KAYA: THE CLIMBER’S APP

Lots of potential but still room for improvement. I find myself using it frequently to find beta videos for more obscure problems in my area. I am using this app now as a log similar to 8a. I like Kaya better though, since it has beta videos. Maybe someday you guys can make a separate app for outdoor climbers, because I don’t like the fact that it logs indoor problems in the same place as outdoor problems. Everyone knows indoor problems don’t count. The only improvements I could ask for are: There’s a bug when submitting older climbs, the scroll function for the date often refreshes and I have to reselect the month, date and year multiple times before it sticks. It also doesn’t save the date occasionally and I have to go back and edit the submission. I also don’t like that it opens the shortened drop down menu when submitting an ascent. I wish it would just open the larger one so I can change the date and add the difficulty without having to expand it every time. The final pet peeve is the extra pop up warning every time you change the date! How many extra steps do I need to do a simple task! I know what I’m doing. One other thing I wish there was a function for is an option to see what the benchmarks of an area are. Hope this is helpful!

Update: The issue got fixed a bit ago, and is running smoothly again. I’ve been using it more, even when I’m away from my gym that uses KAYA. I’ve found it really helpful for knowing when I should be projecting climbs at harder grades, work on volume, or work on my flash level. It’s great to go into a session targeting one of these points and in the past 3 months has improved my consistency within grades. It is a very statistical approach but it works and has given me more satisfaction out of my climbing, rather than aimlessly chasing a grade that is frankly too hard for me at this point. Thank you to the KAYA team, apps like this push climbing forward and keeps it up to date with changing times. So stoked to see the future of this app and hopefully areas overseas start getting guidebooks on this app. After updating to iOS 17 on my iPhone 13 mini the KAYA app has been stuck on the logo opening screen. I’ve tried restarting, deleting and redownloading the app, but it still doesn’t work. Aside from that, this app is great, I’ve found it really useful for tracking my sessions, and looking at my ascents helps me to figure out where I need to improve. Hopefully they’re already working on this issue, but I’m excited to continue using it.

If you climb outdoors, the guidebook features alone make this app a game changer. Things like offline maps, easily accessible beta videos, topos, and the ability for contributors and authors to constantly update the information just removes a layer of friction from the entire process of finding climbs outdoors, making it that much more enjoyable and accessible. Not having to spend 20 minutes searching through Instagram for that beta video you saw 6 months ago is such a relief. Plus, the entire thing is built to create a sense of community with a scrolling video feed, likes, comments, and messaging. Add the fact that they keeping adding new verified guidebooks and it’s clear the app is only going to get better. And that’s just the absolute surface of the features that are available. In fact, if I had one criticism of the app, it’s simply that there are so many features it can feel a bit daunting at first. It’s a double edged sword that way, because the amount of features also means it’s got something of use for just about everyone. With time I’m confident things will get even more streamlined, and even the most recent user interface update goes a long way toward making everything faster and more intuitive to navigate. The team behind this app is obviously dedicated to improving its already great functionality and they’re passionate about climbing too — how often can you say that about your app devs? They continue to solve real-world problems for climbers, which makes KAYA a no-brainer for me.