You may be wondering why Mountaineering Ireland is not involved in delivering or promoting the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships. We approached them on numerous occasions between 2016 and 2020 to discuss our developing Sport Hillwalking initiatives as a potential joint venture.
Our initial contact with Mountaineering Ireland (MI) was in 2016, shortly after we published Ireland's major geographical High Point lists. At that time, we were also considering the possibility of launching Highpointeering as a standalone sport. The advice from both Sport Ireland and Sport Northern Ireland at that stage was to approach MI initially with the view of establishing Highpointeering as a new "discipline" within the wider context of hillwalking. We followed this advice knowing that, if that approach failed, it would at least help to boost Highpointeering's chances of becoming a recognised standalone sport in its own right. At that time, MI were being criticized for their bias towards rockclimbing. Much of this criticism was coming from their own membership which was mainly composed of hillwalkers. We invited MI to co-deliver the first-ever Irish national hillwalking sports competition - the All-Ireland Highpointeering Individuals League - which we had just recently launched. Our offer did not require them to get involved in the task of running this competition. By simply recognising and promoting it, they could have taken a decent portion of the credit from having put very little effort in. In short, we were offering MI a convenient way to address their bias towards rockclimbing while also helping them to boost hillwalking's status as a true sport (surely a major objective for any sport's governing body).
During our initial discussion, MI asked us to come back to them a year later with the view of joining them as a fee-paying club. Even though we were making all the offers, we were also at the receiving end of all the demands. It wasn't the most positive sign of a fair working relationship going forward. We were beginning to see the potential risk of losing ownership of Highpointeering and control of our own competitions.
Over the next couple of years, we continued to develop, fine-tune and deliver our growing range of hillwalking sports competitions single-handedly. During that time, we tested the waters with MI on a few more occasions to see how open they were to these annual competitions. Unfortunately, they showed no interest in developing, delivering or promoting a competitive element within hillwalking. Given the fact that a sport must have a person-versus-person and / or team-versus-team competitive element, this is a very clear indication from MI that they do not regard hillwalking as a true sport.
We have been observing MI's efforts to address their bias towards rocklimbing to see if we could assist in any way. Unfortunately, it would appear that their hands are now tied from having entered into a very exclusive alliance with another third-party voluntary website. Together, this alliance is promoting a hill list - which has been largely derived from combining several older lists originally compiled by third-party researchers - as their own attempt at presenting a hillwalking sports initiative. Despite their efforts, the initiative they have come up with does not contain any competitive element - the vital ingredient which would have upgraded MI's status to the all-Ireland governing body for the competitive "sport" of hillwalking rather than the representative body for the non-competitive pastime of hillwalking. If they had chosen differently, they would now be involved in the world's first-ever national hillwalking championships - the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships - the new sports competition template for other countries to replicate.
In mid 2020, having given them ample opportunity to come onboard, we decided not to waste any further time or effort on a potential joint venture with MI. Our attention has now shifted to single-handedly developing Sport Hillwalking free from the restrictive reigns of MI. We deliver and promote Ireland's official national hillwalking sports competition along with its individual and team categories.
In the absence of any other organisation actively developing, delivering or promoting hillwalking sports competitions at an All-Ireland level, High Point Ireland became the governing body for Sport Hillwalking in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on 10th May 2021. We founded the sport in 2016, so it makes sense for us to be its national governing body in the land where it was born.
The role of Mountaineering Ireland remains unchanged by this development. They continue to be a leading insurance provider, training provider and voice for the wider hillwalking community in Ireland, as well as being the All-Ireland governing body for the sport of rockclimbing.
Our initial contact with Mountaineering Ireland (MI) was in 2016, shortly after we published Ireland's major geographical High Point lists. At that time, we were also considering the possibility of launching Highpointeering as a standalone sport. The advice from both Sport Ireland and Sport Northern Ireland at that stage was to approach MI initially with the view of establishing Highpointeering as a new "discipline" within the wider context of hillwalking. We followed this advice knowing that, if that approach failed, it would at least help to boost Highpointeering's chances of becoming a recognised standalone sport in its own right. At that time, MI were being criticized for their bias towards rockclimbing. Much of this criticism was coming from their own membership which was mainly composed of hillwalkers. We invited MI to co-deliver the first-ever Irish national hillwalking sports competition - the All-Ireland Highpointeering Individuals League - which we had just recently launched. Our offer did not require them to get involved in the task of running this competition. By simply recognising and promoting it, they could have taken a decent portion of the credit from having put very little effort in. In short, we were offering MI a convenient way to address their bias towards rockclimbing while also helping them to boost hillwalking's status as a true sport (surely a major objective for any sport's governing body).
During our initial discussion, MI asked us to come back to them a year later with the view of joining them as a fee-paying club. Even though we were making all the offers, we were also at the receiving end of all the demands. It wasn't the most positive sign of a fair working relationship going forward. We were beginning to see the potential risk of losing ownership of Highpointeering and control of our own competitions.
Over the next couple of years, we continued to develop, fine-tune and deliver our growing range of hillwalking sports competitions single-handedly. During that time, we tested the waters with MI on a few more occasions to see how open they were to these annual competitions. Unfortunately, they showed no interest in developing, delivering or promoting a competitive element within hillwalking. Given the fact that a sport must have a person-versus-person and / or team-versus-team competitive element, this is a very clear indication from MI that they do not regard hillwalking as a true sport.
We have been observing MI's efforts to address their bias towards rocklimbing to see if we could assist in any way. Unfortunately, it would appear that their hands are now tied from having entered into a very exclusive alliance with another third-party voluntary website. Together, this alliance is promoting a hill list - which has been largely derived from combining several older lists originally compiled by third-party researchers - as their own attempt at presenting a hillwalking sports initiative. Despite their efforts, the initiative they have come up with does not contain any competitive element - the vital ingredient which would have upgraded MI's status to the all-Ireland governing body for the competitive "sport" of hillwalking rather than the representative body for the non-competitive pastime of hillwalking. If they had chosen differently, they would now be involved in the world's first-ever national hillwalking championships - the All-Ireland Hillwalking Championships - the new sports competition template for other countries to replicate.
In mid 2020, having given them ample opportunity to come onboard, we decided not to waste any further time or effort on a potential joint venture with MI. Our attention has now shifted to single-handedly developing Sport Hillwalking free from the restrictive reigns of MI. We deliver and promote Ireland's official national hillwalking sports competition along with its individual and team categories.
- The All-Ireland Hillwalking Individuals Championship
- The All-Ireland Hillwalking Clubs Championship
- The All-Ireland Hillwalking Counties Championship
- The All-Ireland Hillwalking Provinces Championship
In the absence of any other organisation actively developing, delivering or promoting hillwalking sports competitions at an All-Ireland level, High Point Ireland became the governing body for Sport Hillwalking in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on 10th May 2021. We founded the sport in 2016, so it makes sense for us to be its national governing body in the land where it was born.
The role of Mountaineering Ireland remains unchanged by this development. They continue to be a leading insurance provider, training provider and voice for the wider hillwalking community in Ireland, as well as being the All-Ireland governing body for the sport of rockclimbing.
