British Paraclimbing Championships 2025
The British Paraclimbing Championships 2025. Photo: Louise Anderbjörk
On Saturday, the 11th of October, the British Paraclimbing Championships took over the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena in Ratho for a full day of high-level competition. Athletes from across the UK, including several members of Britain’s international high-performance team, gathered to compete across qualifiers and finals in 13 categories for the titles of British Champions 2025.
As for me, I was there as the official photographer for GB Climbing, marking my first assignment with a national sporting body in the UK. This marked an existing milestone in my career, and offered incredible opportunities to learn and grow as a sports photographer in a high-performance environment.
The day began at 10 a.m. with the first rounds of men’s and women’s qualifiers. It was the towering central wall at Ratho - one of the largest climbing arenas in Europe - that hosted all the action for the morning, with four climbing routes active at once in the qualifiers. For me, this was one of the first time shooting climbing, making the qualifiers a perfect chance to find the rhythm of the sport, and translating the research I’d done the night before about climbing into key moment action shots.
To my pleasant surprise, the lighting was fantastic at Ratho. Indoor sports often come with dim and uneven lighting that pose one of the biggest challenges to sport photographers, but Ratho’s setup was remarkably bright and even. With ISO puzzles and image noise out of the way as the main challenge, the chilly autumn temperatures became the biggest variable to adjust to throughout the day. This is as the Ratho arena is built into a former dolerite quarry, presenting a stunning venue but one that keeps the chill of the rock. Still, that’s part of the beauty of sports photography, to adapt to the unpredictable and unexpected with some creative problem solving. No two days are ever the same in this job, and I love that.
The British Paraclimbing Championships 2025. Photo: Louise Anderbjörk
As for the athletes, their performances were nothing short of inspiring. The strength, precision, and determination showcased by these elite paraclimbers was fantastic to watch, and translated into strong visual language and some incredible action shots. Between the moments of grit, focus, and celebration on the climbing walls, I found myself equally drawn to capturing the reactions of the crowd. The audience was electric in Ratho, with every cheer and gasp reflecting the strong sense of community and support in British climbing, and their engagement in the competition giving me photos that really reflected the larger story of para sports.
Once the qualifiers wrapped up, it was time for a quick lunch and then a retreat to the media office that Ratho had kindly set aside for us. With the finals not due to start until 4 p.m., I dove straight into editing. My first task was to select, edit, and deliver a small batch of highlight images for immediate upload on GB Climbing’s social media. After that, it was over to culling and editing the main gallery of over 300 frames at this point, which was sure to keep me busy up until the start of the finals later that afternoon.
By the time I returned to the arena for the finals, you could sense how the atmosphere had shifted with a more focused and quiet crowd of both athletes and spectators. The starting field had narrowed from roughly 30 athletes to the final few, and a palpable sense of concentration filled the air. Athletes entered the wall in pairs, tackling their routes under a watchful silence broken by a strong cheer at the end of each climb.
The British Paraclimbing Championships 2025. Photo: Louise Anderbjörk
As the climbing was over and the podium ceremony began, the tension of the finals quickly melted away into a community celebration. The mats beneath the walls filled with athletes, coaches, match officials, and friends cheering on the new champions. In total, thirteen British Champions were crowned that evening, and I was struck by the overwhelming sense of shared joy for everyone’s achievements, which I tried hard to reflect in my closing images of the day.
As the day came to a close and I packed up my gear, I felt very grateful for the incredible opportunity I had been given to join GB Climbing with my camera for the day. It was a fantastic learning experience, and a very inspiring day to be a sports photographer.
The British Paraclimbing Championships 2025. Photo: Louise Anderbjörk