Climbing centre is amazing at bridging bouldering gender gap

• Bloc Haus Climbing Centre gets funding from MCRactive to give women discount bouldering sessions
• Climbing community brings together people from all walks of life

Being within an active community has inspired people to turn to niche sports for a more enjoyable workout experience, one of those being indoor bouldering.

Manchester has the most active population in the country with 82% of people within the city exercising weekly or more, according to National World.

This alternative fun, social, and challenging sport has now started to bloom. 

Bouldering

This uptake could be due to bouldering being introduced into the Olympics in 2021 and made a permanent staple in 2024, not to mention the hit Netflix show, Skyscraper that came out earlier this year, featuring Alex Honnold free climbing, Taipei 101.

Now Bloc Haus Climbing in Openshaw Manchester has teamed up with Manchester Active for funding to encourage more women into the sport. 

“We’ve got funding from Manchester Active to bring more women into Bloc Haus from the ages of 14-25. They’ll pay a one off small fee, for four weeks of climbing,” says Deaglan O’Rourke, a manager at Bloc Haus who helps look after the centres community engagement. 

The Association of British Climbing Walls found in 2025 through their biannual study that visits to walls across the UK had jumped from 23,000 in attendance to almost 68,000.

Yet, according to data recorded by the BMC, 32% of who boulder or climb are women and 63% are men. To reduce this gap, wall centres are introducing more women’s climbing events. 

Bloc Haus Climbing getting funding from MCRactive gives women four climbing sessions for the price of one. In a bid to positively introduce women to the climbing world and reduce one of the main factors people struggle with, the cost. 

“Bloc Haus climbing has a real community vibe,” Deagland added: “A space has been created where people can come and climb on the doorstep of the Peak District – it’s organically formed and everyone has similar values and shared interests”.

Community of women

“The purpose of this is to get more women into climbing from the local area that maybe haven’t climbed before. We’re not experts in the area, we really try to use our community of women to understand what some of the common barriers that women face when it comes to climbing.

“It can be an overwhelming experience, there’s lots of noise, colours, and people throwing themselves about. We can kind of guess, but it’s helpful to have a real life experience of what barriers there are. So, cost and funding is obviously one, because there’s risk involved when you’re paying £15 to come to an activity that you might absolutely hate.

“Now we are pinpointing how we can empower the community leaders to really make something of it.”

Ellie Slater heads up the induction for the women’s climbing sessions and ladies nights every Tuesday.

She said: “I’ve been doing it [an instructor for ladies night] for just over a year now. It’s been lovely, we make cups of tea, have cake and climb, It’s great!

“I got into climbing about nine years ago, it just sounded like a lot of fun and you meet so many people.”

Experienced instructors

The first group session is on Tuesdays, led by experienced climber and instructor Ellie Slater, who teaches the basic skills of climbing and encourages everyone within the group to socialise, creating a positive environment. 

The three remaining sessions are up to the individual climbers discretion, yet with the first induction lesson taking place on Tuesday evenings followed by a women’s social night. It introduces women to each other, sparking connection with the sport and a higher likelihood of repeat sessions.