About

Climbing for All Sheffield is a registered charity which was set up “to help children, young people and adults with a wide range of disabilities enjoy rock climbing and mountaineering and be visible and included in the climbing community in Sheffield.”

Our base is The Foundry Climbing Centre in Sheffield. We started a climbing club to offer a sustainable weekly climbing opportunity club members. We also run ‘Come and Try It’ sessions and other sociable and inspiring events whenever we can.

Climbing for All Sheffield was registered with the UK Charity Commission on 3rd May 2016, Charity Register Number 1166860. You can find our charity registration on the Charity Commission portal.

The story dates back to 2013, when a 14-year-old girl wanted to climb. Some people were doubtful – can you really climb if you’re in a wheelchair and use a ventilator to help you breathe? The answer is YES! A friend introduced Clare to Nick and Robin Whittaker and, after one trial in the living room, Clare started climbing at The Foundry. One thing led to another. Two or three other “want-to-climbers” also had a go with the Whittaker family and Helen Blundell as the regular climbing wizards. Helen took groups of climbers from Kelford and Hilltop schools as well, and The Foundry developed instructor experience in assisting differently-abled groups.

In 2016 we were wanting to set up a sustainable climbing club so that more people could try climbing … a sociable club, where disabled children, young people and adults can enjoy climbing and can be part of the climbing community. We met people from other centres, and ran a ‘Climbing for All’ workshop for instructors and volunteers. We applied for charitable status, and we raised some money. People gave us kit! And added their enthusiasm to ours.

Five years on we have a well-established group of climbers. We have climbers still climbing with us since 2016, we have joiners in 2017, 2018 and 2019. We even have one or two from 2020 – though that particular year saw the start of our 14 month break from sessions because of the Covid-19 pandemic.  We have a wonderful set of volunteers, making all this climbing possible. We’ve had annual fundraising events, allowing us to continue to subsidise climbing (we suggest a ‘Pay As You Feel’ contribution from climbers but never want finance to be a barrier to anyone). We helped groups get launched outside our club, and we’re proud that we’ve achieved our secondary aim of making disabled climbers visible and included in the climbing community.

Here we are …

Read the early story  if you like. Look at our News and Events page for more recent updates. Or Contact Us us if you want to climb, or you’d like to volunteer, or if we can talk together about ‘Climbing for All’ initiatives or other topics of interest. 

Or meet us on our Facebook page.