Impressive climbing scene in Iran

Khosro Hashemzadeh, who just onsighted Olympos Games 8b (a+) in Geyikbayırı, gave us some insight into the impressive climbing scene in Iran. Khosro has been an elite climber, coach, and route setter for many years in Tehran. "We have climbing in almost all the cities around the Iran, maybe more than 3000 climbers around the country. Also lots of outdoor climbing around the country specially in the west side of Iran. Karmanshah is the most famous one in Iran with maybe more than 500 sport routes and also a big wall (Bisotun 1200 meter) with around 50 lines on it. Also we have lots of gyms around Iran and probably all the cities have one at least. For example in Tehran there are 5 or 6 great gyms which are working pretty well. Competitions are just like all the Ifsc comps around the world and we have almost 5 or 6 national cups around Iran in all the 3 fields of climbing. Also a national team which participate in most of the world and Asian cups. We usually have to pay for all the world cups ourselves. The federation just sends sometimes a small number of people to championships. Reza Alipour was runner up in last Speed World Champion and Ali Baratzadeh normally makes it to Boulder WC semis."