Mixed winter climbing

More people are mountaineering: that’s the finding of a survey conducted by Sport England, which found that the sport is the tenth fastest growing in the country.

The activity includes everything from climbing on indoor walls to hill trekking, taking in rock climbing, sport climbing, mountaineering and high altitude climbing. The results were published in the Active People Survey 2.

A snapshot was taken of activity during one week, with 86,000 adults taking part in some form of mountaineering discipline during the survey, a 0.21 per cent increase on the previous poll, taken two years ago.

The British Mountaineering Council, the representative body for the sport, says this figure is statistically significant.

The BMC says it believes walking in Britain’s upland areas is increasing in popularity. A spokesman said: “Although a chunk of the increase is likely to be from the recent growth in popularity of climbing walls, it is also likely that more people are accessing the countryside and mountain regions.”

Overall, the survey found that half a million more people are undertaking active sport of some sort. Athletics, including running, showed the largest increase, followed by cycling and football.

Details are on the Sport England website.