GoPro Mountain Games’ speed climbing pro-am turns out to be more competitive than main event

When speed climbing was added to the GoPro Mountain Games calendar of events in 2025, a North American Cup competition was slated to be the premier event, with the “NorAm,” as it’s known, representing just one level of competition lower than the top-tier World Cup.

Another speed climbing event that organizers added, called the Speed Showdown, gave the speed climbers another opportunity to claim prizes at the Mountain Games, but it wasn’t intended to be as competitive, encouraging amateurs to compete alongside the pros.

But when the No. 1-seeded Zach Hammer fell off the wall and was eliminated during the early rounds of competition at the NorAm, suddenly the Speed Showdown became the event to watch, with Hammer poised to be one of the only athletes who can climb the 45-foot wall in less than 5 seconds.

And in the women’s competition, another interesting turn of events made the Speed Showdown more competitive than the North American Cup, as well, as 14-year-old Evie Albrecht entered the competition looking for a win. Albrecht is not allowed to compete on the North American Cup due to her age (competitors must be 16 to compete at the North American Cup), but she has all the skills to beat out her older colleagues.

So when Speed Showdown made its way down to its final runs on Sunday afternoon at Golden Peak, fans were treated to an even more competitive event than the previous day’s NorAm competition, as Albrecht and Hammer were both in the running for a win.

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Albrecht said it was the most competitive event of her life up to that point.

“This is the only time I can really compete,” she said. “For everyone else, it was just meant to be a for-fun comp, but I’m not old enough to compete in the (NorAm events), so I take this one more seriously.”

The competition at the Mountain Games may have been even more intense than a standard NorAm, Hammer said, because there was a World Cup speed climbing event in Denver the week before, so many of those athletes stuck around to compete in Vail.

“We have international athletes here — Eric Noya from Spain, Junwoo Lee from Korea and Leander Carmanns from Germany — and they are all really fast, World Cup-eligible athletes, so that pushed it to another level,” Hammer said.

Even though Sunday’s Speed Showdown wasn’t intended to be more competitive than the NorAm, “we have a ton of athletes here who are super high-level, so any comp we do, we’re going to give 100% to the wall,” Hammer said.

When the dust settled, Hammer’s fastest climb on the day came right where it was supposed to be, in finals, when he scaled the wall in 4.81 seconds, a new record for that particular wall.

Albrecht’s fastest time also came during finals, a 6.85.

Hammer said after competing in the Mountain Games bouldering competitions years ago, he was especially excited to return this year with speed climbing, his main discipline, now an event.

“I haven’t been to the GoPro Games in two years and being back, the atmosphere was electric,” he said. “Being in Vail this time of year, you just can’t beat it.”