The Central Plains RecPlex in Southport welcomed climbers from around the region on Saturday for the Ascend the Pit Bouldering Competition.

Bouldering is a form of rock climbing done without the use of ropes or harness and RecPlex Manager of Recreation Colby Orchard notes it isn't as much vertical as people usually assume when they think of climbing.

"It's a shorter climb but it's not starting from the bottom and just ending up at the top. It's a lot more horizontal, a lot more advanced moves."

He explains there were three different categories at Saturday's competition for climbers of different skill levels.

"We had a youth category, a recreation category and an open category. The open category is the more competitive one but we had climbers as young as five years old out here."

He adds there were around 50 climbers in total at the competition and everyone was having a good time. Orchard notes there has been a lot of positive feedback since the RecPlex and the climbing wall opened in November.

"We've had a lot of members, we've kind of created a bit of a climbing community here. We have a lot of people out for this competition from Winnipeg and stuff like that, all around the region, but we're proud to say that we have a lot of climbers here that started in this gym and are now turning into some pretty competitive climbers."

Due to the success of their first competition, Orchard believes there will be many more held at the RecPlex in the future.