Having produced a host of talented mountaineers and climbers including the likes of the late Dougal Haston, 'Cubby' Cuthbertson and the current rock climbing star Dave MacLeod, Scotland is arguably already recognised as one of the great climbing nations of the world.
 
And from 10am this Saturday, 180 youngsters aged 7-16 and including almost 20 Scots will aim to highlight the emerging young talent on these shores when the British final of the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) and Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) Youth Climbing Series gets underway at Ratho outside Edinburgh. 
 
Looking ahead to the full day's action on the sheer walls of the world's largest indoor climbing arena at Ratho, Nick Colton, Deputy CEO and Youth Officer for the BMC said: "The competition continues to go from strength to strength.  It has attracted more people than ever this year and the level of climbing talent is extremely impressive."

Colton added:  "It's great to see so many young people keeping fit through climbing and more and more schools now have indoor climbing walls.  These kids are the future of British climbing."