Check out the article about Strange Beta in the February 2010 issue of Climbing.

This is an attempt to use computers to assist in setting indoor rock climbing routes. More specifically, have a few questions:

• Can computer software aid in setting routes (i.e., as an "idea generator")?
• Would (expert) route setters appreciate this assistance?
• Can climbers tell the difference (positively or negatively) between routes set with computer help?

We've carried out a pilot study along with a larger experiment to this effect, and found that the software can help and that climbers in some cases prefer the routes it sets!

This website is an attempt to build a community around this process. The idea is that if anyone can use the tool, maybe we can learn how to make it better by getting direct feedback from the climbing community as well as provide some opportunities for setters to collaborate with each other.

The details of our experiments and algorithms are all described in this technical report. It should answer just about all your questions, and then some.

Caleb Phillips (a computer science Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado, Boulder), Prof. Elizabeth Bradley (a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Colorado, Boulder), and Prof. Jeffrey Luftig (an applied math professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder who has lent us a hand with some of the statistical analysis). The folks at Climbing Magazine, particularly Matt Samet. And, the folks at the Boulder Rock Club, particularly Tony Yao and Jonathan Siegrist.

Yep! All routes are stored in a database and by default all routes are public (to make yours private, use the edit interface). You can use other folks' routes in your variations and vice versa. In the future, I plan to add a way to rate routes so that we can learn which are the "best" routes by consensus. Collaboration is a big part of the premise of this project, so I'm hoping to keep tweaking how this works. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Most likely, you haven't asked it yet. Give me a holler using the contact form.