GRASSROOTS
CLIMBING IS ONE OF THE FEW SPORTS TO HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED PARTICIPATION SINCE THE FIRST ACTIVE ENGLAND STUDY IN 2006
CLIMBING
climb of Napes Needle – a detached for- mation which Victorian mountaineers could easily avoid on their way to the summit. Therefore Smith’s ascent was seen as the first ‘sports climb’ in history. A lot has changed since those days
T
and the relatively recent trend of indoor climbing walls springing up in urban set- tings has made climbing accessible to all. That is reflected in participation fig- ures – climbing is now one of the fastest growing sports in the UK and is one of just six sports which showed a statisti- cally significant increase since the first Active People Survey in 2005-06. There are currently 305 clubs and
24,247 climbers affiliated to the sport’s governing body, the British Mountain- eering Council (BMC). The latest Active People Survey results from Sport Eng- land show that around 87,800 adults in England participate regularly (once a week) in climbing and mountaineer- ing. This includes sports such as indoor climbing, rock climbing outdoors, mountaineering, trekking, hill walking, mountain walking and bouldering.
he history of climbing as a sport in the UK dates back to 1886 when Eton-educated Walter Smith first completed a solo
More significantly, the number of
people who participate occasionally (at least once a month) in climbing and mountaineering in England has now reached 250,000. The main growth of these occasional climbers over the last five years has been in the 16- to 25-year- old category (from 74,100 to 88,700). There has also been an increase in fe- male participants (81,900 to 87,800). There are no signs of the growth
slowing down either, according to Dave Turnbull, the chief executive of the BMC. “We expect the overall trend of growth to continue and to see more people tak- ing up outdoor climbing as a result of our engagement projects with indoor climbers,” he says. “With more and more schools getting climbing walls we expect that to have a positive impact on participation of young people.” Encouragingly, between 15 and 20
per cent of those who regularly climb already are under the age of 18. For Turnbull, the challenge isn’t to get people of any age to try out climbing – it’s to convert them to become regulars. “Through indoor walls we’re managing to attract many young people. Our big- gest challenge is how to introduce them to climbing outside and joining clubs.”
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As a lot of the climbing takes place out- doors in natural surroundings, there is no facility strategy needed for the NGB
There are already plans to tackle this
challenge. The BMC has been successful in securing funding from Sport England for the period 2013-2017 primarily to increase participation of 16 to 25-year- olds; women and hill walkers. Thanks to the funding, the BMC was able to employ a team of three regional devel- opment officers (RDOs), as well as a hill walking development officer – all fund- ed by Sport England. “This is an exciting development for
the BMC,” Turnbull says. “The RDOs’ (based in London, the north east and the north west) primary objectives are to support indoor climbers making the transition to outdoors and also to help clubs who wish to attract new members.” The BMC has already embarked on
an engagement programme through the new RDOs. They’re working on an ‘Indoor to Outdoor’ campaign to help people who only climb indoors to access opportunities to try climbing outdoors. As part of this the BMC is offering subsi- dised courses at the National Mountain
Issue 2 2013 © cybertrek 2013
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