Climbing

Climbing offers a challenge to both the body and the mind and gives a chance to develop personal strength and balance as well as problem solving skills in a new and unique dimension. It is also a great opportunity to make new friends with a similar passion. The social element of climbing is often overlooked but is a key part to what makes climbing such a great sport. Climbing was also introduced as an Olympic sport in the Tokyo 2020 games, with Great Britan’s Toby Roberts bringing home gold in the Paris 2024 games for sport climbing.

As a club, we frequently compete at competitions around the North, including NUBS and BUCS, as well as the yearly varsity competition against our rival University of Huddersfield. Climbing competitions are a brilliant experience open to any ability and are a good chance to flex your competitive side!

Training sessions are twice weekly, both at Unique Fitness and Depot Climbing walls. You must have a membership to attend. Sessions are:

- Mondays 18:00 - 21:00 - Sessions hosted at Unique Fitness (on campus) which offers bouldering, lead, top rope and new for this year, auto belays! Unique Fitness is a great place to learn new skills such as top rope or lead climbing and socialise with other members.

- Fridays 18:00 - 21:00 - External climbing sessions at Depot Climbing . Depot has two bouldering walls in Leeds and we will inform you which wall we will be going to in advance. Unfortunately, the club cannot provide transport, but join our WhatsApp group to find out how others are getting there.

Membership: We have tried to keep our prices to a minimum to keep climbing accessible. Membership starts from £25 for the year which gives you access to our sessions, free entry to sessions we host at Unique Fitness and helps us cover costs for competitions. Unfortunately it does not cover the cost of transport to or entry into sessions hosted at Depot walls. We do hold sessions on student days, on which entry starts at £6.50 with student ID. We can provide shoes for these sessions too if you let us know which size you would like in advance.

At the Unique Gym, we have a bouldering wall which is the ideal place to start learning but is also perfect for more advanced climbers looking to endurance train or try a new dynamic move. We have a top rope and lead rope that are still easily accessible to novice climbers and offer the opportunity for experienced climbers to stretch their legs on the more difficult routes. The bouldering wall is reset infrequently, allowing for projecting of routes, but this year there will be new routes created over the summer. With the addition of auto belays, sessions here will be a fun, enjoyable climb with new opportunities for developing our climbing. 

Climbing can be dangerous - We recommend that you watch the following video as a very rough guide to some of the safety precautions. Bouldering Safety Video  

(Not all of the rules in the video are relevant but are still good for a basic understanding). 

There will always be an experienced climbing executive who is friendly and more than willing to show you the ropes! We take safety very seriously, and will always be happy to answer any questions you have about sessions.