RECAP: ELM CITY SHOWDOWN 2026
In this post: Competition Results | Links to Finals Problems | Photo Gallery
On March 28th, we welcomed more than 150 climbers and spectators to our New Haven gym for the Elm City Showdown, our annual spring bouldering competition and one of our favorite days of the year.
One hundred competitors climbed across four categories — Recreational, Intermediate, Advanced, and Open — with the top finishers in the Open division advancing to a finals round on our Kilter and Decoy boards, competing for a $2,200 cash purse.
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Try the women’s and non binary finals problems from ECS 2026.
Routesetter: Galina Parfenov
Board Angle: 45 degreesOr search Ascent Women’s Final 2026 in the new Kilter app.
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Try the men’s and non binary finals problems from ECS 2026.
Routesetter: Ben Kauffman
Board Angle: 45 degreesOr search Ascent Final 2026 in your Decoy app.
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View the photo gallery from Elm City Showdown 2026.
Downloads for private use available.
Gallery on FacebookPhotos for personal, non-commercial use only please.
A huge thank you to our route-setting team, whose creativity and hard work made every problem worth fighting for — and special gratitude to Ben Kauffman and Galina Parfenov of Parfenov Training for setting the finals routes. Thank you also to everyone who came out to climb, cheer, and share in the stoke — competitions are only as good as the community that shows up for them, and ours showed up.
And of course, none of it would be complete without G Café Bakery, who sponsored the event and supplied the legendary sourdough bread trophies that have already become a signature of one of Connecticut's best climbing events of the year.
HIGHLIGHTS GALLERY
See above for links to a full gallery with personal-use downloads available. Photo/video by the amazing team (Quinn & Dean) at Somewhere Studios.
