Bouldering iPhone App

My friend Enid passed this along - an app that makes your iphone into a universal bouldering guide. You can check out the Bouldr iPhone app at http://iphone.bouldr.net/#

It seems like a good idea, but it will obviously rely on enormous amounts of input from users to build the database. I suppose that over time, this kind of app may largely replace guidebooks, although that would be a shame. Guidebooks are sources of more than problem names, grades, and locations. They are valuable sources of local history, accurate descriptions of access and camping locations, photos of climbers on local problems. Best of all, they are universally available (i.e. the don't rely on your iPhone being able to get a signal from the nearest tower. In some parts of the world (e.g. France) this might not be an issue, but in Canada, many bouldering areas do not have good (or any) phone access. You can lend a real guidebook to a friend, throw it into your backpack, paw at it with chalky hands without worrying about ruining it - all advantages of the paper guidebook.

Check it out, though! If anyone actually uses it, let me know how it works!

Later,

T.