Rock Climbing with Apple Watch

[phirst]

I tried recording Rock Climbs on my Apple Watch, however it only records time and heart rate. So, no GPS data, no Elevation gain. Is this a specific limitation of the Apple Watch app?

To overcome this I record the climb as a Hike, then change it to Rock Climb afterwards on iPhone/Web. But it would be preferable to record direct as Rock Climb 🧗‍♀️ 

[phirst]

Thanks for the response.

It’s perhaps not very accurate - hard to tell with only a couple of attempts, but the elevation data looked reasonable, and you can see where it is on the map - two key aspects for my record. I may try with other modes to see if it makes a difference, but Hiking seemed most appropriate to start with.

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hi phrist,

Thanks for posting about this.  The Apple Watch App doesn't record GPS data for rock climbing at the current time.  We appreciate your feedback.  I'm glad you have found a workaround that you find useful.  Do you find the GPS data on your rock climbing activities is accurate, when you record with "hike"?  On activities where there is little movement between GPS coordinates, the GPS data recorded may be inaccurate or not all that useful.

[MountainThing]

Hi, I found the same bug when bouldering. The location of the boulders can be hard to find and I was going to use the trace next time. It seems a strange decision to make the watch app work differently from the normal iOS app.