Big results from World Vertical Week 22

After the fall edition of World Vertical Week 2021, we were wowed by a 43% jump in participation, but now we are blown away again because we’ve had a 79% participation increase in this edition of World Vertical Week. That means there’s been a 155% increase over the last year. What’s going on people? Can’t get enough of those hills?

As we do after every edition of World Vertical Week, we have collected the data, drilled down into it, and looked at who climbed the most and what sports gained the most meters. Read on for the results!

Participation

This edition, 125,000 people participated. That’s up from 70,000 in the 2021 fall edition, and up from 49,000 in the 2021 spring edition. We’re really impressed by this and wonder if the big increase is because, post-pandemic, races are happening again and more of us have signed up and want to get back into focused training.

Big performances

We discovered 86 people in the Suunto community climbed more than 10,000 m of ascent over the week. That’s up from 59 in fall 2021, and only nine in spring 2022. Well done you hardcore vert chasers!

There were 301 activities recorded that involved more than 3,500 m of ascent. Those are big days out - nice work! During the 2021 fall edition there were only 218, and only 89 in spring 2021. The only way is up!

For activities with more than 2000 m of ascent there were 1,183 activities recorded and 7,287 activities recorded that involved more than 1000 m of ascent.

Number of activities with more than 1000 m of ascent by activity

Ski touring: 2197 (30%)
Trail running: 1993 (27%)
Cycling: 767 (11%)
Running: 682 (9%)

Number of activities with over 2000m of ascent by activity

Trail running: 354
Ski touring: 290
Running: 167
Cycling: 134

Austria remains on the throne

Once again the alpine nation has come out on top for the highest average ascent per country. This time it’s average was slightly lower than previous edition, but still neck and shoulders above second place winner, Italy. Austria has held first place in this category for six of the last seven editions. It only lost its crown in 2019, falling to fifth place. It also deserves kudos for coming in the top five of five other categories!

Go Italy!

Italy deserves some love for coming in second place in seven different categories, including the highest average and total ascents per country. Ski touring, mountaineering, trail running, mountain biking, hiking and cycling - Italy recorded the second highest average ascent per country for all of these sports. Mama mia!

Average ascent per country

Total ascent per country

1. Spain
2. Italy
3. France
4. Austria

Average ascent by activity type

Top 5 nations in different activity types

Ski touring

The average ascent for all countries was 916 m.

1. Switzerland, 1102 m
2. Italy, 1015 m
3. France, 1003 m
4. Austria, 955 m
5. Germany, 950 m

Mountaineering

The average ascent for all countries was 645 m.

1. Austria, 839 m
2. Italy, 753 m
3. Germany, 734 m
4. Poland, 714 m
5. Japan, 676 m

Trail running

The average ascent for all countries was 437 m.

1. Japan, 978 m
2. Italy, 664 m
3. Portugal, 617 m
4. Malaysia, 590 m
5. Slovenia, 558 m

Mountain biking

The average ascent for all countries was 359 m.

1. Switzerland, 523,5 m
2. Italy, 523,1 m
3. Slovenia, 487 m
4. Austria, 476 m
5. Spain, 454 m

Hiking

The average ascent for all countries was 225 m.

1. Malaysia, 457 m
2. Italy, 434 m
3. Slovakia, 418 m
4. Croatia, 412 m
5. Japan, 382 m

Nordic skiing

The average ascent for all countries was 185 m.

1. Slovenia, 410 m
2. Czech Republic, 369 m
3. Austria, 291 m
4. Poland, 282 m
5. Germany, 264 m

Cycling

The average ascent for all countries was 181 m.

1. Spain, 406 m
2. Italy, 373 m
3. Portugal, 309 m
4. Switzerland, 276 m
5. Slovenia, 269 m

Running

The average ascent for all countries was 95 m.

1. Bulgaria, 202 m
2. Ireland, 180 m
3. New Zealand, 168 m
4. Switzerland, 154 m
5. Chile, 149 m

Lead image: © Philipp Reiter