Bouldr

Version 2 Bouldr iPhone App Now Out

2010-06-30T00:00:00+01:00

Finally, and after a total rewrite that took a couple of months longer than expected, the new version of the Bouldr iPhone app is out!

In this version

Incremental Sync

The old sync stuff required the whole database to be reloaded, whereas the new version only updates those items that have changed, meaning sync time is significantly shorter.

Topos for Everyone

Map topos are now available in the free version of the app. I made this available as I find the topo view to be one of the most useful features, and I didn’t want anyone to miss out. To access the topos, tap on the marker button in the top-right of the climb list.

Redesigned interface

The old interface was rough around the edges, and more than a little clunky. I took this opportunity to redesign much of the look and feel of the app, making things a lot prettier in the process.

Advertising

I’ve added an advertising banner to the free app, moving from the old text-adverts to much more appealing image ads. If you are interested in appearing on the iPhone app, please drop be an email, and I’ll send you further details.

The Bouldr Survey

2010-06-30T00:00:00+01:00

In an effort to understand how you all feel about Bouldr, I’ve put up a quick survey - it should only take five minutes to complete, and it will help me better understand where Bouldr is up to, and what I should concentrate on next.

Thanks!

We Have A Winner

2010-03-29T00:00:00+01:00

Congratulations to Dave – the winner of our Great Big Topo Competition! His Stanage Plantation Topo really stood out, and won by a fairly large margin.

Thankyou to everyone who entered; we’ve seen some great topos submitted, but the votes picked the winner clearly in the end.

A big thankyou to the lovely people at Alpkit that allowed us to run this competition. You should take a look at their bouldering mats. DO IT!

Dave, we’ll be sending out your Alpkit Phud Bouldering mat soon.

Screencasts

2010-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

I’ve had a bit of feedback over the last few weeks that has prompted me to create a few screencasts for our help section. If you’re stuck when using the iPhone app, creating a Guidebook or building a topo to enter into our awesome competition, then take a look at these:

Creating a Topo

If you want to enter our topo competition, all you need do is create a map topo of an area you know well. Topos will be voted on, and the best one will win a brand new Alpkit Phud Bouldering mat.

Using the iPhone App

Our iPhone app allows you to take Bouldr data with you to the crag:

Creating a Guidebook for the iPhone App

Before you can sync your phone with Bouldr, you will need to create a Guidebook:

The Great Big Topo Challenge

2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Bouldr has teamed up with Alpkit to offer our budding cartographers the chance to win an Alpkit Phud Bouldering mat!

To enter, all you need to do is create a map topo of your favorite climbing area(s) using our nifty topo editor, and submit it by the 19th March 2010. Other Bouldr users will then vote on the submitted topos, and the user that submitted the topo with the most votes by the 29th March 2010 will win the grand prize!

For all of the details, and terms & conditions, please go to the competition page.

Good Luck!

Free Bouldr iPhone App Released

2010-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

I’ve just had word that the free version of our iPhone app has just been relesed!

This version does not include the map topo view that is coming to the full version, however, it does give you offline access to the climbs listed on Bouldr.

To use the app, you will need an account on Bouldr, and you will need to define the areas you want to download to your device by creating a Guidebook.

Once you have your account setup, and you have created at least one guidebook, you can tap ‘Sync’, then ‘Synchronise’ in the app, and the climb data will be downloaded you your device.

Advertising

We have added an advertising banner at the bottom of each screen, and we are currently looking for companies and individuals who would like to advertise on the app. If you would, please get in touch, and I can forward you the details of our advertising package.

New Creative Commons Licensing

2010-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

As you may have read in our about page, we want to build a free, open database of climbs from all over the world, and allow anyone to access it. The problem is that I had (stupidly) forgotten to license the data on Bouldr appropriately.

In order to fix this, I have now relicensed the climb and topo data under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Note this only applies to the data, not the Bouldr logo, content of the blog, or the software I have written for the site or iPhone app.

I’m working on the methods by which we can make information about climbs and topos portable, so if anyone has any interest in that, please feel free to help out!

Coming Soon in the iPhone App

2010-01-11T00:00:00+00:00

Since releasing the topo feature, the one thing that has been missing is the ability to get at the topos already on Bouldr when you’re actually out climbing. This has been my focus over the past week or so, and I’m excited to reveal that the next version will have this ability:

Free Version

Alongside the full version of the app, I’m going to be releasing a free version some time in the next month.

The free version will include offline sync, the ability to create and update climbs and the guidebook functionality that the paid version has at the moment. It will also include a small advertising banner that will help me keep Bouldr running and allow me to maintain the app itself.

Advertising

If you are interested in advertising on the Bouldr iPhone app, then please email me (matt at this domain), and we can discuss further - I’m only interested in companies that provide goods and services to climbers, though!

Talk To Me!

Any thoughts on this feature? Please leave them in the comments below! I’m especially interested if you think there is something that needs to be added to make the topos really work well in the app.

New in Bouldr - Topos

2010-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! I have a late present for you today: the Topo feature I eluded to in an earlier post is now available for all on Bouldr!

Viewing Topos

Topos are integrated with the Explorer, but are only available when zoomed-in. You can see all topos listed for a region on the right of the explorer, and you can zoom in to view a topo simply by clicking it’s name.

Creating a New Topo

If there is a topo missing for your local crag, then please do add it for everyone to see! Zoom in on the location you want your new topo, and click on the ‘Add new Topo’ button on the right of the screen.

Updating an Existing Topo

Once you have found the topo you want to edit, click on the ‘Edit’ link next to it’s name in the list on the right hand side of the explorer.

Using the Topo Editor

The topo editor is the thing you’ll be using to create and update topos. To keep things simple, we have defined a few tools that you can use to markup your topo, namely:

Boulders – blue, filled shapes
Paths – yellow lines
Edges (or faces) – cyan lines
Car Parks – red filled shapes
Trees – green filled shapes

We may add more tools to the system as it becomes apparent that they are needed, but for now, that’s it.

