OpenClimbing 2.0

Imagine opening a map and finding almost everything you need for climbing in one place: areas, crags and routes, grades in your preferred system, topo photos, rock type, sun and shade – together with your own ascents and projects.

That is what we are building with OpenClimbing.org.

OpenClimbing is an open-source climbing guide built on top of OpenStreetMap and other open data. Instead of creating another closed climbing database, we want the data to stay open, reusable and editable by the whole community.

Today, OpenClimbing already contains almost 40,000 climbing routes, with more than 6,000 routes drawn directly on photos, across over 1,000 climbing areas in 31 countries – and the numbers keep growing as people add and improve data in OpenStreetMap.

climbing crag

Anyone can improve a crag, add a missing route or create a topo – and those improvements become part of an open dataset that can also be used by other applications.

Over the last months the project has grown a lot. What started mainly as a way to explore climbing data from OpenStreetMap is becoming a much more complete climbing companion: a map, guidebook, topo viewer, logbook, trip-planning tool and editor in one place.

climbing crag

OpenClimbing 2.0 is a big step in that direction.

Climbing log

The original tick system has grown into a proper climbing logbook.

You can mark routes as climbed, select ascent style, add co-climbers, edit previous ascents, see statistics and charts, and share climbing sessions.

Ticks are stored in our database and connected to your OpenStreetMap login.

climbing crag

Offline PDF climbing guides

Areas and crags can now be exported into printable PDF guidebooks for offline use.

The PDF can include the map, routes, grades and climbing lines drawn directly onto photos.

This means you can prepare a guide before a trip and keep all the important information available even when there is no mobile signal at the crag.

climbing crag

Upload climbing photos directly from OpenClimbing

Climbing photos can now be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons directly from OpenClimbing.

That makes creating and improving photo topos much easier, while keeping the photos openly licensed and reusable.

Routes drawn on photos are interactive, and OpenClimbing can also display images from Wikimedia Commons, OpenStreetMap, websites, Mapillary, KartaView and Panoramax.

We even added an experimental in-browser bolt detector to help when creating climbing topos.

climbing crag

Filter and sort climbing areas

Large climbing areas are now much easier to explore.

Crags inside an area can be filtered and sorted, so instead of browsing through everything you can quickly narrow the list to what you are actually looking for.

climbing crag

OpenClimbing can show information such as:

climbing type
difficulty
rock material
family-friendly suitability
number of routes

Similar filtering is also available directly on the climbing map.

The goal is to make questions like “Where can we climb easy sport routes with kids today?” much easier to answer.

A much better climbing map

The climbing map received many improvements.

Routes can now be colored by difficulty, while grades are displayed in your preferred grading system.

Climbing areas can show their outlines directly on the map, including large areas containing smaller areas and crags.

We also added natural rock formations, a tourist map style, weather radar for Czechia and the new OpenStreetMap Shortbread vector tiles with automatic light and dark themes.

climbing crag

And many more improvements

Custom lists for projects, favourites and trip planning
Better bouldering support, including Fontainebleau grades and sit starts

climbing crag

Sun and terrain shadows to estimate whether a crag will be sunny or shaded

climbing crag

A redesigned editing experience with a map next to the form and better drawing tools
A broader redesign of the whole application, including a new homepage and navigation
OpenClimbing is now fully usable on mobile – including browsing, editing, uploading photos and drawing climbing routes directly on your phone at the crag
We significantly improved performance and loading speed, especially when opening large climbing areas and working with map data

Still completely open

One thing has not changed.

Climbing data is stored in OpenStreetMap, topo photos can be stored in Wikimedia Commons, and OpenClimbing itself is open source.

The goal is still the same: build a useful climbing guide without locking the climbing data inside one application.

You can try everything at openclimbing.org.

We are looking forward to any feedback – and contributions to the climbing data or the project itself are very welcome.

Thank you for your support!

@zbycz and @jvaclavik

OSM Diary: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/jvaclavik/diary/409174
Github Release: https://github.com/jvaclavik/openclimbing/releases/tag/v2.0.0
Article on irz.fr: https://irz.fr/en/articles/openclimbing-open-guide-en/
HackerNews discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318607

OpenClimbing 2.0

Climbing log

Offline PDF climbing guides

Upload climbing photos directly from OpenClimbing

Filter and sort climbing areas

A much better climbing map

And many more improvements

Still completely open

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