Pavel Shabalin, former president of the UIAA Ice Climbing Commission who is in charge of the project to showcase ice climbing at the Sochi Winter Olympics sent us this exuberant video of the Olympic torch rally in Kirov, Russia. The video culminates with a demonstration of ice climbing on an artificial wall.
Olympic Torch rally in Kirov culminates with lighting of flame by Pavel Shabilin Kirov, where ice climbing is popular and is the hometown of Maxim and Alexey Tomilov, used to the last stop in the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup before the venue was moved to Ufa, Russia this year.
Shabalin was given the privilege of lighting the Olympic torch in Theatre Square in Kirov, Russia, where he described how the Russian team would represent ice climbing at Olympic Park in Sochi, and the hope that ice climbing would become an Olympic sport in the not too distant future.
The ceremonies included a demonstration of ice climbing on an artificial ice wall.
