The BMC Youth Climbing Series is a series of fun climbing competitions specifically for young people with the emphasis on enjoyment. It is perhaps the most popular competition for young people attracting hundreds of entrants across the country.
There are three regional rounds in each of the BMC Areas followed by a Grand Final when the top 3 in each category from each of the BMC Areas, BMC Cymru/Wales, the two Areas from Scotland and Ireland take part.
Craggers volunteer, Buster, who learned to climb through the group, has been competing for three years. This year after doing well in all his rounds and coming overall third in the largest region (London and the South East) he found himself with a place in the final.
After three qualifying rounds, the most ever competitors took part in an amazing final at the Wolf Mountain Climbing Centre in Wolverhampton on 25th June.
As the grand finale of the whole series this is a truly awesome event.
This year, one hundred and eighty nine (yes, that’s right… 189!) finalists qualified through the regional rounds held in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland during spring time when over 600 young people, another record number, took part.
The turn out on the day was a massive record as well with virtually all competitors taking up their invitation to take part in the final. Additionally, most competitors were accompanied by 2 or 3 supporters – some even more – so you can imagine the vast space required to accommodate that number of people.
The whole event was absolutely fantastic with competitors and parents having a great day and those competing giving of their very best.
The standards of climbing in the series continues to rise each year and this year was no exception with some amazing individual performances and Busters team, London and South East Area taking the team prize.