A Look at the Popularity of Various Climbing Disciplines

A Happy New Year from Climbing Economics!

Disclaimer: The views and ideas expressed in this article are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the researchers and funders of the survey.

Background

As the winter season heavily sets in, some of you will likely be heading to the mountains to satisfy your yearly desire to ski, ice climb and mountaineer. Others will be heading indoors to crush the kilter board and finally send that V5 (6?) (7?) that’s been taunting them for weeks.

To begin 2025, I have created a visual that looks at the popularity of these different activities among the climbing community. The chart draws on the results of the BMC Your Climbing Counts Survey¹ in collaboration with researchers from Sheffield Hallam University and Sport England. The survey was carried out between December 2023 and February 2024, and asked adult climbers a series of questions regarding their climbing activities, motivation and coaching needs.

The Results

Indoor Climbing

It is not surprising to see that indoor forms of climbing are the most popular, with 73% of respondents carrying out indoor bouldering once a month or more frequently. In fact, 34% of respondents indoor boulder at least twice per week. 62% of respondents rope climb once a month or more frequently, and half of these rope climb once per week.

Outdoor Rock Climbing

Trad climbing is the form of outdoor rock climbing with the highest percentage of climbers frequently carrying out this activity (29%), compared to 21% frequently sport climbing and 16% frequently outdoor bouldering.

This is somewhat surprising given that trad climbing may be considered the discipline with the highest barriers to entry (compared to outdoor bouldering and sport climbing) from both a financial and knowledge stand-point. However, given that the survey focused on UK climbers, this result is reflective both of the history and availability of climbing in the UK which tends towards a strict ‘no bolt’ ethic. I suspect that a similar survey carried out among Spanish or French climbers would place sport climbing and outdoor bouldering well ahead of trad climbing.

Other Forms of Climbing

The forms of climbing sitting at the lower end of the chart (mountaineering to dry tooling) show minimal frequent activity. 46% of respondents said that they carry out mountaineering infrequently, half of whom engage in this activity every few years. Only 12% of respondents said that they carry out dry tooling at all, mostly every few years.

Given the knowledge, skills and equipment required to engage in alpine, ice and big wall climbing, it is unsurprising that most climbers rarely engage in these activities. Furthermore, the UK’s natural landscape and weather conditions often require climbers to travel abroad to access suitable conditions, further racking up costs.

Gender Differences

The results of the survey suggest minimal differences between men and women in their frequency of climbing participation among the various disciplines. Interestingly, women are slightly more likely than men to indoor boulder and indoor rope climb at the highest frequency - at least twice per week.

However, it is important to highlight that across all of the outdoor disciplines women are more likely than men to have never carried out the activity, potentially reflecting an inequality in opportunity and/or desire to carry out climbing activities in the outdoors. For those interested, there is a body of research that looks into gender disparities with regards to access to the outdoors (see Colley et al, 2022)².

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed the frequency of participation in various climbing activities in the UK. Indoor climbing disciplines are most popular, whilst participation in outdoor activities is reflective of the barriers to entry and geographical limitations of the UK’s landscape. Trad climbing is the most frequented form of outdoor climbing, emphasizing the historical and ethical context of climbing in the UK.

Gender differences in participation are small. However, women are more likely than men to have never participated in outdoor climbing activities. I encourage readers to explore further research that investigates the potential reasons behind these gender disparities.

Thanks

With many thanks to the BMC and researchers at Sheffield Hallam University and Sport England for carrying out the Your Climbing Counts Survey.

1. https://thebmc.co.uk/en/your-climbing-counts

2. Kathryn Colley, Katherine N. Irvine, Margaret Currie, Who benefits from nature? A quantitative intersectional perspective on inequalities in contact with nature and the gender gap outdoors, Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 223, 2022, 104420, ISSN 0169-2046.