As part of the BMC’s 70th birthday celebrations, volunteers from across our local areas came together to host a series of climbing and walking festivals and put some welly into the summer.

Some events, like the Gower Climbing Festival, have been running for a number of years and have now become regular fixtures on the BMC event calendar, while others, such as the Bristol Climbing Festival were happening for the very first time.

But they all had two things in common; they were free to attend and open to all climbers and walkers, not just BMC members.

Today is the autumn equinox, signalling the end of the summer months, so it seems like a good time to round up this year’s festival activities, and you can read reports of the various festivals by clicking on the links below.

10 May: Ousel's Nest Clean-up Day

More than 20 keen climbers flew into Ousel’s Nest Quarry, near Bolton, to spruce up the routes and boulder problems, and make the crag a contender for the driest and cleanest crag in Lancashire.

17 May: TremFest

Over 60 enthusiastic climbers and volunteers turned up to give the cliffs at Tremadog a good spring clean and make TremFest 2014 a great success.

28-29 June: Stanage Festival

Despite some slightly British weather, the Stanage Festival saw a good turnout, with social events and walking and climbing enjoyed by many.

4-6 July: Cornish Climbing Festival

80 climbers gathered at the Count House at Bosigran for a weekend of climbing and socialising at the best Cornish Climbing Festival (so far).

11-13 July: North East Climbing & Walking Festival

Wooler, gateway to the Cheviots and Northumberland National Park, was the base for over 50 climbers and walkers who came to play on the nearby crags and hills.

26 July: Bristol Climbing Festival

Over 250 festivalgoers, from new climbers to veterans alike, came together at the Bristol Climbing Festival to celebrate climbing in the Avon Gorge and the work of BMC ClimbBristol.

6 September: WiltonFest

The BMC-owned Wilton Quarry in Lancashire hosted the second annual WiltonFest, an extravaganza of burgers, beer and black pudding, with some climbing thrown in for good measure – report to follow.

13 September: Crag Lough Clean-up Festival

The third annual clean-up of Crag Lough saw a small bunch of dedicated volunteers continuing the work to bring many worthwhile climbs on one of Northumberland's finest low to mid-grade crags back into condition; and having some fun at the same time – report to follow.

13-14 September: The Gower Climbing Festival

The sixth annual Gower Climbing Festival was blessed with good weather, great breakfast butties, a fun pub quiz, and lots of quality climbing enjoyed by around 100 climbers over the weekend.

« Back