News

BMC member Wayne Andrews from Bettws, South Wales has started a hill walking group for people who suffer with their mental health or an addiction, called Forever In The Hills.

Right now, this May, it’s National Hill Walking month, but not everyone finds it easy to access this hills, whether that’s due to physical, financial or knowledge-based barriers. That’s where the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains charity campaign comes in - this year funding a new Grants & Access officer for the Cotswolds Natural Landscape (formerly known as Cotswolds AONB). The newly appointed Nina Stubbington is now leading the ‘Access for All; Removing Barriers’ programme, improving access to the area for people of all ages, abilities and from all backgrounds.

This May is National Walking month, so to celebrate the power of a good old stomp around the UK’s countryside, nine of the BMC staff have shared their favourite hike. From fossil-hunting in the Peak District and airy Scottish scrambling to the Via Alpina in Switzerland, one of these is bound to tickle your fancy this spring or summer. Better still, with the BMC collaborations with Komoot and HotelPlanner, you can plan and navigate your route and find your accommodation for your trip for less!

Worryingly, small adder populations could be extinct by 2032 unless we act now to help conserve them. The North Pennines National Landscape are asking BMC members to help them record sightings these native UK snakes to better understand their distribution and improve conservation efforts. Their Adders Up project started in February 2024 and will run for three years, hoping to achieve positive outcomes for the conservation of this enigmatic and threatened reptile.

On this year’s Earth Day, Monday 22 April 2024, the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) would love you to donate the cost of your usual cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate to The Climate Project charity campaign. Will you take part?

The Watkin Path up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and the peat hags on neighbouring mountain Glyder Fach have benefitted from BMC volunteer improvement work on the latest Get Stuck In event, 15-16 April 2024. This was organised by Hill Walking Rep Steve Charles and Access & Conservation Officer (Wales) Tom Carrick as part of the Mend Our Mountains project, funded by the BMC Access & Conservation Trust.

This April saw the BMC’s first volunteer day in Pwllheli, North Wales, partnering with The Seagrass Ocean Rescue project and North Wales Wildlife Trust as part of the BMC’s The Climate Project. Two more dates are planned for May and August.

The BMC’s volunteering arm, Get Stuck In, donated £1,500 to Fix the Fells this week to buy footpath repair tools to enable our teams to quite literally get stuck in to fixing the mountain footpaths in the Lake District.

The sphagnum-planting season has come to an end to allow the ground-nesting birds to, well, ground nest! Thank you to all the volunteers that have helped the BMC to plant over 16,000 plugs of this super soggy, carbon-locking moss this winter, helping to restore the Peak District peat bog.

Mend Our Mountains is back for 2024 with six incredible access and conservation projects across England and Wales. This project is funded by the BMC’s Access and Conservation Trust charity (ACT) and we would like to thank all our members, supporters and volunteers for making vital work like this possible. Here’s what is happening this year as a result of your funding, including volunteering events you can get involved with.

Did you know that we have a BMC Community Liftshare site? The Liftshare site is also able to connect you with others going to the same BMC event or Mountain Training course. The beauty of a community like the hillwalking/climbing/mountaineering BMC community is that many of us are often moving in the same direction. This lends itself to the Liftshare infrastructure which can allow us to move in the same direction – together. Greener, and cheaper!

On the 16 April we have the last opportunity to lobby for the 2024 ban on the sale of peat in bagged compost for horticultural use by supporting a Ten Minute Rule Bill speech by England in Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet Theresa Villiers.

The BMC has welcomed another conservation project into The Climate Project portfolio, planting seagrass with Seagrass Ocean Rescue in conjunction with the North Wales Wildlife Trust. This is in addition to the current sphagnum moss planting and peatland restoration with Moors for the Future in the Peak District that you can also get involved with here.

The BMC have been hard at work presenting the Outdoors For All Manifesto to parliament, kick-starting a new addition to The Climate Project, arranging re-bolting, cleaning up crags and consulting on access across England and Wales. Here are the highlights as we swing into spring.

If you’re looking for an unforgettable, high altitude trekking holiday this year we’ve got some great ideas for you here in Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and India from climbing mountaineering expedition operator Jagged Globe. 

Diversity conversations in the outdoors can’t leave anyone out. At ESEA Outdoors UK we’re celebrating the fact that East and Southeast Asian people go outdoors too, in spite of historical erasure and lack of representation in outdoors media. Here’s what you need to know:

BMC members receive a free komoot map bundle (worth £8.99)

It can often seem like choosing the eco-friendly route in life can involve higher costs - from the basics like ethically-sourced food and household refills, all the way to the latest tech in solar panels and electric cars. But with outdoor gear, it can be the exact opposite if you know how!

