It’s a strange hook that keeps us doing what we do.

Explaining in words why climbing matters is almost impossible. We all know we can’t expect everyone to understand the satisfaction of a good hold at the end of a crux sequence, the relief of a perfect cam sinking into a crack after a long run-out or for them to be impressed with a dog-eared guide book with years of hard-earned ticks. But the fact remains that getting out climbing, whether at the local wall or a long planned trip to the mountains, is an essential ingredient in our lives.

Here at Mountain Equipment seeing our gear playing its part in the daily lives of climbers, being put to the test in some of the most inspiring places on earth, gives us the drive to keep making our gear the best it can be. Alongside our new collection of Climbing Clothing for 2016 we are launching #MEclimbing, a photo competition to celebrate what we all love, going climbing.

Making Time

Making Time from MOUNTAIN EQUIPMENT on Vimeo.

Sam has been Head of Design at Mountain Equipment for six years. His lifelong passion for climbing played a large part in his decision to steer his way from an international position back to the UK. Crucially, living and working on the Eastern edge of Manchester puts the iconic gritstone climbing and bouldering of the Peak District within range.

Simply getting out on the rock is not necessarily as simple as it sounds though, with a demanding day job and family life compressing personal climbing time into narrow windows of opportunity. But there is always a way. Some days begin with a pre-dawn start to fit in a session on a project, others finish with late night training on his board.

#MEclimbing Photo Competition

To celebrate the launch of our new climbing clothing collection we’re running a summer long photo competition, we want you to share your climbing photos with us. 

Whether it’s trad, sport, bouldering, alpine, big wall or the climbing wall, we want to see it all!

To enter all you need to do is share your climbing photos to our live feed using #MEclimbing via Instagram*, Pinterest and Twitter or upload them via the MEclimbing Facebook page.

Over the course of the summer 5 members of our Pro partner team will act as guest judge and select their top 3 photos, each of which will win products from our new Climbing Clothing Collection.

Our guest judge and prizes for March are…

The Judge: Dave MacLeod

Firmly established as one of the world's best all-round climbers, Dave has a string of outstanding ascents to his name and continues to push the boundaries of Trad and Scottish Winter climbing.

Dave started climbing when he was 15 and has climbed most of the hard rock and winter climbs in Scotland.

For the last decade he has been making first ascents of hard routes across a range of climbing disciplines including trad, bouldering, sport climbing and winter climbing. Dave’s route Rhapsody was the first E11 graded climb in the world. His hardest climbs, Echo Wall (E11) and Anubis (XII) are firmly established as amongst the most difficult summer and winter trad routes out there.

Take a closer look at our new 2016 collection of
drirelease product

*Instagram photos must be submitted/reposted in real-time so that they are searchable within the dates of the competition.    

Competition closes at midnight (GMT) on Monday 11th April 2016. Winners will be selected by our guest judge and informed within 7 working days of the competition closing date. Good luck!