It just might be the most exciting year to date for the sport of indoor climbing.

Sport climbing will make its Olympic debut at this summer’s Tokyo Games, but first, some of the nation’s top climbers will converge in Redmond on Friday and Saturday for the 2020 USA Climbing Bouldering National Championship.

The event, set for the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center for the second consecutive year, will include qualification rounds on Friday and semifinal and final rounds for both men and women on Saturday.

“We’re kicking off a pretty busy year for the sport of climbing,” says Zach Brinchi, marketing and communications manager for USA Climbing. “We’re glad to be back in Redmond. It’ll be a lot of fun.”

Including more than 100 climbers from across the country, the bouldering nationals will not have any Olympic implications, Brinchi explains, but it will serve to help select members of the U.S. national team that will compete internationally on the World Cup circuit this year.

Bouldering is one of three rock climbing disciplines that will make up the combined event for the Tokyo Games.

Each Olympic climber will compete in bouldering, lead climbing and speed climbing for an overall combined ranking.

Bouldering is a form of rock climbing performed on small, overhanging rock formations, without the use of ropes or harnesses.

In indoor bouldering contests, competitors must complete a preset course on a rock wall without falling. Those who complete the course the fastest and with the fewest falls will advance. The man-made courses are usually technically difficult, and they include overhanging walls, about 18 feet high, and tiny handholds.

“Bouldering and lead climbing are the two more popular disciplines of the three,” Brinchi says. “Bouldering is a lot more fun to watch, in my opinion. There’s more showiness and parkour kind of feel. Watching somebody do it is thrilling, especially if they stick a big move and the crowd goes crazy. You don’t necessarily get that same experience with lead climbing.”

The U.S. has already filled its quota of two female climbers to compete in the Tokyo Games, as Kyra Condie, of Salt Lake City, and Brooke Raboutou, of Boulder, Colorado, qualified last year. Neither of them will be competing in Redmond, Brinchi says. But Nathaniel Coleman, of Salt Lake City — the first U.S. male to qualify for the Olympics — is planning to take part in the bouldering nationals.

USA Climbing will have one more opportunity to qualify another male for Tokyo, at the Pan-American Continental Championships in Los Angeles at the end of February.

“A number of the individuals in that event will also be competing here in Redmond,” Brinchi says.

Two climbers still hoping to nab that final U.S. Olympic spot — Zach Galla, of Suwanee, Georgia, and Sean Bailey, of Seattle — will be competing at the bouldering nationals. Bailey won last year’s nationals in Redmond and Coleman finished second.

“Collectively, we’re all very excited,” Brinchi says of the upcoming Olympics. “We’ve been looking forward to it for the past few years and for it to finally be the Olympic year, we’re really starting to iron out what that’s going to look like. The goal is for us to win a medal, but we definitely want to make sure that these climbers are receiving support from people who might be watching climbing for the first time.”

At the bouldering nationals, the top 20 men and women from the qualifying rounds advance to the semifinals, from which the top six men and women advance to the finals.

Climbers qualified for the bouldering nationals by reaching the semifinals in last year’s nationals, or by being ranked in the top 100 of USA Climbing’s four-stop National Cup Series.

Top women competing in Redmond include Wisconsin’s Alex Johnson, who finished second at the 2019 bouldering nationals, and Natalia Grossman, of Boulder, who has won every qualifying event leading to nationals.

Brinchi says the layout for this nationals will feature a 100-foot-long wall with about 10 different bouldering bays, positioned in the middle of the event center. The wall is trucked in sections from USA Climbing headquarters in Salt Lake City to Redmond and then assembled in the event center.

Two smaller bouldering walls on the ends will also be utilized for the Bouldering Youth National Championships, set for Feb. 7-9, also in Redmond.

Where: Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, Redmond

When: Qualification rounds are set for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at the fairgrounds, followed by semifinals at 10 a.m. Saturday. The women’s finals are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Saturday, followed by the men’s finals at 7:30 p.m.

Spectators: $40 for weekend pass, $10 for Friday, $15 for Saturday morning, $20 for Saturday evening.

Website: www.usaclimbing.org; livestream on ESPN3.