In the week that sees the Dartmoor wild camping case return to the Court of Appeal, the BMC clearly sets out its position on wild camping.

Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million has helped leave a lasting legacy on some of the highest peaks not only in Scotland, but in the whole of the British Isles.

The absurdity of access islands has made the national news headlines lately, but what exactly are they, what is the problem and what are the BMC doing about it?

Each year there are reports of people who have been attacked, or even trampled to death, by cows whilst out walking or approaching crags. BMC member Simon Coldrick was badly injured after a cow attacked him as he led a fell race on the edge of Sheffield.

The BMC are partnering with HotelPlanner, a leading travel technology platform and hotel booking search engine. The partnership includes a revenue share on member hotel bookings as their Official Accommodation Provider for all BMC events. This partnership means that all BMC members will receive discounted accommodation via the HotelPlanner platform.

Fresh breeze on your face, boots crunching up paths well-known and new, the distinctive song of the skylark and the beautiful green-hill views. Every BMC member, from hill-walker to climber, knows how important the outdoors is for our mental and physical well-being. But with only 11% of England and Wales’ wild spaces currently legal for us to wander through, and many city-dwellers having insufficient access to nature and the outdoors, it’s time for us to take this campaign further. 

Your BMC membership gets you a six month trial to AllTrails worth £17.94 - that’s plenty enough spare for a box of posh choccies and a bottle of wine for your loved one this Valentine’s Day. And where better to devour said chocolates and guzzle said wine than on one of our top five hikes on that romantic getaway you’ve definitely already planned for them… Don’t worry, we’re here to help - take them on one of these lovely walks on AllTrails:

Following his final exam in June 2023, Bath University Mountaineering Club (a BMC-affiliated club) member and Natural Sciences student JJ Weeks embarked upon a two and a half thousand-kilometre walk from his university city, Bath, to Bosnia and Herzegovnia, passing through ten different countries over 100 days. Jane Blackbourn caught up with JJ to hear how it went.

This Valentine’s Day, show your love for our land by sharing the BMC’s new Access Land film to help campaign for better access to wild spaces.

In partnership with Strava and FATMAP, the BMC gifts you a free 60 day premium subscription worth £18.99.

In partnership with AllTrails, the BMC gifts you a free six month subscription worth £17.94.

The BMC confirm appointment of Paul Ratcliffe as new Chief Executive Officer. After a thorough recruitment process The British Mountaineering Council has announced the appointment of Paul Ratcliffe, to lead the BMC into an exciting new era.

Thirty six leading national governing bodies and environmental organisations have joined together to support an Outdoors For All manifesto, seeking to extend responsible access to more green and blue landscapes.

The BMC has recently conducted an access survey in which we posed a series of questions about the types of recreational activities members are currently undertaking outdoors and what the future of access legislation might look like.

Only 20% of Wales is considered open access land. The BMC has been campaigning for increased access to nature in Wales for many years and is now calling for new legislation – a Right to Roam Bill.

The BMC have partnered with YHA (England and Wales) to support the Festival of Walking as it returns this autumn.

The BMC and Kendal Mountain Festival are calling for all adventurers and filmmakers to switch their cameras on and get ready to enter the Women in Adventure Film Competition 2023.

Thousands more people embrace hill and mountain walking, according to new Sport England figures.

Health officials have confirmed that ticks infected with tick borne encephalitis have been found in a small number of areas in England.

Halving emissions by the end of the decade and cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible by 2040 are the ambitious goals set out by the National Governing Body in order to ‘lead by example and play its part in tackling the climate crisis’.

The Cwm Idwal Winter Monitoring system is now back live and with new equipment and software. Ready for you to head up the hills in the best wintery conditions.

The BMC has once again set aside £10,000 per year fund to support volunteer led environmental initiatives and work days to improve crags and upland areas across England and Wales.

Dartmoor National Park Authority met today (27 January) to agreed key decisions on backpack camping.

Help the preserve the upland environment by joining a team of BMC volunteers in Snowdonia and the Lake District.

A new agreement has been made to protect nature in a "historic" deal between nations at COP 15 UN Biodiversity Summit in Montreal.

The BMC is proud to support the crowdfunding drive by CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire in opposition to further road building on the edge of the Peak District. The following is an urgent message from lead campaigner Anne Robinson:

Following a petition that received over 5000 signatures, the National Park in Eryri was spurred to take action to use the Welsh names of Eryri (Snowdonia) and Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) as the primary names in both English and Welsh context. 

Wildlife and Countryside Link (of which the BMC is a member) is calling on the Prime Minister to send a clear message that the UK will be a global leader in implementing 30x30 ahead of talks at COP15 in Montreal in December.