“He’s really good at climbing,” says eight-year-old Ivy Wilson, who has just scaled a wall at the Cambridge branch of Clip ’n Climb, the New Zealand-founded “theme-park meets climbing walls” experience that spawned a global phenomenon. “I like how he did it so fast.”
The man in question is Toby Roberts – the 19-year-old climbing wunderkind who struck gold for Team GB in the men’s boulder and lead event at this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
The fresh-faced Roberts, who was given the unlikely nickname of “the Terminator” by his teammates, became the first British male climber to qualify for the games when he won the 2023 European qualifiers in Laval, France.
His unexpected win in Paris is now propelling a whole new generation of climbers through the door of this Cambridge climbing centre, says the owner Beth Walthew – so many that she saw a 35% rise in footfall the week following Roberts’ triumph.
Walthew is not alone in feeling “the Terminator” effect: climbing centres across Britain are reporting a surge in interest after the teenager’s historic win.
“There was a lot of buzz here around Toby Roberts,” says Walthew. “We had an in-house speed climbing competition the week of the games and everyone was talking about it. Anything that gets climbing into the public psyche is a good thing.”
Walthew estimates that about 80% of her customer base is under 18, with children as young as two giving the sport a go as part of the centre’s “Little Rockers” toddler group. “Kids will come to us as a first step before they move on to traditional indoor climbing walls and that’s brilliant to see.”
Climbing is a new addition to the Olympic roster, having debuted at the Tokyo 2020 games. But interest in the sport has been a slow burn, says Katie Varian, managing director of Eden Rock Edinburgh, which is home to Scotland’s biggest indoor bouldering wall. “Climbing seems so behind other sports in terms of the number of people who know about it,” she says.
Unlike Tokyo 2020, where climbers competed for a combined top score across speed, boulder and lead events, climbing at this year’s Olympics was split into two separate competitions – with speed climbing standing as a separate event and boulder and lead climbing combined as another.
Which is just as well, because it was Ivy’s favourite fixture. “I climb everything,” she says. “Even at places where I’m not supposed to.”
Her mother Sarah’s interest in the sport, meanwhile, will resonate with parents the world over: “It’s a great place to take them because it means they won’t be climbing the furniture in my house.”
Ashley Loveday, 15, is considering enrolling in an indoor climbing course having honed his skills at Clip ’n Climb. “It’s just fun to do,” he says. “I really like climbing to new heights and completing new challenges.”
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Walthew opened the centre with her husband, Chris, in 2016, having visited one of the UK’s first Clip ’n Climbs while on holiday in Exeter. “Our daughter just loved it, and it was amazing to see how quickly she was able to progress,” she says.
The Clip ’n Climb approach uses an auto-belay system that means children can climb trails of up to seven metres knowing that if they fall, they will be released gently back to the ground. The UK has been the Kiwi company’s biggest success story, with 80 centres and counting across the nation.
But not all in the climbing community welcome the craze. “It’s a bit like if we’d won gold and everyone went and played crazy golf,” says Phil Minal, co-owner of Redpoint Birmingham.
“It wouldn’t exactly increase golf participation. Not to diss Clip ’n Climb, but indoor climbing gyms like ours are more of a chance to learn proper technique, which ultimately leads to people becoming independent climbers.”
But for many, the colourful walls of these school holiday hotspots provide an important stepping stone. “We have had an increase in interest in our climbing classes, which hopefully means that there will be a steady flow of future climbers feeding into Team GB in the future,” says Keely Weir, managing director of Clip ’n Climb Bicester.
Oliver Scott, 11, first climbed at Weir’s centre aged five and has now progressed to a traditional climbing gym. “I would love to be as good as Toby Roberts one day,” he says. “It’s cool that my friends now know the name of a climber. Before he got gold they didn’t know many.”
