The BMC Leading Ladder: back for winter

Posted by Becky McGovern on 01/10/2013

The BMC Leading Ladder is a fun lead climbing competition running at 28 UK walls from 2 November 2013 to 23 February 2014. Taking part is the ideal way to get fit, and stay fit, during the indoor winter season.

Each participating wall will set ten BMC Leading Ladder routes ranging from F5+ to 8a.  You will have two weeks in which to climb these routes.  Please see the date and venue list below.  At the end of the series there will be a Grand Final on 22 March 2014 at the Beacon Climbing Centre, Caenarfon.  To be considered for the final you must compete in at least two rounds.

Scoring and results

For results for each round - click  HERE

There will be four age/gender categories:  female under 16 / female 16+ / male under 16 / male 16+. To take part all you need do is purchase a scorecard (£1) from the hosting wall: complete it and return it to the wall at the end of the round.  Walls will then send the scorecards to the BMC for inclusion in the results.

Competitor rankings from each round of the series will be published after each round has finished. No scores will be published with the rankings. Scores will be published at the end of the series when each age/gender category will be split into three ability categories: Elite, Intermediate and Novice.  A climber’s final result will be their average score over the number of rounds they have completed.

Qualifying for the final

The ten highest scoring climbers from each of the ability categories will qualify for the Grand Final. You must be a BMC member to take part in the final.  If a category quota is not full there will be no substitutions for climbers who have not competed in at least 2 rounds.

PLEASE READ THE FULL RULES

Venues & dates 2013/2014

Round One: 2 to 17 November
North West Face (Warrington)
Boulders (Cardiff)
Glasgow Climbing Centre
Lakeland Climbing Centre (Kendal)
The Reach (London)

Round Two: 16 November to 1 December
The Castle Climbing Centre
The Leeds Wall
The Warehouse (Gloucestershire)
The Foundry (Sheffield)
Climb Rochdale

Round Three: 30 November to 15 December
Awesome Walls Sheffield
Beacon Climbing Centre North Wales
West View Climbing & Leisure Centre  Preston
Undercover Rock (Bristol)
High Sports (Plymouth)

Round Four: 11 January to 26 January 
Sunderland Wall
Awesome Walls Stockport
Kilnworx Climbing Centre (Stoke-on-Trent)
ROKT Climbing Gym Brighouse

Round Five: 25 January to 9 Febuary
Harrogate Climbing Centre
Westway Sports Centre  London
Awesome Walls Liverpool
The Quay Climbing Centre (Exeter)
Dynamic Rock (Swansea)

Round Six: 8 Febuary to 23 Febuary
Manchester Climbing Centre
Newcastle Climbing Centre
Dark Rock (Devon)
Craggy Island (Surrey)
Reading Climbing Centre
Closer to the Edge Climbing Centre (West Midlands)
 

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Anonymous User
02/10/2013
There is a major issue with the new scoring system when applied to Junior categories. Look at last year's girls' scores in particular and it becomes apparent that the overall scores are very much skewed to the lower end. Add in the 5 year age range (size and experience difference) and children who qualified and did well this year may not get a look in next year. There is a real risk of talented climbers from the IFSC C category doing too well to get into the intermediate category but missing out on qualifying for the elite category. Why not consider IFSC age categories for Juniors?
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Anonymous User
03/10/2013
How are the venues chosen? Disappointed to see no walls in West Midlands, there are plenty about.
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Anonymous User
04/10/2013
Nothing in the East of England? Northampton, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Stowmarket, Leicester are usually on there?
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Anonymous User
08/10/2013
How come there are only 6 rounds????? i was hoping for more venues than this (ie more days off work....)
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Anonymous User
10/10/2013
Shame no category for veterans.
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Anonymous User
12/10/2013
Ditto on the no West Midlands comment. I can't see any walls that are within an hours drive of my house. Quite disappointed! Hopefully more walls will come on board.
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Anonymous User
15/10/2013
Are you allowed to enter the same round more than once?
Thanks
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Anonymous User
17/10/2013
There a quite a few questions on here now, does someone from the BMC care to address them?
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Tim Waterhouse(staff comment)
22/10/2013
All comments and questions have been noted. Expect a response next week from Rob Adie, BMC Competitions Officer.
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Rob Adie
28/10/2013
Hi Guys,

I will answer the questions in order.

