When COVID hit us all, we took the time to start building ClimbAlong, with a goal of leveraging technology to help us understand climbing better.
Climbing is one of the most complex activities humans can do. It involves movement in 3D, strategizing, execution, planning, and places to practice the sport, like the indoor facilities we know and love today. Climbing gyms have the ever-changing challenge of constantly creating the next route that helps us take one more step in our personal journey to finding the best climber in ourselves.
But as the climbing industry has experienced explosive growth in recent years, the digital tools supporting gym operators, routesetters, organizers and athletes in many ways haven’t evolved at the same pace. Spreadsheets, manual processes and disconnected systems that fail to reflect the sport’s unique demands are still the norm in many facilities today.
As climbers always looking for the next hold or climb, we can bring that same mindset to the technology we use and seek the world’s best professional solutions available, for all involved in climbing. Often our solutions need to be so good that you can pick them up and get back to climbing within minutes.
We’re out to accomplish exactly that objective: combining deep climbing insight with technical innovation to create solutions that reduce administrative work, improve the climbing experience, and provide data-driven insights. By having better data, we can methodically improve many aspects of climbing.
We’re also proud to say that the tools we create feel intuitive to climbers because they’re built by climbers. Climbing is complex—we make it simple.
What Is ClimbAlong?
At ClimbAlong, we are a company of passionate technology experts who are also passionate climbers. A lot of us have experience in organizing climbing competitions, managing climbing gyms, routesetting, judging and training. We came together to focus our efforts on building software tools for the climbing industry that help simplify complex tasks, streamline workflows, and give insights that drive more effective decisions.
SCORE
One of the top competition platforms for climbing and used around the world, we created SCORE in close partnership with Scandinavian climbing federations over the past four years. SCORE was built to elevate local and national competitions to the highest professional level, delivering a modern and smooth experience for climbers, spectators, organizers, judges and broadcasters. We have taken great care to make SCORE as intuitive as possible, so that hundreds of people can start using it within minutes.
Any competition is a big event, making it important to succeed every time. That is why SCORE was designed to be robust, prioritizing failure prevention over features.
SPOT
We didn’t stop there, next turning our attention to SPOT: an AI-powered tool for routesetting programs. Our routesetting management platform helps routesetters plan, build and track routes in your gym. SPOT is also likely the world’s first and only extension to automate climbing tracking on any climbing wall using cameras and deep learning (AI).
With SPOT, gyms and setters can get data-driven insights on:
- All attempts on all routes in your gym.
- When to replace a route because it is no longer active.
- What the success rate is on any route.
- When people climb what, providing a complete overview of time.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Core to routesetting in a commercial climbing gym is setting routes that challenge and motivate each climber in the gym. Setters have the hard job of continuously meeting as many climbers’ preferences as possible to help climbers stay satisfied and encouraged to come back.
To routeset commercially involves a mix of creativity, design, empathy and informed decision making, and it’s important for that process to be guided by a deep understanding of one’s target audience.
Subjectively asking all climbers about all routes, all the time, is not an efficient way to achieve this outcome. That conclusion is why we built an automated tracking system. The SPOT system can track all attempts, zones and tops on all routes, all the time, automatically. That tracking data can then be used to see which routes are preferred, when they’re no longer used, and what the success rate is on them.
We believe routesetting objectives can—with a methodical approach and enough data—be continuously improved.
Data on attempts, sends, fall zones and session times can enable setters to better assess the effectiveness of their routes from a more objective lens. Setters can identify which routes are too easy, too hard or overly frustrating and adjust their setting accordingly.
In putting the SPOT system into action, routesetting teams can be equipped with:
- Efficient Route Rotation: Data visuals in SPOT highlight which problems have declining usage and are ready for retirement, helping setters optimize reset schedules and focus their resources on high-impact areas.
- Objective Feedback: Having hard data in hand eliminates the need to rely solely on anecdotal or subjective feedback alone. In having more comprehensive data available, setters and managers can confidently justify their decisions or pinpoint areas for improvement.
- Encouragement for Experimentation: In being able to measure success on routes, setters can feel free to creatively test new styles, movements or hold placements with less fear of alienating climbers, knowing they’ll be able to make adjustments later based on concrete results.
Interested in upgrading your routesetting management to a higher level? Reach out here to give the SPOT system a try in your gym and let us climb along with you.
This story was paid for by the sponsor and does not necessarily represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
