Not only if you’re a competitive rock climber, but if you enjoy to get out and explore nature for a weekend, you’ll be excited to learn that a San Francisco-based outdoor loving tech team have come together to design and build the world’s first climbing performance tracker.
The Whipper is a small clip-on device that monitors climbing movement with statistics like vertical foot gain, incline, pace, effort level and altitude. Ideally, the tracker is clipped on to either a belt or harness that sits off the back of the climber, armed with a set of motion sensors and lightweight frame that makes itself barely noticeable.
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After a climb the tracker can be wirelessly synced to a smartphone via the Whipper app, which transforms the collected data into a series of graphics and useful information that makes up the smart coaching component of the software.
The smart coaching component gives users performance-based feedback, training programs, progress analysis and goal recommendations. There are also social components within the app that allow users to communicate with others and set challenges against one another. Users can share their performance with their peers and form competitive relationships with others from around the world.
While many might consider the Whipper to only be for serious and competitive climbers, it has been designed for all skill levels and is able to provide many different forms of feedback whether it’s for an experienced climber or a casual one.
In a nutshell, the Whipper has a great deal of similarities to any other wearable on the digital fitness market, but what is so impressive about this device is that the data collection is specific to climbing; a sport that’s traditionally perceived as a niche in such a diverse sporting market.
The Whipper team is launching an Indiegogo campaign at the beginning of next month in order to finalise the design and production phases. If all goes to plan, the device will hit shelves and the end of the year.