose victory came out of left field. After having made the least progress on attempt number one, Kirsty traversed a full crack system to around V5/6, further than any of the other five women in the final to take the crown (and the fist!) of Crack Queen 2024.

Meanwhile in the men's category, having been hurriedly awoken from a nap in his van in the Depot Sheffield car park as the other finalists taped and gloved up, with sleep still in his eyes, Will Rupp pulled on. With sloth-like consistency (and style) he traversed along and got his sticker as far as the V8+ ending section of the route, managing around thirty centimetres further than the nearest competitor.

A special mention should go to fifteen-year-old Dylan Heason who not only made the finals but pushed the other competitors to the limit. It is surely just a matter of time until Dylan takes home the coveted fist of champions.

Crack Fest will return in 2025, but what can potential competitors expect next time? It's a little too soon to say, but what can be guaranteed, is that crack is well and truly back.

---

Event sponsors: Wild Country, Friction Labs, Unparallel and Crag Swag Gifts were in attendance with stands and stalls highlighting the latest equipment in climbing, from chalk and shoes to gear and apparel.

Wide Boyz & Depot Climbing would also like to extend their thanks and gratitude to the following brands who helped make this event possible: Beta Climbing, Kong Climbing, Squeeze, Ba Rocka, Dark Ventures, The Climbing Works, Unparallel UK, Wild Country, Sterling Rope, Scarpa UK, Friction Labs, Rhino Skin Solutions, Black Diamond.

Full qualifying results can be found on the Depot Climbing Crack Fest webpage.