Hi there,

I'm Mary, a paraclimber from the South West and the face behind Access to Climb UK. 

I started climbing as a 13 year old and completely fell in love with the sport. But when I developed a disability a few years later, I thought I'd have to give up climbing for good. 

5 years went by and I stayed far away from the climbing wall, until one day when I saw a paraclimber on social media and it flipped everything upside down. From that day it became my mission to get back on the climbing wall. 

So in 2019, that's what I did. Returning as a disabled climber, I started to look at climbing centres in a whole new way. I realised that accessibility was often not a considered priority in the designing and running of walls. Most noticeably, I found it was rare for climbing centres to share accessibility information online. Multiple times I would rock up to a new climbing centre only to find it was completely inaccessible to me. I would leave deflated and felt like I didn't belong in the climbing community. 

In March 2022, I found myself wondering about what the climbing community could do to promote and improve the accessibility of climbing walls. I came to the conclusion that part of the problem was that accessibility information simply wasn't often shared and easy to find. 

That's when I wrote out this message to my friend;

"I wish there was a central place that shared accessibility information about climbing centres. I always get dead nervous visiting new walls because I never know what to expect. So how cool would it be to have a resource where people can submit photos and basic access information to give people a rough idea of what they can expect at the centre. That way people could know whether a place will be accessible to them before they go. It would give me so much more confidence to visit new walls." 

She replied almost instantly:

"Why don't you create it?"

And that is how Access to Climb came to be. 

Want to know more about paraclimbing? 

The paraclimbing community is an incredible community to be a part of. Whether you have a physical disability, mental health condition, learning disability or are neurodivergent, there is a place for you.
​Check out www.ukparaclimbingcollective.com/ to find out more about paraclimbing socials, comps and opportunities.