To draw your topo, click on a tool, then single click the map to add a point. Drag a point to move it or just click on it to delete it. You can optionally give the shapes and lines you draw names in order to differentiate them when they are on the explorer. Save each shape once you are finished with it.

Once you have drawn all of the shapes you need, Give your topo a name, and click ‘Save’. If all goes well, you will see your topo displayed in the explorer.

Examples

More Information

If you need any more help, please consult our new help section:

New Help Section

2009-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

I have just added a new help section to the website in order to provide a little help with some of the more advanced features that Bouldr has been given recently.

I’ve only got the guidebook section up there at the moment, but others will follow as I get chance to write the articles.

Let me know if there is anything I should have covered, or if any of the guides are unclear.

Bouldr iPhone App 0.9.2 Available - Half Price!

2009-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

Finally!

The new version of the Bouldr iPhone app has been approved, and is now available in the App Store.

Changes

Works at the crag without needing an Internet connection
Lists climbs for areas you’ve selected in your account under ‘Guidebooks’
Add and update climbs while at the crag, then send the changes to Bouldr later
Removed Google Maps integration, as this required an Internet connection
Faster climb listing and minor improvements to the climb display
Distance to guidebook tells you how close you are to your selected regions

Half Price

Due to popular demand, I have temporarily dropped the price by 50% from today until the end of January, so if you’ve been waiting for an excuse, now is the time to buy!

New Version of the Bouldr iPhone App Submitted

2009-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

I’ve just sent the next version of the Bouldr iPhone app off to Apple for approval, so we should hopefully see the much-anticipated update available for download soon.

I’d like to thank all of our beta testers that have provided a load of really good feedback for the app – we’ve built that app based on all of the feedback we have received, leaving very little to chance. I hope that you’ll all still send me feedback as more revisions of the app are released; with your help I can make the app as good as it can be.

Special thanks goes to Jason, Paul, nevko and Gareth for all of their help and feedback.

Changes since last version

Works at the crag without needing an Internet connection
Lists climbs for areas you’ve selected in your account under ‘Guidebooks’
Add and update climbs while at the crag, then send the changes to Bouldr later
Removed Google Maps integration, as this required an Internet connection
Faster climb listing and minor improvements to the climb display
Distance to guidebook tells you how close you are to your selected regions

Coming soon

The next version will include an area overview feature that allows you to see the relative position of climbs along with your own location. I’ll be building in support for showing topos on this view, too.

Tell me what you want

I need your feedback to build the app, so post in the forum or contact me directly, and I can add your comments to our growing list. We base all features, fixes and adjustments on the feedback we receive, so make your voice heard!

Fixed the Blog

2009-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

Just managed to fix up the blog – the main page only showed the newest few posts, so I’ve added pagination and fixed up older articles to display correctly.

If you notice anything amiss, let me know!

Topos - A Sneak Peek

2009-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

Just thought I’d post a couple of screenshots of a new feature I have been working on over the past few months: Topos!

This feature is currently under Beta test, and we’ll announce it here when we finally get around to releasing it.

Supermassive Bouldr Update

2009-10-05T00:00:00+01:00

I’ve just manage to deploy the single largest update to Bouldr since launch! This has been in the making for about six months now, but time constraints have prevented me from launching sooner.

If you find bugs or have problems with the site, please post in the forum.

What’s changed?

Added a terrain map to the explorer view
Better climber search in ‘People’ tab, including filters
Arrow keys to cycle forwards and backwards through climbs listed in the pop-up on the explorer
Escape to close the popup on the explorer
Large refactoring of the image generation code, which should mean the site runs faster as a whole
Message threading in my account.
New, simplified friending system – now you can follow people as you wish, without having to have them accept an invitation
A new news feed allows you to see updates relevant to you – friends ticks, climbing partner requests and new climbs nearby are all listed as they happen.
We’ve added collectable awards that you can earn as you complete certain tasks on Bouldr. A full list of available awards is available here.
Along with the awards, you now have a reputation score. Earn more points by adding climbs and gaining awards.
There is a new ‘Guidebooks’ section in your account. This is still under development, and will be useful to those of you that have the iPhone version of Bouldr. More details of this will become available soon.
Fix for weather bar not showing images
Changed display of problem view page
Total refactor of the Blog
Numerous code changes, and a few bug fixes have also been applied, but there are far too many to go into here

One of the main reasons that this update had had to be applied (finally), is that there are code changes that were required for the next version of the iPhone app, which is the next item on my infinite to-do list.

Looking to get a new release of the Bouldr app out by the end of the year, with the possibility of a free (ad-supported) version early on next year.

Duplicate newsletters being sent out

2009-09-28T00:00:00+01:00

Apologies for those of you that have received a bunch of emails from Bouldr. I’m currently updating the site, and unintentionally send some of you a load of email.

Really sorry about that.

The Bouldr iPhone App is Now Available!

2009-08-17T00:00:00+01:00

After a fair few months in development, we are proud to announce that the Bouldr iPhone App is now available in iTunes for your downloading pleasure!

Click here to view it in iTunes.

Bouldr iPhone App Preview

2009-08-04T00:00:00+01:00

Just added a few screenshots to the Bouldr iPhone app page. The app has been submitted to Apple for approval, and we’re hoping for it to become available in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, head over to the app homepage, and get a sneaky preview!

New Bouldr iPhone App Coming Soon

2009-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

One of the things that has been eating all of my free time recently is a new app I’m building for Bouldr on the iPhone. The idea behind the app is to give you a geo-aware climbing guide in your pocket – something I’ve wanted for a long time now!

Though it’s not ready yet, it is nearly there, and I need to gather a few climbers around in order to get the final bits of testing done.

If you own an iPhone, and would like to be part of a limited beta test, please follow @bouldr_app on twitter, and I will contact you all through that.

Another way of getting updates: Twitter

2009-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

Just a quick note to let any Bouldring tweeps know that you can now follow Bouldr on Twitter.

