Pinnacle Climb Log

This app has the potential to be so much better but it seems like the developer has not made any meaningful improvements since launch. This app is good for logging grades, seeing heart rate, and has great Strava integration. This app is supposed to log your climbing location but it has never logged the climbing location correctly(either missing or logged as another state). Its pretty disappointing that this is pretty much all a paid app offers when a free app RedPoint, used to offer all that and so much more. RedPoint would record where (gym, outdoor crag) you climbed and how far you climbed (by measuring distance climbed) and the app would also automatically record climbs after each ascent/descent. These features no longer work on RedPoint after a iOS update. I paid for the Pinnacle app thinking it would have the same features but it is extremely bare bones and not very helpful to a training regiment. I have seen reviews for Pinnacle with users suggesting these missing features since 5 years ago but the developer has not added any of the features to the app. At this point, paying for the Pinnacle app means you are essentially paying for a fancy climbing themed notebook to log your grades.

The app works great on my Apple Watch Series 3. You start a session and tap the route difficulty after your climb to log it. Heart rate is tracked and workouts/calories are credited to your Apple Health data if you want. Super simple, but there is room for improvement. Sometimes I’m so exhausted after a climb that I forget to log the route. It would be very useful if the app could detect when I stop descending and give me a vibration to remind me to log the route. Even better, the app could take the approach that the Ski Tracks app uses to track skiing - it auto detects when you’re going up and down, logging metrics like vertical descent, descent rate, descent time, etc so you can get a nice overview of each of your runs. If that model was adopted, you would be able to see how you are progressing on a particular route over time (ie, am I climbing it quicker, how high did I climb on failed attempts, etc). Overall, would recommend 5/5 and I’m excited to see how this develops.

Just started climbing a couple months ago, and the thought of keeping a log book for the gym sounded tedious. The tie-in with the watch to provide an idea for activity, combined with the ability to log sessions, is amazing. One thing I’d like to see is being able to switch from bouldering to top-roping, as my gym has autobelays that make switching from bouldering to top-roping extremely quick. In between sets of boulder problems, I usually get in a nice easy route like a 5.7/5.8. It’s certainly helped my endurance, and would be nice to be able to log that without having to end and begin sessions. Even without that, it’s still a 5-Star app!