🧗 OpenClimbing

Most online climbing guides work the same way:

You contribute a route, photo or correction — and the information ends up inside a database controlled by one company.

OpenClimbing is built differently.

We don't want to build another proprietary climbing database.

Instead:

• 🗺️ climbing areas and routes live in OpenStreetMap
• 📷 climbing photos live in Wikimedia Commons
• 💻 the OpenClimbing application itself is open source

OpenClimbing brings these open datasets together and turns them into a modern climbing guide.

The important part is that the data doesn't belong to us.

Anyone can use it. Anyone can improve it. Anyone can build another app on top of it.

Even if OpenClimbing disappeared tomorrow, the climbing data would remain public.

OpenClimbing is primarily an interface to open data, not the owner of the climbing database.

This also means OpenClimbing doesn't have to be the only climbing application using this information.

That's the point.

We want climbing data to become an open foundation that other developers, mappers, researchers, guidebook authors and climbers can build upon.

One of the things that makes OpenClimbing different is the ability to connect an OpenStreetMap climbing route with its exact path on a photograph.

We developed the wikimedia_commons:path tagging scheme for this.

A route can reference a Wikimedia Commons image:

wikimedia_commons = File:Roviste - Monolit.jpg

and describe its path over the image:

wikimedia_commons:path = 0.682,0.823|0.642,0.453B|0.557,0.177A

The coordinates describe the route line while markers can describe features such as:

• B — bolt
• A — anchor
• P — piton
• S — fixed sling

The result is an interactive, machine-readable climbing topo built entirely from open data.

And because the specification is open, other applications can render exactly the same topo.

We think basic information about climbing routes should be open in much the same way as information about:

• streets,
• hiking trails,
• peaks,
• buildings,
• rivers,
• or geographical names.

A route's name, grade, location and line are part of our shared knowledge of the physical world.

Yet climbing information is often scattered across paper guidebooks, abandoned websites and proprietary databases.

That creates a few problems.

A company shuts down. An app stops being maintained. A website disappears.

Years of community contributions can disappear with it.

A climber may spend hours documenting routes but cannot easily export or reuse that information elsewhere.

Instead of improving one shared source of information, developers repeatedly rebuild similar databases.

OpenClimbing tries a different approach:

Build the data together. Build as many apps as you want on top of it.

OpenStreetMap and Wikimedia have shown that shared public knowledge can survive individual projects, companies and developers.

We want climbing data to work the same way.

OpenClimbing is still a relatively small open-source project.

That means something as simple as a GitHub star can make a surprisingly big difference.

→ Click ⭐ Star at the top of this repository.

Stars help us:

• 📈 become more visible on GitHub,
• 🧑‍💻 attract new developers and contributors,
• 🧗 reach climbers who haven't heard about OpenClimbing,
• 🌍 show that people care about open climbing data,
• ❤️ stay motivated to keep building.

You don't need to contribute code.

A star, a share or telling another climber about OpenClimbing already helps.

OpenClimbing is a community project and there are many ways to contribute.

Use OpenClimbing, report missing or incorrect information and tell us what would make the app more useful at the crag.

Add climbing areas and routes to OpenStreetMap, improve existing data and create photo topos.

Start here:

• OpenStreetMap climbing documentation
• OpenClimbing OSM Wiki
• wikimedia_commons:path

Upload useful climbing photographs to Wikimedia Commons and help turn them into open photo topos.

Bug fixes, UI improvements, refactoring and new features are welcome.

You can:

• browse open issues,
• start a discussion,
• or simply open a pull request.

That's useful too.

Star the repository and share OpenClimbing with someone who climbs.

OpenClimbing is built in our spare time and given to everyone for free.

There are:

no ads, no paywalls and no paid premium climbing data.

We want to keep it that way.

Financial contributions help cover infrastructure, development tools and equipment and allow us to spend more time improving OpenClimbing and creating better open climbing data.

❤️ GitHub Sponsors · ☕ Buy Me a Coffee · More ways to contribute

You can also support us without spending anything:

⭐ Star OpenClimbing 📣 Share the project 🗺️ Improve the data 📷 Add climbing photos 💻 Send a pull request

Every contribution helps.

OpenClimbing will remain open whether you sponsor us or not.

• Node.js 22
• Yarn

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/jvaclavik/openclimbing.git
cd openclimbing

Enable Corepack and install dependencies:

corepack enable
yarn

Start the development server:

yarn dev

Then open:

http://localhost:3000

yarn dev
yarn test
yarn lint
yarn build

OpenClimbing is mainly built with:

• TypeScript
• React
• Next.js
• MapLibre GL
• Material UI
• OpenStreetMap
• Wikimedia Commons

See ARCHITECTURE.md for more information about the application architecture.

OpenClimbing originally grew out of OsmAPP, an open-source universal OpenStreetMap application.

The project was separated to allow OpenClimbing to evolve faster around the specific needs of climbers while keeping the same open-data philosophy.

Huge thanks to everyone who has contributed to OsmAPP, OpenStreetMap, Wikimedia Commons and the wider open-source ecosystem that makes this project possible.

• 🧗 openclimbing.org
• ❤️ Support OpenClimbing
• 💬 OpenClimbing Community
• 🗺️ OpenClimbing on the OpenStreetMap Wiki
• 📖 OSM climbing tagging
• 📷 wikimedia_commons:path
• 🐛 GitHub Issues
• 💡 GitHub Discussions
• 📖 The story behind OpenClimbing
• 🗺️ How to contribute a climbing crag

OpenClimbing is open-source software licensed under the GNU GPL-3.0.

Climbing data and photographs remain subject to the licenses of their respective sources, including OpenStreetMap and Wikimedia Commons.