Climbing Participation in the UK and Germany
- Guest Author
- 21 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Charlotte, a final year International Business Management student at Northumbria University talks to us about how her love of climbing is fuelling her dissertation research project.
"I actually started climbing around 10 months ago during my study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. What began as a way to try something new quickly became something much bigger, a challenge, a community, and a space where I constantly pushed myself outside of my comfort zone.
Since returning to the UK, I’ve continued climbing and have become increasingly curious about how different environments shape the way we experience the sport. In Tokyo, indoor climbing was incredibly accessible. Back in the UK, access to outdoor crags often requires travel. During my time studying in Germany, I also noticed differences in geography and proximity to outdoor terrain.
That curiosity led me to my dissertation research.
For my final-year project, I’m exploring how the geographical availability of outdoor climbing terrain influences climbers’ attitudes and behaviours in the UK and Germany.
If outdoor climbing requires significant travel, time, and cost, does that change how often people climb outside? Does it strengthen the role of indoor gyms as substitutes or training spaces? And does geography influence how climbers view climbing, as lifestyle, training, escape, or social activity?
Climbing has grown rapidly across both countries, but access to outdoor terrain is not evenly distributed. I’m interested in understanding whether where we live shapes not just where we climb, but how we think about climbing.
If you climb in the UK or Germany (indoor or outdoor), I would be incredibly grateful if you could take 3–5 minutes to complete my anonymous survey and contribute to this research.
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