UKC

Reading the article about the BMC appointing a Hill Walking officer to their team. I fully support this, but what I was more interested in was part of the article which wrote; 'In the latest BMC membership survey, 62% said hill walking was their primary mountain-related activity.'. I'm surprised that what has started off as a predominately climbing based organisation has managed to sign up so many members of the walking community (obviously people do both!).

But to have 62% of people who have walking as there mountain-related activity, makes me wonder a few things. First of all, am I over thinking this and the sentence is only talking about people who use the mountains, and not crags/boulders/anything else people can get their hands on.

Secondly, is this survey really a direct representation of the BMCs membership? Could it be possible that you could draw a positive correlation between people who prefer hill walking to climbing (say due the nature of the sports) to people who and the willingness/time to fill in the survey?

Thirdly, it could mean exactly what it says and there really is roughly 62% of people who walk as their primary activity in the BMC. In which case does that mean 'climbers' are less inclined (then why?) to join the BMC than 'walkers' or does that mean 'climbers' that are part the BMC would choose walking over climbing. The latter, to be honest, doesn't sound like many climbers that I know.

Am I making sense? Can anyone else come up with a reason why this is the case?

In reply to The Green Giant: well, according to many BBC articles, the term climbers and hill walkers are the same!

In reply to The Green Giant:


There will be far more walkers in Britain than climbers. Many of these walkers will appreciate the work done by the BMC. Or they may be ex-climbers who still like to hill walk. The BMC has long represented hillwalkers, so it's not surprising that they now form a majority of those who respond.

You mean like people who "climb" Snowdon?

I imagine there are probably more hillwalkers who also climb then climbers who don't hillwalk?

Neil

In reply to The Green Giant: Perhaps it is a simple numbers game. If all the walkers and all the climbers joined the BMC (for argument's sake) maybe 62% would still be walkers?

In reply to The Green Giant:

Depends how you classify hillwalking. I prefer mountain routes to cragging. If I have a 2 hour walk in, spend 2 hours on a route, and spend 2 hours walking out, I've spent 1/3 of my day climbing and 2/3 walking. So is that a walking day or a climbing day?

In reply to The Green Giant: Here's the article, for any forum readers who don't look at UKH: http://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/item.php?id=67992

Interesting questions here, I'll see if the BMC can shed any light

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

Cheers Dan, I don't really know what else to say apart from what I have said already. Still intrigued.

In reply to The Green Giant: If I had to choose one activity from the two - either never climb again or never go for a walk that wasn't mostly climbing - I'd have to stick with walking. To that end I'm a walker, but I'm not sure I could call it my single "primary" activity. For me, the happy medium is somewhere between the two, doing a mixture of all (rock/ice/walk/scramble/camp...).

The only word that I would use to describe it is "Mountaineer", even though I haven't done much alpine stuff and nothing in the greater ranges! Climber and Hillwalker are both inadequate terms, at least for me, since they are only partial.

In reply to higherclimbingwales:

One would hope the BMC is more clued up about any distinctions than the BBC?