Sudbury teen moving up in sport climbing standings

At 13-years-old, Sudbury's Ben Tonnos spends a lot of time doing indoor rock climbing.

Each week, he practices four days for three hours at a time. He first got involved with rock climbing when he was 9 and decided to pay a visit to ARC Climbing Yoga Fitness in Sudbury.

"I like the challenge it poses," he said.

"So physically, mentally, trying to get to the top [and] working on different routes."

Tonnos will be one of many climbers taking part in a competition this Friday. The competition will feature sport climbing, which is a form of rock climbing where a climber clips into what are called draws as they go up the wall.

"You really have to focus on making sure you're clipping properly and making sure you can do the moves in order to make the clips so you don't fall mid-clip," Leah Garrett, operations manager at ARC said.

Tonnos says each climb takes a bit of planning.

"You really have to look at it before you go up to know how you're going to approach the route," he said.

"If you don't go up with any idea, then you would not know how you're going to do the route."

This type of climbing as well as two others will be featured in the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.

Tonnos currently competes throughout the province, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia.

According to ARC, he's currently ranked second in his division at the provincial level through the Ontario Climbing Federation.

Sudbury teen working to climb his way to the Olympics

6 years ago

Duration 0:36

Climbing will enter the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020 and a Sudbury teen is ready. Ben Tonnos is currently ranked number two for the Youth Boys B division for the Ontario Climbing Federation rankings.

He says his long-term goal is to make the national team to compete internationally

"That's probably my biggest goal right now is to make it to the world level."

The public is welcome to come and watch the climbers at ARC. The competition will take place on Friday between 7 and 10 pm.