If you do follow us on Twitter, you’ll get notifications for any new blog posts, along with smaller morsals that wouldn’t warrent a post of their own. This is more of an attempt to reduce the noise, as my own twitter account tends to include quite a bit of nerd guff and personal gubbins.

We’ll be monitoring the account, and we’ll try and read / respond to every message sent to us through that.

A Minor Update

2009-03-17T00:00:00+00:00

This has taken far too long to get deployed, but I finally managed to get it sorted last night: The climbers tab in the explorer is back, showing you the approximate locations of climbers on Bouldr – one of our most requested features. Hopefully, this should make it a little easier to find new climbing partners near your regular haunts.

I’m actually sitting on a whole load of updates for Bouldr at the moment, but finding the time to test and deploy them has proven to be nearly impossible. I’m hoping to get a few more releases out there over the next few weeks…

New Features!

2008-10-07T00:00:00+01:00

Thanks to everyone that has left suggestions or voted on our current set of todo items over on our new feedback page – we’ve now finished developing a couple of the suggestions on there, and I’ve just deployed them onto the main site.

Weather Overlay
The explorer now includes a new bar at the bottom, so if you are zoomed in enough on the explorer page, you can now see a four day forecast for that location.

Terrain Maps
We’ve added shaded terrain maps as an option on all of the maps – to enable them, just click on the ‘Terrain’ button at the top of any of the map pages.

Restyled Newsletter
The old newsletter format was making some mail apps render the newsletter in an unreadable way (dark grey text on a black background), so we’ve changed the styling to fix this problem.

As ever, if you have any more thoughts, or you want to see something added to Bouldr, then please do drop into our feedback forum, and vote on existing items to get them put to the top of our list or suggest a new idea for consideration.

New Feedback Forum

2008-09-28T00:00:00+01:00

In order to keep better track of the sort of things you lovely people want us to add to Bouldr, we have set up a better feedback forum at http://feedback.bouldr.net.

If you’d like to see something added to Bouldr, or you want to know what we’re working on, then head over there right now!

New Features Added

2008-09-17T00:00:00+01:00

Better Newsletters

We have updated our newsletter system to keep you better updated with the latest updates and changes on Bouldr. From now on, you can opt to receive the latest updates on a weekly or monthly basis (this is optional, of course – you can turn off these updates at any time).

Latest changes added to the profile page

In addition to having the latest changes sent to you by email, you can find an up-to-the-minute list of changes right in your profile page. This includes climbs, partner requests and blog posts.

Location search on map pages

On any page with a map, we have added a search box that you can use to quickly search for locations, meaning you should now be able to locate the appropriate area much faster than before.

Backend Improvements

We’ve rewritten our map clustering system, and tweaked our server somewhat, so hopefully Bouldr will be a little more responsive, for now and the forseeable future.

Expeditions!

2008-06-10T00:00:00+01:00

Going climbing but need a partner to go with? Looking for someone with a little local knowledge? Our new Expeditions feature might be just what you need.

Add an Expedition to Bouldr, and it will be made available on our Explorer for other climbers to see and message you about.

Adding your Expedition

We have tried to make adding and finding Expeditions as easy as possible. To add a new Expedition to Bouldr, simply:

Browse to or search for the crag you want to visit
Click on the “+ Expedition” button in the sidebar
Add a title, leaving date/time and a brief description of your Expedition
Save
Wait for other Bouldrers to get in touch!

Talk to Us!

If you have any thoughts or comments on our new Expeditions feature, please either message me directly, or post to our feedback forum. Let me know what you think!

Searching for Great Climbing

2008-05-20T00:00:00+01:00

I have just finished pushing the latest and greatest version of Bouldr out onto our server, which includes a major reworking of the explorer, among other things. Take a look, and let me know what you think. We have set up a four-question survey here for your feedback.

New Features

Search from the Explorer
We have changed the explorer to include a search box in the top-right of the screen. From there, you can search for a particular crag or climb, and the explorer will zoom to your chosen result.

Location Search
The new search feature also includes a location search, meaning that you can make the explorer center on various towns, cities, and regions all around the world.

Larger Images on the Explorer
The old explorer would only give you small thumbnails of the climb you were looking at. After a little reorganisation, we have increased the size of the climb images, and added more information to the climb display on the explorer.

Bigger server
Our old server was beginning to feel the strain, so we have now upgraded, and doubled our capacity, meaning faster page loads and (hopefully) a better experience for all.

New Version Just Out

2008-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

Bouldr has been in need of a little TLC lately, and we’re pleased to announce that we have just finished deploying the latest version to a brand new server!

We’re hoping to get at least one new release out each month this year, starting today with the following:

New Stuff

A bigger map, and easier navigation of climbs
The explorer view can now be printed for a customised climbing guide
Tick list for every member

Fixes and Improvements

New server – should make Bouldr more responsive
Speed improvements to the explorer
Lots of back-end things that are far too dull to go into here

Coming Next

Turbocharged explorer – we’re going to overhaul our caching to make searching even faster
Protection from spammers and other forms of moron
Anything that is suggested and that we like / can do for the next release.

Hope you all had an ace new year – keep the suggestions coming!

- Matt

5 Things to do Before Bouldering

2007-07-10T00:00:00+01:00

1. Check your way down

Topping out on a highball problem then realising you have to downclimb it too is no way to enjoy climbing. By checking your downclimb, you’ll be able to avoid this nasty situation (Asking for help from the top is a little embarrassing to say the least!).

2. Check for glass

Some places (Hobson Moor Quarry is especially notable for this) are frequented by morons that break glass bottles against the rock face. Since I dynoed onto a patch of broken glass, I always check the holds by climbing the way down, and brushing any glass fragments away. This applies to other nasties – bird crap, cigarette butts, and other horrors to put your hands in always seem to occupy the holds you want to use on the way up.

3. Make sure your spotter is paying attention

Having a spotter is a good idea – especially if the problem leaves you exposed – however, if your spotter is looking the other way when you come off, then your fall won’t be helped, and you’re also in a good position to fall into them! A quick word to make sure they are watching is all that is needed, and it could easily prevent an embarrassing and painful fall.

