Castle Climbing Centre is holding a series of events celebrating the achievements of women for International Women’s Day (IWD) this week.
The centre, which is based in Stoke Newington, aims to highlight the success of women who have stepped outside of their comfort zone and inspire other women to do the same.
According to the British Association of Climbing Walls, just 30 percent of climbers at participating walls were women.
“The number of men and women is quite a big difference and is something that is common across different sports in the UK. The idea of these events is to encourage people to get into climbing and to help women that do climb feel a bit more confident in their abilities,” said Amy Yates, Events Coordinator for Castle Climbing Centre.
The climbing centre has been holding IWD events since 2017.
“For us it’s about breaking down the barriers women face in climbing. A climbing wall can be an intimidating place, especially if it’s your first time, not just for women, for everybody. Quite commonly in sports when people try something new they’re worried about how they look and how they appear.”
“We try to get women to think outside of the box. We want women to feel comfortable about doing sports, no matter what the sport is,” said Yates.
The week of events began with a talk by Beth Martin, who cycled from the UK to Hong Kong along with another female cyclist. The dangers the women faced on this journey would have put off the bravest of cyclists, but the centre wants to inspire women to step out of their comfort zone.
“Beth highlighted a few interesting things you can face as a female traveller and the benefits of it which is quite interesting because talks about journeys like that tend to focus on the dangers. They got to experience a lot of different cultures and interact with women from all around the world,” said Yates.
The event also featured a talk by Anoushé Husain, an inspirational paraclimber.
“Anoushé has lived through multiple health conditions and being a Muslim women she has an interesting insight into climbing here. The demographics for BME groups in climbing is quite low so having Anoushé on board is great,” said Yates.
“She reaches out to a whole heap of communities and inspires them to break barriers and to do things they never imagined doing,” she added.
“She’s a very inspirational figure. She learnt to climb a few years ago at our centre. Since then she’s set up a group called Paraclimbing London to help differently-abled people give climbing a go,” said Yates.
On Wednesday, the centre held “Wilderness Workshops”, which aims to give women the skills to go camping and foraging.
On Thursday, a “One-Off Women’s Movement Course” will take place from 6pm-9pm. The session aims to teach women basic climbing skills and build up their confidence on the walls. The week is rounded off with a Bouldering Competition, starting at 5pm. The winner will receive a free month’s membership and goodies from climbing gear designer, Arc’teryx Piccadilly.
“We’ve tried to keep the events skills-based so the women can take something away and apply it in their climbing. Mentally, it’s very beneficial. Attending and seeing what other women are achieving helps people realise they can push past their comfort zone to achieve things they thought were unimaginable,” said Yates.
