As climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers, we know how important it is to pick the right partners. Our family of partners support the work we do to maintain access to our spaces, conserve and re-build our environment and educate and share the great benefits of our sports and activities.

La Sportiva, the Italian high performance footwear brand is confirmed as ‘Official Footwear Supplier’ for the BMC and GB Climbing, which encompasses all areas of La Sportiva activity – Mountain, Hike, Running and Climb. Initially they will be focussed on supporting and activation around key national competitions including the National Boulder Championships and National Lead and Speed Championships.

The latest Sport England Active Lives report shows that hill and mountain walking has continued to grow, experiencing a larger boom than any of the other 80 sports or activities measured in the survey of almost 180,000 people. Regular participation in hill and mountain walking now stands at 3.58 million, up from 3.39 million last year. The figures show an increase of 40% since the data was first collected in 2015/16, when just 2.46 million reported regular participation.

Growth was also seen in the ‘Adventure Sports’ category, which also includes Climbing and Bouldering, seeing a rise from last year, with a total of approximately 278k people now participating.

As a recent addition to the Olympic family, sport climbing continues to grow in popularity alongside the infrastructure for the national team run by GB Climbing. With its first appearance in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the team are looking ahead to Paris 2024 and LA 2028 and to becoming a world-leading sport climbing nation.

Gavin Finch, Chief Commercial Officer at the BMC, the national representative body for climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers - with over 80,000 members, said; “As participation in our activities and interest in sport/competition climbing grows it’s important we maintain and grow the connection with our communities as we continue to represent and support people to take part safely, responsibly and sustainably. We can’t do that alone and working with like-minded brands and organisations that share our values and goals is key and we look forward to building our family of partners.

“We have spent some time establishing a clear programme that provides organisations opportunities to partner with us in a number of ways. We welcome our new partner into the BMC family and look forward to working in collaboration over the next few years.”

Chris Gordon, Marketing Manager at Lyon Equipment, distributor for La Sportiva said: “We are proud to be supporting the vital work of the BMC, from protecting our access and mountain environments, to developing the next generation of performance climbing athletes, the BMC are essential to the development of our sport. We look forward to working together to further these shared goals.”

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GB Climbing is supported by the BMC, Mountaineering Scotland and Secur-it. Many UK walls also support the GB Climbing team through free or subsidised entry.

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