The annual Youth Climbing Series Grand Final took place on Saturday 25 April 2015 at Edinburgh International Climbing Arena.

A record 307 climbers from eleven regions competed across ten categories supported by more than 70 volunteers who judged, belayed and chaperoned.

The Youth Climbing Series is run across Great Britain by the BMC, MCofS and MI has gone from strength to strength over the last few years. With young climbers focusing their years training on making the National final which happened this weekend at EICA.

Over 1000 competitors, parents and spectators descended on the massive climbing arena just outside Edinburgh and the route setters had set some very tough routes and boulders this year compared to last year, which was a bit of shock to some, but relished as a fantastic challenge by most. 

The atmosphere in the arena once over 300 very psyched competitors were let loose on the routes and boulders was fantastic. The GB Climbing Team did a sterling job demonstrating the routes and then the cheers and whoops could be heard echoing from all over the arena as finalists topped out or fell off trying their hardest to do so.

It was great to see that although the routes and boulders were harder than previous years, due to the climbing level of the finalists going up (based on feedback from the regional rounds), the number of top outs on the routes and the boulders was reduced,  but most of the competitors loved the challenge of the harder climbs and the outcome of the event not being decided on the final route.

There were some fantastic efforts on all of the climbs and the competitors looked thoroughly tired by the end of the day, but there were some very smiley faces stood on top of the podiums in the awards ceremony!

The YCS National final and the regional rounds are the biggest events that the BMC runs and they are run totally by volunteers, with the finals alone requiring over 70 volunteers. The BMC would like to send a huge vote of thanks to all those who stepped forward to help run the final on Saturday, they all did an amazing job and made the event the great success it was.

Full results from Saturday can be found here.

Results from the regional phase can be found here.

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