4. Make sure you have a decent landing

I have spoken to a few people that have fallen onto a bad landing, with injuries ranging from a sprained ankle to full-on broken bones. A crash pad can help you out here (I personally use Alpkit’s Phudd), but if you don’t have one, finding a problem with a flat, rock free landing helps almost as much.

5. Stretch out

This makes sense for most physical activity; a quick stretch (not necessarily half an hour of yoga) can prevent cramp, increase blood flow and allow you to climb harder than just diving into the problem at hand. It also gives you an opportunity to consider the problem, and work out the moves before you start.

Add your Business to Bouldr

2007-05-23T00:00:00+01:00

As part of our desire to provide a top-notch service for climbers to share and find climbing information, we have created a new service whereby businesses can add themselves to our explorer (for free, of course): Bouldr Advertising.

The idea for this came from a time when I was meant to be off to the Roaches for a days climbing with a couple of friends. Unfortunately for us, and as is typical for England, the weather took a nasty turn as we arrived – no climbing to had on that day! Luckily for us, we hadn’t travelled much of a distance to get out there, but for visitors from other countries, I could see that this would have been a big issue. Our backup plan was to find a climbing wall nearby, but as we had no idea as to where one may be, we ended up trekking back to Manchester to get to the MCC.

We want to ease this problem by creating a directory of climbing walls, gear shops, trainers, and other such related businesses, so that if this were to happen again (which is more than likely), we could quickly find a nearby wall and get directions to it; This is where our business browser tab comes in.

If you represent a business that is related to climbing in any way, please do take a look, and add yourself to our site. Similarly, if you know anyone that has a climbing related business that could benefit from a little free publicity, let them know!

The All-New Location Browser

2007-05-12T00:00:00+01:00

In response to much feedback, we have just uploaded a new Location Browser to Bouldr.

One of the problems we had with our old system is finding the locations we’re interested in from the explorer. The new browser gives you a bunch of links and a drop-down selector at the top of the page to allow you to quickly drop from a world view to looking at a specific crag or area. Also, when you move the map, the location updates accordingly, so you always know where you are looking.

Take a look at it (its at the top of the page on the explorer), and let me know what you think.

Bouldr Died Yesterday

2007-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

I thought that we had screwed up somehow, but after a little testing, I came to realise that something much worse had happened.

Loving the Feedback!

2007-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

I get a whole load of messages from climbers that are using Bouldr, and every single suggestion is read, discussed and often ends up being put on our ever-growing list of things to do. As ever, use the forum or just message me directly, and I’ll try to get back to each message individually.

David over at newclimber.com has just put a nice little review of Bouldr up; take a look at this blog – it makes for a pretty good read.

Bouldr Wikified

2007-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

Following on from my last post, we now have our first wiki-implementation on Bouldr.

From now on, anyone that is logged in can make changes to the climbs on Bouldr, so if you find errors, omissions or you have extra information to add, you can update the climb yourself!

There are a couple of other improvements and fixes – most notably the back button now works correctly in the explorer (Though this can only be fixed in IE and FireFox at the moment).

Some Fixes for You

2007-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

We’ve just pushed another release into the wild:

Manual adding of lat/long to problem (for all the GPS enabled climbers!)
Uploads should work correctly now
Corrected problem with the uploaded image being blocky, and the line in the wrond place
Fixed image notes in IE7

More new stuff in the pipe…

Big Change on the Cards

2007-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

OK, having had a decent number of climbers contributing to Bouldr over the past few weeks, we have come to realise that we need to make a rather fundamental change in order to allow Bouldr to reach it’s maximum potential.

The Problem

Say somebody adds a famous climb to Bouldr, but they add it in the wrong place. This is no good for anyone. Bouldr contains incorrect information, and it really needs fixing. Currently, the only way of having the error corrected is to message the person that posted it and tell them of the error. This obviously has a couple of problems – even if they get your message, they might not be bothered, and the problem will never be fixed.

The Solution

We’re moving to a Wiki-style editing method. Each climb will be editable by any registered user, with a history of changes and a page for discussing the changes appended. If we do this, then any climber will be able to make corrections, revert erroneous modifications and discuss changes for any climb.

Comments?

As ever, we’re looking for as much feedback, criticism and comments – we’re building Bouldr for you, so tell us what you think, and I’ll try to get back to everyone individually. Use the comments, the forum or just message me directly.

A Crazy Couple of Days

2007-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

On the 31st January, I posted a new thread on UKBouldering, and to my amazement, over 50 climbers joined up over the last two days, adding a total of 120 climbs to Bouldr!

I’m hoping that this trend continues, as the more climbers that join, and the more climbs that are added, the more useful Bouldr becomes. So this is a call for help – if you’d like to see Bouldr grow and you’d like to see us make Bouldr into something we all love, then please talk about us on forums, invite your friends, and get involved!

I’d love to get feedback – good and bad (so long as it’s constructive), and any ideas you may have would be greatly appreciated. Use our forums, or message me directly, and I’ll try to get back to all of you individually.

Aaaaaand... We're Back!

2007-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Well, that took longer than expected! We have now moved to a new server, new domain registrar, and released a brand new version of Bouldr. We hope you like it!

The Highlights

New Interface
We have completely revamped the look and feel of Bouldr. Our previous interface had become too cluttered and divergent after so many changes, so we have cleared out a lot of the mess.

Messaging
At last! Now you can talk to each other in private with our new messaging system. We have added a ‘send message’ link to everyone’s profile so that you can now talk without giving your email address away. Couple this with our explorer, and you can begin finding climbing partners nearby!

Driving Directions
More of a nice touch than a massive feature, this one. Basically, if you go to a location in the explorer (Burbage or Stanage, for example), and then click on the little car icon in the top-right corner, you will be taken to Google Map’s directions page, from which you can enter your location, and get directions to the crag. Nice.

