June 11, 2026 — Beta Friend announces the upcoming launch of its AI-assisted route setting platform for climbing gyms. The product is built as route setter augmentation: it helps setters move from holds and wall context to automatically created boulder proposals, while giving gym leaders clearer visibility into how the route setting process evolves over time.
The first Beta Friend cohort will launch on June 25, 2026 with 10 gyms. A second cohort of 20 gyms is planned for July 21, 2026. Gyms can request access via betafriend@betafriend.ai.
Beta Friend’s generation capability is designed around a practical setting workflow. A route setter can point a smartphone or tablet at the holds they want to use, capture the wall where they want to set, choose difficulty and movement style, and receive several automatically created 3D boulder proposals in a digital twin of the gym. Those proposals become starting points for setters to evaluate, adapt, and bring onto the wall.
Beyond generating individual boulders, Beta Friend can also create proposals for an entire wall section. This is especially valuable for chief route setters, who need to plan across multiple lines, balance difficulty distribution, manage hold usage, and coordinate the work of several setters. Instead of treating each boulder as an isolated problem, Beta Friend helps structure a complete section of the gym, making it easier to assign work, maintain variety, and ensure that the final set fits the intended training, commercial, or competition goals.
“Route setting is creative work, and Beta Friend is built to augment that work,” said Andre Castro, Founder and CEO of Beta Friend. “Beta Friend is focused on giving setters more useful options faster, using the gym’s actual walls and holds as context. The generation capability is there to support the setter’s process, not flatten it. As a climber, I hope Beta Friend helps gyms offer more frequent route setting, more boulders, and higher-quality problems for their communities.” Castro added. “If we can give setters better tools and gym leaders better visibility, climbers should feel that on the wall.”.
Beyond individual or batch boulder proposals, Beta Friend is also adding a management layer for gyms that is built into the same workflow setters already use. Because proposals are created from the gym’s actual holds, walls, grades, styles, and setting decisions, the platform can capture useful operational insight as a natural part of the process rather than asking teams to do extensive manual logging. Gym leaders can better understand how many boulders a wall area has carried at a given difficulty, which grades and movement styles each setter has been working with, and which holds or hold families appear across proposals and finished boulders. For gym operators and head setters, that visibility can support planning, coaching, team alignment, and future setting cycles. Rather than treating route setting as a set of disconnected resets, Beta Friend gives gyms a structured view of the setting process itself.
Key Beta Friend capabilities include:
- AI-assisted route setting from a gym’s own holds and wall context.
- Automatic generation of 3D boulder proposals for route setters.
- Input through short video capture or manual hold selection from the gym catalog.
- Wall-section capture so proposals can account for the area where the boulder will be set.
- Difficulty and movement-style selection before generation.
- Personalization to better reflect a route setter’s preferred grades, styles, and movement patterns.
- Management-layer insights into wall-section coverage, grade mix, setter patterns, and hold usage.
Beta Friend is currently inviting climbing gyms to join its initial launch cohorts. Interested gyms can sign up for updates or request early access through the following:
Email: betafriend@betafriend.ai
Website: https://betafriend.ai
Demo of Beta Friend’s generation capability: selecting holds, wall context, difficulty, and style, then automatically creating 3D boulder proposals for route setters: https://youtube.com/shorts/_
CBJ press releases are written by the sponsor and do not represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
