When we were initially developing Bouldr, we defined a set of ideas that would act as a guide to ensure that the final artifact would be as well suited to the task in hand as possible. To that end, we have decided to post these four ideas here so that we can share with everyone the basic philosophy behind Bouldr.

1. Everyone has their Own Climbs

Everyone, and we mean everyone has their own climbs that they have thought up after a couple of hours at their local crag / quarry / boulder / pebble. Unfortunately, these problems are often either kept to the individual or even worse - forgotten about!

Bouldr is about sharing your ideas - if you have a kick-ass problem, then by all means share it! Others will have a go too, and you’ll be able to get a gauge as to the difficulty of the problem you have set. Until now, unless you are in with a crowd of decent climbers, then it is unlikely you will have been able to have your problem discussed and graded in such a way!

2. Every Climber has their Own Individual Taste

Bouldr is to be flexible - we want to give any climber - regardless of ability or route preference - a useful guide to the various routes, problems and areas in any part of the world.

Any submission may be made to the database - there is no requirement that any problem must be of a particular minimum difficulty, type or in any location. As long as everything submitted is your own work and not plagiarised, then please add it in!

3. A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

An age-old proverb that will be relevant as long as humans have eyes - especially when you are attempting to describe a short problem on a lump of rock. To read a description of a problem can be helpful, but sometimes, if not all of the time, it is even better to see an image of it.

We want everyone to be able to create a visual representation of their problem rather than have to attempt a written description. This way, a problem’s description can be limited to describing the landing, top-out difficulty and interesting quirks rather than the intracies of each movement.

4. Guidebooks Should be as Simple as Possible

Now, we are not lashing out at guidebooks in general here - indeed, the better-known ones have been doing an excellent job of bringing information about the best bouldering locations to the bouldering community for a long, long time now, and we are sure that this will continue long into the future.

But this point still deserves attention. Bouldering guides should be well organised, contain valid and accurate information, and present it in a manner that is simple to comprehend. Bouldr is to be no different in this respect.