Speed
Our shiny new RailsMachine has been a great asset to Bouldr – our image uploading system works a lot better now, and the overall speed of the site has improved.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

Hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year! We’ve been busy over the holiday period, and today, we released a slew of new features to Bouldr.

Climbers Near You

The explorer now features a tabbed interface, along with the ability to find people near you to meet up with! We’re going to be adding a messaging feature pretty soon, but take a look, and if you haven’t already, update your profile and tell us where you are.

Don’t worry – all locations are slightly randomized to prevent anyone from finding your true location (unless you tell them, of course), and you can remove your location from your profile whenever you want.

Advertising

Bouldr needs to make money – at the moment, all the costs for hosting, development and other such bills are coming directly out of our pockets. In order to begin offsetting this cost, we have decided to launch our own advertising service. We’re only going to be accepting advertisements from businesses that are directly involved in providing services to climbers, so it’s all going to be relevant to you.

If you are interested in advertising on Bouldr, then nip over to our advertiser center, and take a look. We’re currently running a 60%-off launch-sale, so if you would like to advertise to climbers from around the world, then this is an excellent time to add your business!

Coming Soon…

We’re keeping ourselves busy with a new interface for Bouldr – we will be stripping some functionality completely, and adding more relevant features too. You can expect a new messaging system, an improved interface and a few other bits that we are keeping under wraps for now.

Have a great 2007!

Incredibly Detailed Photos of Yosemite

2006-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

Xres have a series of very large scale images, including several shots of El Capitan and Half Dome. The images are Gigabytes in size, and use the Google Maps interface to provide a browser that you can use to zoom and move the image. Incredible. (Via Information Aesthetics)

The Newsletter

2006-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

In order to keep you abreast of our new developments, we have created a monthly newsletter.

There is a degree of customisation built into our newsletter; you can edit your profile to pinpoint your location, which we then use to load your newsletter with items related to where you are (we won’t make your location publicly known – it will be randomised somewhat if it is displayed on our site).

If you don’t want to be receiving the newsletter, then you can unsubscribe by editing your profile.

Oh, and while I have your attention, why not pop into our forums and introduce yourself – get to know other climbers from around the world, and help make Bouldr brilliant!

Climb Clustering

2006-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Our explorer was beginning to suffer from submission-overload, so we have just updated it to include clustering. Climbs that are too close to be distinguished on the explorer will now be represented by a single marker.

Take a look at The Tank at Burbage South for example – lots of climbs in a relatively small area. The old explorer showed a marker for each climb, causing markers to be hidden. In our new explorer, these six climbs are displayed over four markers, reducing complexity while increasing speed.

Other interesting clusters:

If you want to view the climbs in each cluster, then click on the marker and use the ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ links to move between them.

Current Issue with Images

2006-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

As some of you have no doubt noticed, our image processing system is currently experiencing a few problems. We are working hard to sort these out, but until we have corrected the problem, some images will not show correctly.

As soon as we are back to our regularly scheduled program, I’ll post again.

UPDATE: OK, for the time being, viewing images should work OK. We’re keeping a close eye on things from this end for the time being.

Accident Claims Life of Todd Skinner

2006-10-27T00:00:00+01:00

Just heard the terrible news about Todd Skinner’s untimely death on the Leaning Tower in Yosemite. Any climbing related accident is tragic, but is made even more shocking when such an accomplished climber is killed in such unfortunate circumstances.

Tom over at All Climbing has some insight on the accident, citing an initial report that suggests his harness broke.

A Memorial Fund has been established for his wife and three young children, details of which can be found on his official website.

Todd Skinner’s Official Website
Wikipedia page

New Stuff

2006-10-19T00:00:00+01:00

OK, Just sent another release into the wild, with a whole bunch of new bits and bug fixes:

Add your location to your profile to customise Bouldr
Pagination of forums (should have been done long ago)
Refactored the explorer, so it should be a bit nippier now
The Bouldr Newsletter, customised to your location
Many improvements to site speed and responsiveness

As ever, constructive criticism, bug reports and praise are all welcome!

New Shoes!

Boosh! I managed to finally get a new pair – I settled on a pair of RedChilli Sprint VCR’s, and though they have turned my feet pink each time I wore them since, and I have a feeling they are going to end up fading from Chilli Red to pink in the near future, they feel snug on my feet, and far grippier than my old, holy pair.

Thanks to everyone that sent me advice!

New Shoes!

2006-10-06T00:00:00+01:00

My rock boots are dead – gone – kaput!

The rubber on the toe (exactly the points that I use most – under the big toe) have worn through, making it appear that I live out in the boulder fields. In order to stop the small change donations and sympathy, I need to get a new pair.

I have only ever owned this one pair of boots, so I am not particularly faithful to one brand or design. I’d like to know what the best pair of rock boots you have ever owned are.

Answers on a postcard!

At Last - a New Version!

2006-10-02T00:00:00+01:00

It’s been a long time coming (mainly due to the fact that bills need paying at some point), but today we finally deploy a brand new version!

We should be able to dedicate a proper chunk of time over the next few weeks to add a number of features and refactor a few areas of Bouldr that we are not too happy with at the moment.

Anyhow, here is a list of this releases main highlights:

New Stuff

Brand new voting system for climbs – vote up good submissions, vote down erroneous ones.
Bouldr leader-board for all you wonderful contributors
More points on the explorer map at the same time
You now get emailed when a comment is added to one of your climbs
A notification will now be sent when someone replies to a thread you are involved in on the forum
Automatic centering on your country in the explorer
More forums – new Tips & Tricks, Travel and General forums.
Better forum organisation
Link to the current page on the explorer – get a direct URL to the current map view
Lots of minor changes to navigation elements and layout

Fixes

Pagination links on the explorer are now out of the results bar
The show climb page no longer has an epilepsy-inducing load procedure
Climb editor now loads in a prettier way

As ever, if you find anything that is not working as it should please do nip over to the bug reporting forum to let us know about it. Suggestions are also always welcome, as well as constructive criticism – tell us what you think is missing / rubbish / great over in the feedback forum.

