The Spanish team, sponsored by La Línea Vertical, is one of ten teams from around the world selected for the special edition marking Grimpday’s 20th anniversary. The event will take place in Namur (Belgium) from 10 to 13 June 2026.
The Espeleosocorro Sin Fronteras rescue team is facing one of the greatest challenges in its history: it will be the only Spanish team competing in Grimpday XX-Treme, the special and most demanding edition of the international rope rescue championship, which is considered the global benchmark in this discipline. The event is being held in Namur (Belgium), the city that has hosted the competition since its inception, in the edition marking the 20th anniversary of Grimpday.
What is Grimpday?
Grimpday is an international competition that brings together emergency services teams from around the world: firefighters, civil protection, the army and the police. They all compete in challenges that test their rescue skills at height and in hard-to-reach places. It was founded in 2006 by firefighters from the city of Namur and, over the years, has earned unanimous recognition as one of the world’s leading events in vertical rescue.
Its prestige, its long history and the fact that teams come from every continent have turned it into something akin to a world championship in high-altitude rescue. In this anniversary edition, the main competition brings together 25 teams and the XX-Treme 10 teams of different nationalities over three days.
XX-Treme: beyond competition
To mark its 20th anniversary, the organisation has launched a special event called Grimpday XX-Treme. The organisers themselves describe it as “the ultimate challenge”: not your typical race, but a true test of resilience in extreme conditions, where every decision counts.
Only 10 teams from 10 different countries have been invited to take part in this event. As the team itself explains, the line-up consists of teams that have won or finished on the podium at Grimpday in previous years. Alongside Espeleosocorro Sin Fronteras will be teams from Poland, Romania, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Japan.
A blind competition
What makes the XX-Treme special is that the teams compete with almost no idea of what lies ahead. They don’t know the city where the event will take place, nor the challenges they will have to face.
“All we know is that we have to be at a specific location on a particular day and that it involves two days of non-stop competition, including overnight”, explain representatives from Espeleosocorro Sin Fronteras. That means carrying out rescue manoeuvres from morning until the early hours of the morning, with no breaks in between.
The organisers have asked all teams to arrive prepared to be completely self-sufficient overnight: with sleeping gear, bivouac equipment, warm clothing, and ready to take action at any moment.
“We’re absolutely ready”
Despite the demanding nature of the format, the team is approaching the event with great confidence. “We’re ready, absolutely ready”, say the team members, who acknowledge the importance of the support they have received in helping them reach peak condition: “We’re lucky to have facilities like this one at STEC-INDRA and people like La Línea Vertical backing us”. The group is now finalising their last training sessions before setting off for Belgium.
With its participation in Grimpday XX-Treme, Espeleosocorro Sin Fronteras once again places Spanish vertical rescue at the forefront of the international scene, in an event that will bring together the world’s elite in the discipline.