UKC

Not a mic take I'm genuinely trying to learn a bit about what the BMC does.
I've been researching and so far I can see...

It negotiations access for climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers (CHM) to private land.

It owns(?) and runs all the British climbing championship type things.

It sponsors professional GB team climbers?

It investigates gear failures.

I understand it doesn't do anything in Scotland?

Is that everything? Please correct anything I've got wrong.
Cheers for any help.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

This month's summit mag has a really good breakdown of where their money is spent.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Guidebooks!

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

It runs training courses for all sorts of climbing; indoors / outdoors / sport / trad / winter.
It provides expert advice and codes of best practice
It offer s grants to clubs / expeditions
It runs the GB comp teams, but doesny fund them anywhere close enough to be considered sponsorship.
It does more in Scotland than you probably imagine, especially through links with Mountaineering Scotland.
It provides travel insurance
Etc etc etc.........

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:
Owns and/or manages several highly important climbing areas.
Represents the views of CHM in issues such as environmental or planning consultations

In reply to Ian W:


It actually forks out £100,000* p.a to Mountaineering Scotland to support 'their' access work on behalf of all British climbers and walkers.

*I may have made that figure up But I think its fairly accurate.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:


I think 'supports' is more accurate rather than 'sponsors'. That is it doesn't actually give dosh to comp climbers. See my other post about what it does/n't do in Scotland!

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

It provides Niall Grimes!!!!!!!!!

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Crag access negotiations at local and national levels

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

It ran the hugely successful Mend our Mountains campaign last year raising over £130k for various repair work activities in the upland regions of each of our National Parks and gained a huge amount of useful media attention to the problems our upland areas face.

On the ground in each area teams of dedicated activists tackle access and conservation issues and speak up for climbers' and hill walkers' interests in their own areas ably supported by the BMC Access and Conservation team.

It hosted an upland footpaths conference last year to get interested parties talking about how to face the consequences of increasing pressure outdoor recreation places on our hills and mountains whilst encouraging the sharing of best practise.

In reply to AimHigh_Peter_Judd:

And of course there's the aquaducts.....

In reply to Andy Say:



Even that is a rather big exaggeration. Most of the team end up not attending most of the World Cups.

And how much coaching does it actually provide?

In reply to stp:

I think it's probably more accurate to say that its main role in regard to comps is to administer the team and to coordinate events at various levels. AFAIK coaching and competition attendance support have always been highly desirables that were very much contingent on funding from sponsorship or from specific government programmes.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

I've got a little leaflet entitled 'The British Mountaineering Council: What it is, What it does.'

'The purpose of the Council is to promote the interests of mountaineering and mountaineers, to protect climbing grounds and amenities........to improve equipment and safety'.
'Examples of it's activities are:-
Helping its members with advice.....
Representations to Government Departments and.......other bodies in the Lakes, Snowdonia. Peak and elsewhere over access....
Spreading information about safety....through pamphlets and its illustrated journal.....
Representing the interests of mountaineers on Regional Sports Councils and in the UIAA....'

Sums it up really.


The leaflet is signed by the president, The Lord Hunt of Llanvair Waterdine and it also suggests that individual members may wish to pay more than the annual subscription of £1 to give financial support. Clubs pay 1/- per member.......

In reply to Andy Say:

Well yes, I´ m a bit suprised that the earlier posts neglected probably the most important aspects of the BMC´ s work.
Representing the interests of all "mountaineers" to the government both of the UK and the EU and providing input to any relevant legislation as well as creating and influencing manufacturing and safety standards both within EN and the UIAA.

In reply to jimtitt:

That was included in my etc etc etc...........

Kinda proves the BMC cover rather a lot.