GB Climbing Teams
The GB Climbing Team is made up of the Senior Team, the Junior Team, the Ice Climbing Team, the Paraclimbing Team and the Ski Mountaineering Racing Team.
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Team Selection
The GB Climbing Teams are selected annually and the selection is based on a number of factors primarily centred around competition results from both national and international events.
Sport Climbing World Cups and Championships
The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) runs international competitions in the disciplines of lead, speed and bouldering. The GB Climbing Team currently competes internationally in lead and bouldering and occasionally in speed climbing. The IFSC World Cup series takes place annually and the IFSC World Championships take place every two years. View the IFSC competition calendar.
Ski Mountaineering World Cups and Championships
The international governing body for Ski Mountaineering racing (the ISMF) oversees the regulation of the sport, safety of races and runs inter-country championships and the world cup series.
The ISMF races include a ‘World Cup’ series and a biannual European or World Championships. These competitions see teams of athletes competing for their country in sprint, individual, team and vertical races. Each country can put forward 4 male and 4 female athletes for competition in each discipline (sprint, individual etc) at these championships. More details about these race formats can be found here ISMF (ismf-ski.org).
La Grande Course is a series of six long-standing team races held over a two year rolling cycle. Some of these are multi-day stage races across whole mountain ranges. Frequently one of these races is chosen as the ISMF Long Distance Team Championship for that particular season, and with their historical significance these races can be considered to be the Monuments of the sport.
The GB Skimo Racing Team competes internationally in all events
Watch international climbing competitions live
There is live streaming of the semi-finals and finals of all senior IFSC World Cup events. TV quality highlights are available for media use shortly after each event.
Sport Climbing at the Olympics
In the summer of 2021 in Tokyo, climbing finally reached the heights of becoming an Olympic sport for the first time. Olympian climbers at Tokyo competed in the combined event which put together the three disciplines: lead, boulder and speed climbing. Among them was British and two-time bouldering World Champion Shauna Coxsey. For Paris 2024, and beyond, speed climbing is a medal category of its own, separated from lead and speed and Molly Thompson-Smith, Hamish McArthur, Toby Roberts and Erin McNeice represented GB.
How we got there:
In 2013, the BMC supported the IFSC’s bid for Sport Climbing to be part of the 2020 Olympics. Sport Climbing was successfully chosen from amongst a shortlist of eight sports considered for inclusion in the 2020 Olympics.
Meanwhile the UIAA (International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation) is preparing to launch a bid for Ice Climbing to enter the 2022 Winter Olympics once the IOC criteria for adding new winter sports is finalised. This follows its inclusion in the cultural programme at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia 2014.
Ski Mountaineering Racing at the Olympics
SkiMo has been a feature of the British snowsports season for some years now, thanks to the efforts of Di Gilbert, Louella Hamilton and Skimo Scotland.
Since 2012, a hardy bunch of lycra clad competitors have been taking to the slopes to pit themselves against the Scottish conditions, in a variety of races including individual and vertical.
Whilst the scene has thrived, it has remained relatively small, lacking a framework for development of the sport and its athletes. Unlike in the European Alps, where Skimo is a well-resourced pursuit with formed competitive teams, the British scene has remained entirely amateur. Those who have raced internationally, have done so independently, with the British Mountaineering Council acting as the representative body, issuing race licences, and providing support in the form of race suits.
It was widely acknowledged that, for the sport to develop, more structure was required. Back in 2013 Di Gilbert (SkiMo Scotland Rep) first began pushing for support and a route to getting Skimo and Skimo athletes more representation. Meetings with Sport Scotland and Mountaineering Scotland, amongst others, followed. Unfortunately, nothing took off, and the project went back into hibernation.
It was only in 2023, when a chance meeting between Di Gilbert and Andy Syme, President of the BMC, in the CIC Hut led to a rekindling of effort. Catalysed by the announcement that Skimo was to be trialed as an Olympic event, the BMC offered additional assistance, support and resource, and collectively set about finding athletes and supporters who might want to be involved.
The BMC Skimo Steering Group was born!
The initial Steering Group meeting was held in May of 2023, with mixed representation from across the Skimo and outdoors community. First, a terms of reference document was developed, with the relatively modest aims of promoting the sport, providing a framework for athletes to develop, and looking forward to the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina.
Since then, the Steering Group has grown, become more organised, and begun to put in place the structures required to truly grow the sport of Ski Mountaineering Racing in GB. A big thank-you to the team of enthusiastic volunteers who have got the project off the ground, and continue to take the sport from strength to strength.
Supporting the GB Climbing Team
The BMC provides administrative support and financial help to the team, but team members have to raise money toward the cost of competing internationally for the GB Team. If you are interested in opportunities to sponsor the team or our national climbing competitions please contact office@thebmc.co.uk
WATCH: We are GB Climbing
Competition Climbing Performance Group (CCPG)
GB Climbing is an internal department of the BMC, and is designated with looking after and giving future direction to all things connected with Competition Climbing and Ski Mountaineering Racing. The Competition Climbing Performance Group (CCPG) heads up GB Climbing and is formed of a group of experts who work with, advise and plan the future of GB Climbing.