This is the earlier analysis, built on the dynamic Bradley-Terry model. The current competition bouldering rankings, grades and forecasts now live under Competition Bouldering.

This page provides links to our analyses of competition climbing, including data science-based grades and rankings for competition boulder problems, and competition boulderers. We have analysed the last 19 years (2008–2026) of IFSC bouldering competitions to find out which climbers are the best, and which boulder problems have been the hardest.

World Climbing Series Bern

Sorato Anraku won the men's in Bern on May 22, his second World Climbing Series gold of the year, after Dohyun Lee and Tomoa Narasaki both went out in the semi-final. With Janja Garnbret not starting, Oceania Mackenzie took the women's for her first World Climbing Series title, ahead of Erin McNeice and Annie Sanders.

With the Europe Series stops in Kaunas and Liptovský Mikuláš now both in the fit, the categorical event-tier model has settled. The men's Europe Series route-grade offset has resolved firmly negative, about 249 ELO below a World Cup route, with its 95% credible interval now clear of zero; the women's offset is about 147 ELO.

Read the Bern report →

Ranking of competition boulderers

Ranking boulder problems

Elos and ratings

Elos and ratings are alternative representations of the ability of the climbers (and difficulty of the routes). The elo represents the ability of a climber to reach the top (and zones) of a competition boulder. This page shows how to convert from one to the other.