Mountaineering Scotland announce new Climbing Development Group for 2024

Friday 8th December 2023, 8:33am

Mountaineering Scotland are excited to announce the creation of a new Climbing Development Group (CDG) in 2024.

Mountaineering Scotland works to promote the physical and mental health benefits of climbing-related activities. The new group will have a focus on supporting Scotland’s climbing community by providing a national forum for discussion and debate which will support and influence the work of Mountaineering Scotland and our partner organisations.

Some of the planned aims and ambitions of the group are to:

  • Support the creation of opportunities to get involved in climbing.
  • Support the delivery of festivals, meets and other events which promote and celebrate climbing in Scotland.
  • Help make climbing more inclusive and accessible to more people.
  • Support and provide advice and guidance to those new to the climbing community.
  • Connect climbers to the community including the network of clubs and groups.
  • Work with climbers to assist in resolving issues specific to local climbing communities across Scotland.
  • Establish a bolt fund and facilitate and promote the adoption of best practice in bolt maintenance across bolted venues in Scotland.

To make this possible - we need you!

In January we will be looking for volunteers to help us set up and be part of the Climbing Development Group. 

The planned volunteer roles are:

  • Climbing Club Representative
  • Climber Representatives
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Representative
  • Regional Climbing Representatives

Why form a Climbing Development Group?

  • We recognise the importance of recreational outdoor climbing as part of our history and heritage as a community.
  • As a representative body, we want to improve the way in which we engage with the climbing community in Scotland (in all its various outdoor disciplines) and play a part in helping encourage, support, and facilitate the future evolution of climbing and those who participate in it.

What the group will not do...

  • Tell the climbing community what to do.
  • Stop proposals and ideas from individuals in the climbing community.
  • Enforce policy/procedure.

What are the next steps?

Our first major step to the development of the CDG will be to advertise and recruit the volunteer representative members to the group who will play a significant role in being a voice for the wider community. Following this, the group will convene for the first official meeting.

When will it happen?

We will be going live with recruitment for the representative roles in January 2024 and aiming to have the first official Climbing Development Group meeting in March 2024.

Full details for the Climbing Development Group, including the terms of reference, will be published alongside the recruitment adverts for the volunteer representative roles, so watch this space!

We hope this news will be welcomed by the community as a positive development and a step towards Mountaineering Scotland actively engaging and representing climbers’ interests in Scotland. We look forward to welcoming volunteer representatives to the group in the new year!

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