Have Fun!

I Love Getting Told what is Wrong

2006-09-18T00:00:00+01:00

I think that Dan Russell describes it so much better than I could ever hope to in his post Screaming users considered good.

When creating systems that are meant to be used by a large number of people, it is very easy to end up pushing one’s own agenda rather than working out what suits everybody else. I love reading what you think is right, wrong, broken or pointless in Bouldr – tell me what is bugging you or what you love, and I’ll see to it that Bouldr is built in the right direction.

Oh, and on a side note, this video of Dan Osman is insane!

Bizarre Iceberg Climbing Wall

2006-09-17T00:00:00+01:00

This looks pretty cool – maybe as an introduction to Deep Water Soloing? All I need now is a pool, space to put it and about Â£53,000. (Via. Boing Boing)

In other news, the updates to Bouldr are still coming – I have recently had to turn my attention to doing work that pays the bills. Updates will be deployed as soon as possible (promise)!

More Improvements!

2006-06-30T00:00:00+01:00

We just rolled out a new version that includes quite a few improvements and changes. Most notable of these is the inclusion of Google Adsense on our pages and the new Explorer interface.

Google Adsense

We have included Google Adsense on our pages in order to help offset the cost of our hosting – if you find any of the ads useful, then follow them through, but please do not just click the ads for the sake of it! We are still looking into other more beneficial ways in which to monetise Bouldr without making sections of the site ‘members only’, as doing so would prevent us from realising our dream of bringing climbing areas and climbs out of obscurity, and making them readily available to everyone.

New Explorer Interface

The explorer has undergone another face-lift, so if anything breaks, please do be patient with us! We have improved the display of the climbs on the left hand side, and added pagination (we hadn’t really needed it till now, so it got put off somewhat). A number of behind the scenes tweaks and bug fixes have been included too, so the whole thing should perform much better now.

Anyhow, we are still very much in the early stages of creating Bouldr, so please do feel free to suggest new features, improvements and tell us about any problems you have.

Have fun!

Google Add a Major New Mapping Feature

2006-06-14T00:00:00+01:00

Something we have been looking forward to for a while at Bouldr has just been announced to the world: Google now supports Geocoding!

We are soon to be rolling out another major new release of Bouldr, and hopefully, we will be able to add a few features we have had in mind since day one, but have been unable to implement in a satisfactory manner.

The only problem is (at the moment, anyway) is that the UK is not supported, though in the announcement, it is mentioned that:

More countries will be added as Google Maps launches in new countries.

Ah well, good things come to those who wait, I suppose.

Thank you, Google!

New Climb Editor, Explorer Feeds, and del.icio.us

2006-05-29T00:00:00+01:00

We have just rolled a new release of Bouldr out, which includes a big change to the climb editor; we felt that it could have been done better, so we changed it! The new climb editor is tabbed as opposed to having all of the details on one page, making the whole thing much prettier to look at, and much less intimidating.

Get notified of new climbs in your area with our Explorer Feeds. Explore to your area of interest on the explorer map, and then simply subscribe to the RSS feed. Whenever a new climb becomes available that matches your search, it will be added to your RSS feed for you.

We have also added del.icio.us support to our pages, so if you find a particularly interesting or useful page on Bouldr, you can easily add it to your del.icio.us bookmarks.

This release also contains a number of fixes and minor changes – too many to go into here, but enough to significantly improve Bouldr’s performance and usability. As always, if you have any feedback for us, we’d love to hear it!

Oh, and in other news, we note that Google has now expanded ‘Down Under’ (so to speak) – which is fantastic news! Hopefully, we’ll be seeing more of an expansion in the low-level imagery too, although I can already see that Stanage edge, and The Plantation are now clearly visible (Switch to Satellite view).

Mmmmm... del.icio.us!

2006-05-25T00:00:00+01:00

A little rooting about the web has given us a little bit of a confidence boost, as it would appear that a lot of you really like the idea behind Bouldr, and have been bookmarking us on del.icio.us! Thank you – we love to know that we are going in the right direction, and bookmarking us means a lot.

If you like Bouldr now, you’re going to love it soon, and as you appear to like using del.icio.us, we are going to integrate del.icio.us bookmarking into Bouldr itself, so that it becomes even simpler to add us to your favourite sites.

Spread the word!

The Feedback Loop

2006-05-10T00:00:00+01:00

As part of our ongoing improvements, we have added a major new feature to Bouldr – the ability to give us feedback! We want this process to be as open as possible, so the new feedback system takes the form of a forum; Anyone can add comments to it (so long as you are logged in), and anyone can read the comments that other members have added.

This feedback loop was always a feature we have planned to do, but it wasn’t ready on the day we wanted to launch, so it ended up taking a temporary back seat. Now that it has been rolled out, though, we hope that you will take the time to tell us how you think we are doing, and perhaps even mention some of the features you think we are missing.

Oh, and we have also rewritten the invite system – you can now actually see the invitation being sent to your friends, and customise it so that it actually consists of a message that comes from you.

A Brand New Version!

2006-05-05T00:00:00+01:00

In fact, this is a completely new version – we were unhappy with what we had created initially, so we started from scratch! We threw out all of the existing code, and began with a clean slate, and some better ideas.

What we have released today is a version of Bouldr with many new features, including the map-based explorer, the ability to invite your climbing buddies, a clearer climb submission page and loads other things.

We have a ton of new features in development, and even more ideas waiting to be unleashed, but for now, take a look around, and tell us what you think.

Oh, and if anyone is feeling flush, I’m still looking for sponsors for the run I am participating in – see this post for more info!

5K Isn't that far! (Is It?)

2006-04-18T00:00:00+01:00

Agreeing to run 5K seemed like a really good idea at the time – I would be able to build my stamina, get away from the computer screen, and at the same time raise money for a charity that I have always felt everyone should support; Cancer Research UK.

