Popular Climbing App Redpoint Updated With Apple Watch Ultra Support

Friday September 23, 2022 5:23 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

Popular climbing app Redpoint has been updated for Apple Watch Ultra, bringing Action Button support into the mix for all climbing disciplines.

apple watch ultra climbing workout1
As a fitness tracker for bouldering and climbing, Redpoint tracks climbing routes and altitudes using the barometric sensor in your Apple Watch or iPhone, generating an automatic logbook of your ascents.

The app comes with full Apple HealthKit integration so all climbing activity contributes to closing your rings, and the app supports a variety of grading scales for bouldering, top rope, sport climbing, trad climbing, via ferrata, deep water soloing (psicobloc), and aid climbing.

For Apple Watch Ultra, the Redpoint functionalities automatically assigned to the Action Button include starting a new climbing workout, logging the difficulty of a route, and logging the tick type of a route, allowing climbers to interact with the watch without getting climbing chalk on the screen.

Redpoint is a free app to download on the App Store and offers monthly ($4.99), three-month ($10.99), and one-year ($29.99) Redpoint Pro subscription plans via in-app purchases. Users can also purchase a Lifetime Unlock IAP for $139.99.

Apple on Friday launched the new Apple Watch Ultra, a larger, more advanced smartwatch aimed at athletes, explorers, swimmers, and extreme sports enthusiasts. The ‌Apple Watch Ultra‌ costs $799 and comes in a silver titanium casing and is available with three different bands including Trail, Alpine, and Ocean.

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Top Rated Comments

cateye

51 months ago

$139.99 seems ridiculous, but then I remembered most people stopped climbing rocks before they were allowed to carry their own lunch money.

Perhaps I'm misinterpreting your comment, randyhudson, but it feels like you're being purposefully dismissive. I hope that's not the case. Throughout threads about the Watch Ultra, I've seen snide remarks toward diving, back country hiking, and now rock climbing. I wonder if some people think we should stay inside and watch television all day instead? :rolleyes:

IMO, niche software should be expensive. All software should be more expensive than it is, really, given the work, knowledge, and effort required. I get that not everyone is made of money, but come on. Software development is a skill and an art. Developers should be compensated fairly.

Do any rock climbers here wear a smart watch or any watch while climbing? I would imagine it would distract and possibly get in the way, or snag on a rough surface.

I've only done basic rope/belay climbing and didn't feel a particular need to track what I was doing at the time, so no, I probably wouldn't wear any watch while doing it, but like all things... people who are more serious about the activity may want to track certain metrics. I personally would be more worried about bashing any watch against the rock surface than it getting involved in ropes/etc., but I'm a bit of a clutz that way. :p

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

BugeyeSTI

51 months ago

Do any rock climbers here wear a smart watch or any watch while climbing? I would imagine it would distract and possibly get in the way, or snag on a rough surface.

I'm an avid boulderer/sport climber both indoor and outdoor for over 20 years and I would never wear anything on my wrist while doing so. I can't speak for all climbers but it would limit my wrist flexibility and movement of my wrist joint.. I keep my iPhone and AW in a fanny pack during sport climbing and leave them in my backpack during bouldering

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

mashdots

51 months ago

$139.99 seems ridiculous, but then I remembered most people stopped climbing rocks before they were allowed to carry their own lunch money.

I personally find top rope and bouldering to be both fun and physically intensive. Your condescension isn't really welcome here.

$139 does seem like a lot, but to pay that much for useful software that you get lifetime upgrades for with no subscription is great, especially when you consider that $139 is equivalent to just under 5 years of the annual cost. What's wrong with supporting software in a way that isn't just another subscription?

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

AppleTheorist

51 months ago

Never heard of it, might have to check it out

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

WarmWinterHat

51 months ago

Apple is on the right track, but they don’t do anything bold anymore. I tried the new ultra at the store. I really did like the real estate. But the form factor is still wrong.

Make it rectangle, like and iPad. Then you can actually type like a normal person, view sites. And it fits along the length of the arm. Like a pip boy but less square. Why won’t they do this?

It's a smart and fitness watch, not a full wrist computer. What you're describing might work for some people but I have zero interest in anything like that, especially on a watch such as the ultra.

I want fitness/activity/durability first, and smart stuff second. I don't want to type and I definitely have zero desire to browse the web; that's what the iphone is for. I would destroy something like that in short order. Trail running and I smack it on a rock? Going bouldering, which I do 3-4 times per week, with such a device? No thanks.

Edit: I had to look up what a pip-boy is. That's not Apple's market.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

DeepIn2U

51 months ago

I'm an avid boulderer/sport climber both indoor and outdoor for over 20 years and I would never wear anything on my wrist while doing so. I can't speak for all climbers but it would limit my wrist flexibility and movement of my wrist joint.. I keep my iPhone and AW in a fanny pack during sport climbing and leave them in my backpack during bouldering

I’m no experienced climber, actually pure novice.

Yet I’m trying to understand how does wearing a watch on your wrists affect wrist flexibiiity?

A wrists mechanics in the human body has VERY LITTLE flex at all. What most people attribute to flex in their wrists is actually the 2 bones in their forearms, I believe. That’s why it’s so easy in Jiu-jitsu, hapkido, or Wing-Chung amongst other martial arts to enable wrist locks.

The been in your “wrists” is actually coming from the floating bones in the upper part of your hand. Open hand or closed fist side to side is your wrist and should not affect your actual wrist where your watch sits. Up and down motion probably would be restricted based on the thickness of your wrists and your watch - that I full get and no climber wants that.

I somehow think Apple thought and tested this through so it may be a full personal comfort thing or maybe wear a watch a lot less loose and higher up the arm in the wrist area then loose and right at where it connects with the hand.

“The hand bone connects to the, wrist bone…”

Then again I could be really wrong.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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