Following the rapid rise of rock climbing in the UK
It’s new, it’s exciting, it’s communal, it does wonders for physical and mental health, and it’s taking the global fitness and wellness scene by storm.
When you think of rock climbing, it’s natural to think of imposing rock faces out in the middle of nowhere, to be scaled using a combination of ropes, harnesses, hooks, helmets, and other paraphernalia. In addition to being a great way to explore the great outdoors, however, rock climbing has adapted to more urban settings and also moved indoors over the past couple of decades. The introduction of indoor climbing centres has seen it experience a remarkable rise in popularity worldwide and go from niche interest to one of the most popular pastimes in the world.
Transition to mainstream
Another major contributor to rock climbing’s seemingly sudden emergence in the public consciousness was its inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games alongside similar sports like baseball, softball, skateboarding, and surfing, which gathered widespread attention on social media. Climbing then received an additional boost in the UK after the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where Great Britain’s Toby Roberts claimed the gold medal in the combined bouldering and lead climbing event, aged just 19, becoming the first British climber to win an Olympic medal in the process.
The numbers behind it
The Association of British Climbing Walls reported that an estimated 1.5 million people visited an indoor climbing wall in 2018. The report went on to say that the average number of customer visits per wall jumped from 39,569 in 2019 to 62,510 in 2023, an increase of 58%. The British Mountaineering Council lists over 400 climbing walls in the UK, with almost 40 in London alone.
This rapid rise has also caught the eye of investors, and the global rock climbing market is a highly lucrative one, valued at $71.18 billion in 2024 and projected to rise to $116.92 billion by 2032.
The benefits
So, what is it that brings millions across the UK to these indoor climbing centres to scramble up walls adorned with colour-coded plastic holds?
“It’s something that you can do any time of the year, especially indoor climbing, where you don’t have to worry about the weather,” explains Raphael Magrina, a Level II Climbing Instructor at The Boardroom Climbing Ltd. in Wimbledon. “It’s nice that you can just go to your local climbing centre and start climbing, rather than having to book a whole pitch – it’s quite open and you can do it any time.”
Starting your climbing journey indoors also means that you can do so under the watchful eyes of experts like Magrina, thus having access to invaluable guidance in real time. Furthermore, the aforementioned colourful plastic holds jutting out of the walls are colour coded to grades of difficulty, which makes tracking your progress much easier.
In addition to the convenience of having climbing centres in virtually every city, Magrina also enjoys the full-body challenge that climbing poses. “It’s a nice mix of physical challenges and also mental, because you have to make sure how to plan out your moves, so there’s a puzzle aspect, and then after that it’s physical,” he says.
Focusing on planning your route to the top also serves to distract you from how hard your body is working to get you there, and it’s only when you stop that you realise how many muscle groups have been called into action.
The social aspect
Perhaps what sets rock climbing apart from traditional gyms or team sports is its inclusive nature. Not only is there no inherent winner or loser, but the sport also does not discriminate as much based on age or sex as most other sports do, which invites people from all walks of life.
“We have after-school club sessions for kids between the ages of 7-15. Outside of that, we get a lot of adults, mostly aged 20-35,” says Magrina of the visitors at The Boardroom.
While the act of climbing up the wall is an individual pursuit, the time spent sitting on a crash mat between climbs, planning out your route, offers opportunities to strike up conversations with friends and strangers alike. This unique blend of solo and collaborative elements makes each successful climb that much more enjoyable.
So, if you’ve been living under a rock and missed the rise of rock climbing, it might be a good idea to get out and start scaling it instead.