Unfortunately for me, I had forgotten exactly how bad a runner I am, which was brought swiftly to my attention after I went for my first training session. I finished after approximately fifteen minutes, having only completed around 2K. I was knackered. Everything was blurry, I was bright red, and almost sure I could see into the future.

That was two months ago.

I am still paying for the past few years of neglecting any cardiovascular exercise, but it’s all getting better. The run itself is on the 4th June in Heaton Park in Manchester (UK), so I have approximately six weeks to get myself into a state where I can look credible at the finish line.

The whole (thinly veiled) point of this post is basically to ask anyone who can to sponsor me! You can do it online, and if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your sponsorship without costing you anything!

Wish me luck!

Not Dead Yet!

2006-04-14T00:00:00+01:00

It’s been a while since I have updated this place – mainly due to the plethora of other commitments I have, and the lack of more than 24 hours in any given day.

A new version of Bouldr is in the pipeline, including a simplified climb editor, a new theme and better support for exploring the climbs listed. It’ll be here soon (honest!), so stay tuned.

A Quick Update

2006-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

It’s now been one month since Bouldr officially launched, so I thought I would give a quick overview of what will be happening next.

1. A(nother) New Design

We have grown tired of our current look – as a first attempt at getting a site theme going, it is a pretty poor attempt. We have been developing a new theme for a little while now, so as soon as we are happy for it to be released, we will roll it out. Be assured that there is a lot less black involved!

2. Improvements to the Explorer

We have a couple of nifty (unfinished) enhancements to the explorer that should really open up the interface. At the moment, it is a rather dull search system – hardly exploring, really!

We want to give you the ability to discover new areas and climbs rather than have to search for them – our re-factored explorer should give you this ability.

3. Some Top Secret Stuff

Irritatingly enough, I can’t tell you much about these few new features. Be assured, though that they are exciting enough to keep us working long hours to get them ready for you!

I hope that I have whet your appetite in preparation for a number of big updates in the coming months. Keep checking back for new stuff, or grab our RSS feed if you’re tech savvy!

Rolling Out a New Release!

2006-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

We have spent the past couple of weeks going over Bouldr as it was on it’s birthday.

We looked and thought about what we could improve, examined what we had created and why, then we took apart most of the code, and put it back together to produce today’s release – a faster, friendlier and simpler Bouldr.

A quick roundup of those features:

Bouldr Explorer – our brand new search tool for getting around the climbs listed on our site.
Bigger images of climbs, giving you clearer views of the problems and routes listed.
Simpler climb editor, with tabs for each section so that it splits up nicely.
Location search for placing your climb
Clearer account page
New front page, with the latest additions displayed.
A bucket-load of fixes and small tweaks here and there.

The boffins at Bouldr HQ are pretty pleased with themselves, however, they realise that there is still much to do. We are still refining everything we can as well as developing new and exciting features.

As always, your feedback is always welcome – just nip over to the contact page, and send us your thoughts.

Watch this space for updates!

Using the Latest Google Maps API

2006-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

Google are still developing the second version of their excellent Maps API, and as yet, they advise against it’s deployment in real-world applications.

We however, will be using the updated API when we roll out the next version of Bouldr in a week or so. Our testing so far has given us enough confidence in that the new version is stable enough to be used in the ways Bouldr will use it.

The main benefit we can see that will come from using the new API is (as mentioned in an earlier post) the additional detail levels of aerial imagery – many of my favourite locations are now clearly visible, including (surprisingly) Bell Hagg.

With any luck, coverage of Stanage and The Plantation will also be improved soon – I’m still wondering whether I can see Business Boulder or not!

Anyhow, the new release of Bouldr should be completed within the next two weeks. That’s the plan, anyway.

Bouldr Friendly Images

2006-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

When contributing images of climbs to Bouldr, there are a few general guidelines that can help make your contributions better able to convey the route:

Take the image of the bare rock-face only – try to ensure that there is no-one climbing the route or problem when you take the picture, otherwise, the climbers body will obscure the face, and your image may lack essential detail.
Take the image when there is ample lighting on the face of the rock. This is not always possible if the route involves a large overhang, roof or resides in a cave, but if the sun is behind the rock, then silhouetting and glare may reduce the level of detail available.
Make sure the image is of an appropriate size, and frames the area you are interested in well. Images where the actual route is minute compared to the width of the picture won’t be very easy to annotate.
Ensure you have permission to add the image to Bouldr. Uploading copyrighted images will cause them to be removed at best. At worst, legal wrangling may follow (ugh!). Check our terms and conditions for more information regarding the legality of all this.

Make Bouldr Go Now!

2006-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

As the dust settles at Bouldr HQ, a brand new service is born: A place to share your climbing experiences, show off your latest route or find a new challenge at your local climbing area.

Bouldr has landed!

But the code monkeys at Bouldr HQ are far from finished yet. We currently have several new features in development, just waiting to be released into the wild. We will be constantly tweaking and adding features to Bouldr based on what you want, and what we think we can do better.

What is more important to us, however, are the things we haven’t thought of yet – those overlooked things that you want adding. We want to be told what to add next; after all, Bouldr has been created to serve you!

Have fun!

New Imagery on Google Maps

2006-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

Looking forward to seeing the new image data being available through the API soon – Bouldr will definitely benefit if we can show you images of the various quarries, boulder fields and outcrops, as many are somewhat isolated from roads depicted on maps.

See Hobson Moor, home of many excellent routes. Wimberry also get’s the same treatment – even Sugar Loaf is clearly visible, innocently hiding it’s numerous bouldering problems.

The Bouldr Manifesto

2006-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

When we were initially developing Bouldr, we defined a set of ideas that would act as a guide to ensure that the final artifact would be as well suited to the task in hand as possible. To that end, we have decided to post these four ideas here so that we can share with everyone the basic philosophy behind Bouldr.

1. Everyone has their Own Climbs

Everyone, and we mean everyone has their own climbs that they have thought up after a couple of hours at their local crag / quarry / boulder / pebble. Unfortunately, these problems are often either kept to the individual or even worse – forgotten about!

