The BMC Youth Climbing Series (YCS) is an open national competition for climbers aged 7-17.  Being an open competition, anyone can enter regardless of experience.

The format changes slightly from year to year, but is always an equal mix of both bouldering and routes (top-roping for younger climbers and lead climbing for older competitors) to test all-round ability.  Each year, the BMC run a number of regional heats, with the top climbers from each region going forwards to a national Grand Final.

BMC Youth Climbing Series Regional rounds

This year, the series heats consists of 4 regional rounds - 2 boulder and 2 routes.  The regions are shown on the map below.  In a departure from previous years, your club or home address do not have to be in the region you compete in, but competitors must complete all rounds in a single region.

Regional Venues

London & SE North
160 entries only 
Round 1: Stronghold UK, Tottenham Hale
Round 2:  Big Rock Bond, Milton Keynes
Round 3: Highball Climbing Centre, Norwich
Round 4:  Big Rock Bond, Milton Keynes

London & SE South 
160 entries only 
Round 1: Parthian Climbing, Southampton
Round 2:  Parthian Climbing, Southampton
Round 3: Boulder Shack, Southampton
Round 4: Calshot Activity Centre, Southampton

Midlands 
160 entries only
Round 1: Social Climbing, Leicester
Round 2:  Nottingham Climbing Centre
Round 3: Depot Climbing Centre, Birmingham
Round 4:  Creation Climbing Centre, Birmingham

North East & Lakes
90 entries only
Round 1: Valley Climbing Centre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Round 2: Sunderland Wall
Round 3: Eden Rock, Carlisle
Round 4: Lakeland Climbing Centre, Kendal 

North West & Yorkshire
100 entries only 
Round 1: Depot Climbing Centre, Manchester
Round 2: Preston Climbing Wall
Round 3: City Bloc, Leeds
Round 4: Big Depot Climbing, Leeds

South West North 
100 entries only
Round 1:  Rockstar Climbing, Swindon
Round 2:  Rockstar Climbing, Swindon
Round 3: Boulders, Cheltenham
Round 4:  Green Spider Climbing, Hereford

South West South
110 entries only
Round 1: The Quay Climbing Centre, Exeter
Round 2:  Plymouth Life Centre
Round 3: The Tide, Cornwall
Round 4: The Climbing Hangar, Plymouth

Wales/Cymru
120 entries only
Round 1: Boulder Hut, Ellesmere Port
Round 2: Rock UK, Summit Centre, Treharris
Round 3: The Climbing Hangar, Swansea
Round 4: Beacon Climbing Centre, Caernarfon

Each region has a unique entry cap on their regional rounds based on the maximum number of competitors the smallest wall in their region can facilitate. This must be used to ensure the safety of the competitors, spectators, volunteers and wall staff. 

BMC Youth Climbing Series Categories

YCS categories are determined by year of birth and gender with two 'year groups' in each category.  The table below shows the categories for this year and the next few.

The BMC Youth Climbing Series is an entry point for national teams, therefore rules are comprehensive and fairly rigidly applied.  This could be intimidating to inexperienced climbers, so we would definitely recommend building up some competition experience so that there's not too much to take on board in one go!  That said, the YCS is, as with all other climbing competitions we've attended, a friendly and positive competition.

To find out more about the BMC Youth Climbing Series, take a look at  BMC Youth Climbing Series - The Basics

BMC Youth Climbing Series Results

The BMC have a page dedicated to the YCS results here:  ycsresults.co.uk