More people have been taking part in both indoor and outdoor climbing in England than ever before. 

The number of people in England taking part in climbing at least two times in 28 days has reached the record high of 368,500 in 2023, this is massively up from 262,100 in 2016. 

This is a massive raise of over 100,000 people in this time.

So why is this?

Kath Hipwell, CEO of the Association of British Climbing Walls (ABC), said: “There’s been a lot more climbing walls being built which makes it much more accessible. More people are trying it and the people that try it love it.”

Today there are over 450 climbing walls in England, another rise from the 386 climbing walls  in 2016.

Because of this increase in the number of climbing walls more people were able to go to them and try it. Kath believes that some of the growth is down to this.

“Climbing is unique in that it doesn’t have to be competitive, there’s also a lot of physical and mental health benefits as well as the social benefits. It is also a great alternative to the gym.” said Kath about other reasons for the growth of climbing, both indoor and outdoor.

Outdoor climbing and mountaineering has also been on the rise over the past years. Dave Mannion, chair of York Mountaineering Club, said: “The pandemic changed things, numbers were sort of steady and had been mid 30s for a couple of years. 

“The pandemic changed the personality and the numbers have increased since then and we’ve been in the mid 80s ever since.”

Dave has been involved in the club for over ten years now. 

“Mountaineering is very different to indoor climbing, it’s not all about the climbing, it is also about the walking and the scrambling. It’s fairly flexible too and a lot of the time you can take it at your own pace.” said Dave.

There have been a lot more women getting into mountaineering at the club. Dave said: “Over the years there were conflicts of character and things, heavy drinking for some people, the old dinosaurs, I’m sure you’ve seen it before and you can feel a bit uncomfortable about it. That was pre 2020 and that’s largely gone now and because of that we get more women coming along.”