Bouldr is about sharing your ideas – if you have a kick-ass problem, then by all means share it! Others will have a go too, and you’ll be able to get a gauge as to the difficulty of the problem you have set. Until now, unless you are in with a crowd of decent climbers, then it is unlikely you will have been able to have your problem discussed and graded in such a way!

2. Every Climber has their Own Individual Taste

Bouldr is to be flexible – we want to give any climber – regardless of ability or route preference – a useful guide to the various routes, problems and areas in any part of the world.

Any submission may be made to the database – there is no requirement that any problem must be of a particular minimum difficulty, type or in any location. As long as everything submitted is your own work and not plagiarised, then please add it in!

3. A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

An age-old proverb that will be relevant as long as humans have eyes – especially when you are attempting to describe a short problem on a lump of rock. To read a description of a problem can be helpful, but sometimes, if not all of the time, it is even better to see an image of it.

We want everyone to be able to create a visual representation of their problem rather than have to attempt a written description. This way, a problem’s description can be limited to describing the landing, top-out difficulty and interesting quirks rather than the intracies of each movement.

4. Guidebooks Should be as Simple as Possible

Now, we are not lashing out at guidebooks in general here – indeed, the better-known ones have been doing an excellent job of bringing information about the best bouldering locations to the bouldering community for a long, long time now, and we are sure that this will continue long into the future.

But this point still deserves attention. Bouldering guides should be well organised, contain valid and accurate information, and present it in a manner that is simple to comprehend. Bouldr is to be no different in this respect.

The Obligatory First Post

2006-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

It’s almost ready!

The code monkeys at Bouldr HQ have been working ferociously to get every last crease ironed out, the collar starched and any missing buttons sewn back on. Bouldr is to be launched (if all goes well) on the first of February.

Watch this space!

Terms and Conditions

2006-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

Terms and Conditions

People Die Climbing

Any form of Climbing is dangerous, and as such, Bouldr takes no responsibility for any injury or loss of life sustained when climbing. When you climb, you are taking your life into your own hands, and putting yourself in danger. Make sure you take every safety precaution possible when climbing - leave nothing to chance.

Bouldr is provided on an ‘as-is’ basis, and as such, Bouldr:

does not guarantee the accuracy, reliability, quality, timeliness, completeness or legality of any aspect of the service, although we do make every effort to ensure that the data provided by the service is accurate, no warranty or fitness is implied.
will not be liable under any circumstances for any direct, indirect, consequential, punitive, incidental, or special damages arising from the use or inability to use Bouldr, or any service provided by Bouldr. Any reliance placed on any service or product provided by Bouldr is entirely at your own risk.
expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied, statutory or otherwise, relating to Bouldr or any products or services provided by Bouldr.

You are entitled to use any data and information provided by Bouldr for your own personal, private use. No part of any products or services provided by Bouldr may be altered, adapted, broadcast, shown or played in public, copied, downloaded, uploaded, posted, reproduced, republished, stored, transmitted or distributed in any way.

Any data and information provided through Bouldr pages, including the software used therein, images, logos and intellectual property remains the property of Bouldr.

In contributing to Bouldr, you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way that we want, and in any media worldwide. Note that you still own the copyright to everything you contribute to Bouldr.

Any data stored on the Bouldr database, website or other related materials may be subject to change without prior notice.

Any refunds or remunerations are made entirely at the discretion of Bouldr.

By accessing or using any part of Bouldr, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. These terms and conditions are subject to change without notice, and you agree to be bound by the most recent version.

Bouldr takes breaches of these terms and conditions seriously, and any violation will be followed up.

Privacy Statement

2006-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

Privacy Statement

Here at Bouldr we take the privacy concerns of our users very seriously. We believe that gaining the trust of our users is central to the success of our site. This privacy statement has been provided as a means of conveying our policy on the use of personal data provided by our users.

Any information provided by you that is not part of your public contributions will not be presented to any third party in any form, unless we are required to surrender information by law. Only a user with the correct username and password combination may access your account, however, the safety of your username and password is entirely your responsibility, so if you think that someone may know it, you are advised to change it as soon as possible.

The only personal data that we require is your name and email address, although you may also provide additional information to be displayed on your profile. We need your email address in order to re-send your password and username details if you so request, and we require your name to ensure that any necessary correspondence reaches the correct person.

We may use your details to send you occasional announcements regarding new developments on Bouldr. We stress that these will be kept to a bare minimum, and we will not disclose your personal details to third parties. In Summary:

We will never disclose your personal details unless required to do so by law.
We will not sell your contact details to third party companies.
Your personal details are stored on a secure server, but it remains your responsibility to keep your password safe.
We only require your name and email address, although you may provide additional details if you wish.

If you have any queries regarding this privacy statement, please get in touch with us.

About Bouldr

2006-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome

We’re building a worldwide guidebook, and we need your help.

Discover climbs and problems

Our explorer allows you to browse the world map to find climbs and problems that are relevant to your skill level and location. We also overlay topos that describe the individual locations in greater detail and weather information so you can tell when it’s going to be great weather for getting out to the crag.

Spread the knowledge

We want to build a free, open database of climbs from all over the world, and allow anyone to access it. To do this, we need you to go to your local crag, take photos of your favorite routes and problems, and add them to our site.

If you’re particularly knowledgeable about an area, add a Topo to describe the area. Others will build on your work, and be able to use it free of charge.

Find people to climb with

If you’re looking for a climber, we want to help you find one! Create your account, then add a request for a partner. People near to where you want to go climbing will then be able to get in touch without you needing to give out your email address.

Take Bouldr with you

If you have an iPhone, click here and take a look at out iPhone app.

Our app allows you to download information from Bouldr onto your iPhone, and take it with you to the crag. It doesn’t require an Internet connection to work, and it uses your GPS to show you climbs that are near to you. You can also use your GPS and camera to upload new climbs and problems to Bouldr.