Athletes

Madison Richardson is a Canadian National Team climber and a dedicated advocate for the growth of Climbing Escalade Canada (CEC). Competing internationally since 2016, she has achieved multiple top-10 World Cup finishes and six semi-final appearances. Beyond competition, Madison contributes to the sport as a CEC Board Member. She also co-runs Richardsons Climbing, an educational YouTube channel documenting her training and sharing insights with the climbing community.

Alannah Yip

Based in Vancouver, BC, Alannah started climbing at the age of 6 following in the footsteps of family friend Sean McColl. She competed all through her youth and has been on the World Cup circuit since 2016. She has 70 World Cup starts, 20 semi final appearances, and is the only Canadian female to have made a World Cup final. In 2020 she won the PanAmerican Championships and booked her ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games where she competed in the summer of 2021.

She also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering specializing in Mechatronics from the University of British Columbia. 

IG @alannah_yip
FB @alannahyip

Babette Roy

From Montréal, Québec, Babette started climbing at 7 years old and started competing at 9. Her first World Cup appearance was in 2018. Since then, she has competed in more than ten World Cups and two World Championships. She was the CEC 2022-2023 Boulder National Champion. She has been on the national team since youth C.

IG @babette._.roy

Cedar Pidgeon

Cedar is a 17 year old climber based out of Squamish, BC. From a family of avid climbers, she was introduced to the sport at an early age and has been climbing ever since. Originally starting outdoors, Cedar became the youngest Canadian to boulder v11 at eleven years old. She branched out to explore competitive climbing in 2015, and has since been working towards high performance competitive climbing.

Chloé Earle

Chloe is 23 years old and began climbing at age 7, and started competing locally at age 10. She first made the youth national team in 2015 for lead and competed at her first lead world cup in 2017. After a couple years off training due to injuries, she has had the opportunity to continue to compete on the world cup circuit.

Apart from training and competing, Chloe is also finishing her BA at UBC, and coaches a local youth competitive team, and has had opportunities to set at national level events in Canada

IG @chloe_earle

Erica Velev

Erica started climbing at the age of seven while living in Bulgaria. Initially, it was a once-a-week after-school activity, until the age of nine, when she joined the team and started training more seriously. She spent several years on the Bulgarian national team, competing in all three disciplines. In 2022, Erica joined the Canadian national team and shifted her focus towards speed climbing. She also attended her first senior World Cup. She continues to participate in bouldering competitions, trying to balance her commitment to both disciplines.

IG @ericavelev

Indiana Chapman

Indiana Chapman is a 20-year-old professional climber from Toronto, Canada. She’s been climbing since she was 7, and has been representing Canada on the international stage since she was 13. Finding great success on the Youth Circuit, she placed 4th at the Youth World Championships in 2017 and 2018, and won the Youth Pan American Championships in 2017, along with 10 Youth National titles in Canada. For the past two years, Indiana has competed on the World Cup circuit. This past October of 2023, she placed 8th at the Pan American Games. 

Making the decision to specialize in lead in the upcoming seasons, Indiana is working hard towards the 2028 Olympics. 

When she’s not in the gym, Indi is pursuing her other goal –  finishing an online degree in Psychology at Queen’s University, which is another great passion of hers. 

IG @indiana.chapman

Madison Richardson

Madison started climbing in 2011 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, at Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym and started competing in 2014. 

Madison has been on the Canadian National Team since 2016 when she qualified for the Youth World Championships in lead and boulder. After many years competing in both disciplines in Youth and Open, she decided to specialize in bouldering in 2017. In 2018, Madison made her first Open National final in bouldering, coming in 4th. Since then, she has yet to step off the podium at Nationals!

On the World Cup Circuit, Madison's first IFSC Boulder Season Ranking was 86th in 2019, and in the latest 2023 season, she managed to push that ranking to 24th. To date, Madison has made 3 IFSC World Cup semi-finals and placed in the top 25 at 6 World Cups.

YT @richardsonsclimbing

Rebecca Frangos

Becca started climbing at the Vision climbing gym in 2008 and began competing on the youth circuit in 2010. Growing up in Canmore, AB she took to a variety of outdoor sports at a young age but it was climbing that became her biggest passion. Her first World Cup appearance was in 2015 in Toronto and since then has competed at 40 World Cups, 3 World Championship events and most recently the 2023 Pan American Games. Her best World Cup result to date is 29th at the Chamonix Lead World Cup in July 2023. Focusing on a single discipline this year, she is excited to see what the Lead World Cup season brings.

Outside of climbing, Becca has a science degree in Biology and Psychology and works part-time as a Support Worker for kids with disabilities. She is planning to go back to school within the next 2 years to pursue graduate studies in Counseling Psychology.

