Fresh from a hiking trip in the Swiss Alps, an American assistant professor and her colleagues have used 3D modelling and digital fabrication to recreate tricky stretches of two climbs in the US so they can be practiced in gyms and indoor climbing walls.
Dartmouth College assistant professor Emily Whiting and University of Utah postdoctoral scholar Ladislav Kavan used technology to replicate parts of a climb in Rumney, New Hampshire and a sandstone crag near St George in Utah.
The pair wanted to address the problems that vex many seasoned climbers - how to master a route that might be a world away or too fragile to practice on.
"What if you could take the experience of climbing places like these monuments but not climb the physical thing, actually bring it home to your local gym," Whiting said.
"You would still have the physical experience of climbing it without causing the erosion and damage to the location. There is also the aspect of accessibility, like if this is some place in Thailand or some remote location and you want to train for the route."
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Whiting says she started with a 3D reconstruction of a wall using hundreds of photos at different angles.
This was then combined with video showing the climber's movements. That data helped the researchers identify the key parts of the climb, allowing them to create fabricated holds which were then attached to a climbing wall.
"When you are climbing it, you're grasping onto small portions of it and so we wanted to determine where rock climbers actually grabbing onto the rock face," she said.
Eventually, the researchers envision a system that could one day ingest photos and video. A database of outdoor climbs could then be created, from which holds could be manufactured and available to climbing gyms.
The climbers that have given the new system a try say their outdoor ascent matched their experience indoors.
