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Climbing walls are proving to be an unlikely location for people to meet their potential partners, as more traditional methods of finding love decline. Sarah Moran, manager at Climbing Works in Sheffield, explained that she has been on dates with those met through the sport, stating, “they’ve come up to me and we’ve chatted a little bit, maybe climbed a little bit together, and at the end, we exchanged numbers.” The managers of multiple climbing centres across the UK have seen a rise in the popularity of the sport since the pandemic struck, mainly due to its introduction at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and British climber Toby Roberts’ success at the Paris 2024 Games.
Climbing, which has over 400 climbing gyms and 400,000 people climbing at least twice a month according to the British Mountaineering Council, is a hyper-social sport that’s conducive to meeting new people. Climbers are often forced to socialise as they spend time on the mats between each climb, catching their breath, planning their next route, or asking for advice. Many climbing centres have their own cafes where climbers continue to socialize even after their workout.
Kaloyan Galev, 21, met his partner Samuel Prentice, 22, at a student climbing event in early 2020, which hosts specific “LGBT nights” and is “very accepting,” according to Galev. Climbing walls are also similar to a “grown-up youth club,” according to Gill Peet, manager at Blackburn climbing wall Onyx.
In comparison, the use of dating apps has decreased, with 10% of UK adults who use the internet using these platforms and 4.9 million people using online dating services in May, down from soaring numbers following the introduction of Tinder in 2014. According to Mariko Visserman,
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