UKC

I've been climbing indoors for roughly a year now, and would like to get outdoors, mainly sport climbing or mountaineering. My problem is I'm only 16, so it's difficult to find anyone to do it with or any way to get into it, especially mountaineering. How did everyone else get into that sort of stuff, and has anyone got advice? 

Depends where you live. 

Make friends at the wall. Maybe a club. Social media pages. Look for opportunities to go with others outside. Don't be picky, except where safety is concerned. 

Personally I started when living in Devon with friends who were capable climbers to start with. Also joined the uni club. 

So an easy start for me. 

Good luck. 

I would definitely look into joining a local club. It would help if you said where you live.

Might be easier if you parents or a guardian come along the first few times.

You will need to be able to belay, so if you can't already, then look into a course at you local wall.

I learnt a good deal and met many like minded people after singing up for a number of BMC Ready to rock courses with a local climbing instructor.

Depending where you are there should be something near by.

https://www.climbcornwall.com/courses

I live in the general vicinity of Bristol, if that help. Thanks in advance

Hi mate,

Just sent you a message. I do some free instruction for people around your area, give me a shout if you want a bit of professional insight. Plenty of people get in to the mountains young, and there's loads of advice out there, some good, some bad. I may be able to help you wade through it

Cheers,

Chris

I was lucky enough to start with my parents who then encouraged me to join a local club and also got to go to Plas Y Brenin for a course.

These may help:

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/young-people-climbing-hill-walking-and-mountaineer...

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/outdoor-sport-climbing-course-for-young-people

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/outdoor-trad-climbing-days-for-young-people

https://pyb.co.uk/courses/improve-your-rock-climbing-summer-camp/

When I was your age I'd wanted to be a climber for as long as I could remember but didn't know how to get started. The only climbing wall was at the local Uni and you had to be 18 to get in, so I'd made do by climbing up trees.

When I was 17 I saw some climbers whilst out walking one day and decided I couldn't wait any longer so I started reading "how to go climbing" type books from the library and along with a like minded friend we started saving up our pocket money/Saturday job money and bought some kit and got some rock shoes and a guidebook for Christmas.

By a combination of trains, buses, cycling and hitch-hiking we started going out to our local crags and basically just got on with it.

Initially we just soloed the easiest stuff (the crags weren't very high) and toproped anything harder because we didn't have enough kit to lead anything and began leading a few months later once we'd got a modest rack together.

Presumably you've already got a bit of equipment and knowledge and if you live near Bristol there's climbing nearby. You need to find someone else who wants to climb and off you go. Where there's a will there's a way.

Good luck, you have a lifetime of adventure to look forward to.

Try Avon Mountaineering Club, but as I said you will need to get some basic competency with tieing in and belaying etc.

Most clubs do not teach as such, they are a means of like minded people meeting up and climbing together.

Hopefully, there’s something useful among these:

https://www.mountain-training.org/personal-skills/rock-skills*

https://www.ukclimbing.com/news/press/martin_moran_foundation_launched_for_...

https://www.outwardbound.org.uk/about-us

I wish I’d started at your age - have fun!

* MT also offer this, but it seems to focus on mountain walking, rather than scrambling / mountaineering:

https://www.mountain-training.org/personal-skills/hill-and-mountain-skills/...

Sign yourself up for a BMC youth meet. 
https://www.thebmc.co.uk/bmc-north-wales-youth-climbing-meet

These are run by James Mcaffie for the BMC and offer an opportunity for young people like you to have a weekend of real climbing with experienced climbers. Accommodation and food are provided at a highly subsidised price. A great chance to get out and sample the delights of British rock climbing.

james

That looks superb. Try to get onto that. James use one of the best climbers in the country. You never know, you might meet someone there who lives fairly close to you too.

Hey, yeah I agree with what others have said, clubs are great and any of the courses are excellent I'm sure. 
I'd check things like Scouts (it would be Explorers for age 16) and cadets too. I was part of an Explorer unit in London and I learned an awful lot, and it put me in touch with a lot of similar people who also enjoy getting outdoors. Explorer units in general are a very mixed bag, and the vast majority don't do particularly adventurous things, so there might not be one locally that offers what you're looking for! A friend was part of Cadets around 10 years ago and he had access to a bunch of subsidised courses, and got a week's winter hillwalking course for next to nothing. I have no idea how much that's changed over the last 10 years tho...

A few companies also offer courses for u18s (Pure Outdoor in Peak District is one, and Glenmore lodge does some specific u18 stuff too), and these can be great, and if you grab a mate who's over 18, you can hire out a guide for the day (most understandably want an over 18 in the group in my experience). If you get a few mates to split the cost between, it can be more affordable than it initially seems.

I learned a lot through youtube and books too. It's not a replacement for proper instruction but can make limited hours of instruction stretch further. If you go on the Mountain Training website, they have a bunch of books which are excellent and comprehensive guides to skills for hillwalking, climbing and mountaineering. Freedom of the hills is another classic, although I found it almost TOO overwhelming content-wise. 

For the mountaineering side of things, hillwalking can be a great stepping stone towards that, and it's just more accessible. It teaches you a load of really important skills for the more serious stuff, stuff like navigation, especially in poor weather, and keeping warm in bad conditions etc. 

Finding people to go with is tough. If you're short on outdoorsy mates at school/college, try chatting to people at your climbing wall? Even if you don't end up going on trips with them, I've met some very experienced people who are always happy to give out advice on things, which defo has helped me. 

Transport wise, it doesn't need to cost a bomb. You can grab a 16-17 saver railcard which can get you half-price train tickets, then you can split tickets to save even more money (at the cost of a slower journey) and you can get trains to Wales, Peaks, Lakes etc for really good prices (I paid £11 from London to Penrith just outside the lakes).

I'm 18 and I remember feeling super frustrated when I was 16 for the same reasons. It feels like most things (like mountaineering clubs, JCMT etc) only cater for over 18s, and a lot of the "youth" clubs stop at 16, so it's not as easy as it should be to get into the outdoors as it should be!