RIVERTON, Utah — A Riverton teen returned from France this week after winning gold in the sport of ice climbing — again.
14-year-old Landers Gaydosh, an eighth-grader at Oquirrh Hills Middle School, spent last week competing in the 2024 UIAA Youth Ice Climbing Championship.
He excelled in both “speed” and “lead” climbing, each of which offer a different challenge.
“Speed is where whoever gets to the top fastest [wins] … and then lead is where whoever makes it furthest up the wall wins,” Landers said.
He described the speed category as just “a big wall of ice,” while lead is part ice and part “dry.”
Landers breezed through those events, coming out on top and winning gold in both in the under-16 category.
“I’ve won both now, and yeah, that was my goal,” Landers said.
While winning gold is an achievement in itself, it’s how he did that might be even more impressive.
“I got two really fast times, and yeah, I would have beat a lot of the people who are older than me, like in the different categories,” Landers said.