Fitness

Mountaineering requires good fitness (no surprise there). The best thing you can do is buy a gym membership and grind out the stair master. However, there are other options for those who don’t find that thought appealing!

• York is blessed with two weekly parkruns. These are good, easy ways to improve your cardiovascular fitness, and will prove very useful on the walk-in to most climbs.
  • Campus East
  • Racecourse
• York has two bouldering gyms, which are perfect for practicing climbing in your own time.
  • Red Goat is located close to campus.
  • Freeklime is located on the outskirts of the city, easily accessible by bike. BL members have a 25% discount on single-entry tickets, please ask at the counter.

Getting fit is especially important if you want to come on our summer trip, which usually involves much bigger mountains in the Alps. It is easy to underestimate the level of fitness needed to complete these mountains, and we will check your fitness levels before allowing you to come.

Learning the ropes

Ropework is key to tackling any harder routes (Grade III+ scrambles, Grade II+ winter climbs, any rock climb). It can seem quite daunting at first, especially when you see the high price tag on much of the gear that we use. We offer training events throughout the year where you’ll be able to work on some rope skills before putting it into action on a trip. This includes trips to indoor climbing centres and local trad crags around Yorkshire (Almscliffe, Scugdale, Brimham etc), which are advertised through our Instagram and in our weekly emails.

An essential resource for learning rope skills, especially the multi-pitch trad climbing at the core of BL activities, is vdiffclimbing.com.

Club gear is available for hire by all members for training purposes, please email or message a member of committee to arrange this.

keep track of your progress

Our members are able to keep track of their training progress through our competency checker. After setting up your account, you’ll be able to view and track your progress with rope skills. Make sure to keep it updated on trips and at training events so we know what you’ve completed!

first aid

We are pleased to offer all of our members the opportunity to complete a Level 3 ITC Outdoor First Aid course. This takes place in autumn each year, and is open to all of our members (with limited spaces). We would highly recommend getting first aid qualified so you are able to respond effectively to any situation that could arise on the mountain!