IG @becca_frangos 
FB @beccafrangosclimb

Sophie Buitendyk

Sophie Buitendyk is 23 years old and currently resides in Victoria (BC), where she studies Geography at the University of Victoria. She started climbing when she was eight after joining the youth team at Project Climbing Center in Abbotsford.

Being on the youth team really fuelled her love for the movement, challenge, and community involved in climbing. In recent years, she has spent more time climbing outside and have grown to love and appreciate the outdoors as a way to get away from the business of daily life.

Currently her home climbing gym is BoulderHouse, which has locations in Victoria and Langford. Her favourite style of climbing is typically technical, pody position intensive climbing on an overhang. However, lately she has been really enjoying working on comp-style coordination moves!

IG @sophie_buitendyk

Dylan Le

Dylan is a Montreal-based climber studying natural science. He started his climbing journey at 9 years old. 

He enjoys all three disciplines but his strenght is speed climbing. He thrives on pushing his limits and exploring various sports and activities, such as chess or distance running.

IG @dylan___le 

Ethan Flynn Pitcher

Ethan Flynn Pitcher started Climbing competitively when he was in Grade 4 after finding out his teacher was an ex World Cup climber, years later he started Speed Climbing in 2019 where he placed 2nd at Nationals and went on to the Youth World Championships.

After the pandemic he returned to the sport and attended his first World Cup where he broke the National Speed record for the first time. Pitcher has since continued to push that record further and further lowering it 5.48 seconds claiming National Champion titles and making multiple World Cup Finals along the way. His most recent achievement is placing 4th at the Panam Games Olympic Qualifier in Santiago Chile.

IG @_et_han

Guy McNamee

Guy McNamee started climbing when he was nine years old. He is from Vancouver British Columbia. He has been competing since he was eleven and immediately became hooked. He has now been to World Cups, World Championships, Youth Worlds and Youth Pan Ams. He has been on the Open National Team since 2019.

IG @guymcnamee
FB @guymcnamee

Kindar McNamee

Kindar McNamee started climbing when he was nine years old. He first started competing locally. He eventually competed internationally at World Cups and World Championships. He has medalled in Youth and Open Nationals. 

IG @kindarmcnamee
FB @kindarmcnamee

Matthew Rodriguez

Matthew is from Toronto, Ontario. He started climbing at the age of 10 and started competing at the age of 12. He found a really strong interest in competition climbing and is committed to be on the IFSC circuit one day. In 2023, he made his first IFSC appearance at Youth World Championships in Seoul, Korea, where he made finals in the lead category and earned a 7th place finish in the boulder category. Outside of climbing Matthew is pursuing a degree in graphic design.

IG @matthew_w.r

Michael Finn-Henry

Michael Finn-Henry began his climbing career with USA Climbing, achieving early success with a bronze medal at the IFSC Youth World Championships in 2017. He later transitioned to competing for Canada, utilizing his dual citizenship. In his climbing career, Finn-Henry has broken the Canadian men's speed record twice, with his fastest time being 5.59 seconds at the 2023 Salt Lake City World Cup. He has also achieved notable placements in international competitions, including a top-10 finish at the IFSC World Cup in Villars, Switzerland, in 2018. His is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Harvard University. 

IG @michael_f.h

Oscar Baudrand

Oscar was first inspired to climb when he lived in Thailand at the age of 4, following in the footsteps of his older brother. It wasn’t till he moved to Salt Lake City at 6 where he started improving quickly. He quickly progressed to the national youth level in Canada and the US where he brought home multiple national titles. In recent years, Oscar has been trying to find his place on the World Cup circuit, as well as pursuing a career in aviation. 

IG @oscarzzworld 

Sean McColl

Sean is the veteran of Team Canada having started climbing in 1997. He has 200 World Cup and World Championship starts under his belt which is the most in IFSC history. Sean set his lifelong goal when he qualified and competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Although eager to qualify for Paris 2024, Sean has been mentoring the Canadian Team and loves to see the progression of his team members.

IG @mccollsean
FB @seanmccoll1987

Victor Baudrand

Victor began competition climbing at the age of eight, although his parents and his younger brother Oscar enjoyed the climbing recreationally long before climbing became serious. Victor started his competition journey in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he was part of a local youth team. Victor progressed rapidly and decided that his next step would be to test his abilities in Canada.

Since 2017, Victor has represented Canada at international competitions. From first representing Canada at the 2017 Youth World Championships in Innsbruck, to recently competing in the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago Chile, Victor has invested many years into competition climbing. In addition, Victor is also working towards a degree in International Relations and plans to continue pursuing both his studies and high level competition climbing. 

IG @victorvxb
FB @victorvxb