1. The leading ladder has always been very difficult to make it fair and transparent whilst still retaining the fun, open character to the event. We have changed the rules this year based on feedback we had from competitors last year. We will see how these changes go this year and review them at the end of the series. You are right this may end of with a slightly different breakdown of finalists but this would happen if you changed the rules in any direction.

2, 3, 4, & 6. The venues are chosen based on new suitable walls putting themselves forward to host and walls that have hosted in the last season returning at least 5 score cards - if they dont return more than 5 score cards we look to replace them with new host walls that are keen to be involved - hence the lack of walls in certain regions.

5. Although the leading ladder is well attended overall, there is not currently enough climbers who do multiple rounds and qualify for the final to justify a veterans class.

7. No you can not enter the round at the same venue more than once - you are entitled to compete at more than one venue within the same round though.

Cheers

Rob Adie
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Anonymous User
06/11/2013
entered 1st ever round on Saturday. The gut at Kendal wall with the pony tail didn't look up from his computer screen when I told him a hold on the 6a+ route spun right round. He said he was too busy, 2 staff members down or something... Didn't take a note of the route or hold... Didn't even ask. A bit rude an uninterested... Quality control please?
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Anonymous User
07/11/2013
Where is the final?
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Anonymous User
14/11/2013
I cannot find information on category thresholds (novice / intermediate / elite)
Further more, has the BMC membership requirement always existed ?
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Rob Adie
22/11/2013
Hopefully the guys at Kendal where just very busy as I my experience of the guys there are very enthusiastic guys. I am sure this is just a one off.

Final details have just been posted above.

The new rules mean that the thresholds for the categories will be decided at the end of the series. And yes the requirement for BMC membership has always existed due to a need for competitors to have 3rd party insurance which BMC membership provides.

Cheers

Rob
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Rob Adie
22/11/2013
Hopefully the guys at Kendal where just very busy as I my experience of the guys there are very enthusiastic guys. I am sure this is just a one off.

Final details have just been posted above.

The new rules mean that the thresholds for the categories will be decided at the end of the series. And yes the requirement for BMC membership has always existed due to a need for competitors to have 3rd party insurance which BMC membership provides.

Cheers

Rob
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Anonymous User
25/11/2013
> Competitor rankings from each round of the series will be published after each round has finished.

Round one finished 17/11. When/where are the rankings going to be published?
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Anonymous User
28/11/2013
I thought BMC membership was only required for the finals?
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Anonymous User
04/12/2013
When can we expect to see results?! We're now in round 3 and round 1 results haven't been posted.... Unless I'm missing something?!
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Becky McGovern(author comment)
10/12/2013
The results for Round 1 are now live. Please scroll to the top of this article to the 'Scoring and results' heading.
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Becky McGovern(author comment)
10/12/2013
In reply to comment 3. Please note that a new wall has been added to the last round: Closer to the Edge in the West Midlands.

Kind regards
Becky
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Anonymous User
02/01/2014
Results up to round 3 please?
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Anonymous User
24/01/2014
BMC, can you give us some indication as to when the results for Rounds 2 & 3 are going to be put up?

Thanks
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Anonymous User
01/02/2014
The new rules where the average score from all of the rounds is taken puts people who started badly and improved at a disadvantage compared to people who started well.
This is because if you started well you can choose not to submit your scorecard if it will result in a decrease to your average score, however if you started badly there is nothing that can be done
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Becky McGovern(author comment)
24/02/2014
Did you take part in the round at Sunderland Wall on 11 to 26 Jan? If you did please email Amii at the BMC with your results amii@thebmc.co.uk Sunderland Wall posted the scorecards back, but they never arrived.

RESULTS
We intend to update the results at the end of this week with all rounds. This all depends on the walls returning the scores to us. We will do our best to get the scores back as swiftly as possible. Please bear with us.

Many thanks
Becky
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Anonymous User
13/03/2014
This website is brilliant, keep up the good work
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Luisal
27/10/2014
any one knows where can i find dates an venues for teh BMC Leading Ladder 2014-15 ? i can only find info about past 2013-14
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Anonymous User
18/11/2014
As above would like to know about this years event usually we know by now - Regards.
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