KAYA: THE CLIMBER’S APP 4+

While I was in the gym at Iron Works in Berkeley, I decided to give a try to Kaya. Immediately I enjoyed the fact that the gym I was in was using the this to update their climbs. As I played with it more, I found myself exploring other aspects of the walls without actually walking over to them, setting some internal goals for myself for the session, and actively tracking goes on my projects. I can tell this app was designed by climbers with exactly what I was desiring to feel stronger.

Midway through the session, I was using the timer function (something I’ve never actually tracked in the gym) to see when my last go was - and to actually come up with how much rest made sense to me.

After the session I loved looking back on exactly what I did that day, and feeling like while I was using the app I barely had to use the app to get it to do exactly what I wanted to.

From here on out, I’ll be using this app during my gym sessions to track my progress. I’ll be telling people about it in the gyms, and I’ll be enjoying every minute of it.

I can’t recommend trying this app enough. For 1 session, start by using Kaya, and I guarantee you’ll be as psyched as I am.

I found out about this app from another climber, and was impressed by the quality of execution and how up-to-date it is. It’s a really handy tool for gym climbers like myself who also love stats! However, I really think there are some minor issues that could be fixed, and I was surprised to discover there’s no option in the app to submit feedback. The major issue I see is that new sets on the home page don’t specify what gym location they’re at! I live in an area with 4 gyms in the same network (same name!) close by, so it’s impossible for me to memorize all the zone names and automatically know what gym the new set is without the location listed. It seems like a pretty easy fix, and I don’t know why it’s not already there. Also, I’ve noticed that some zone routes/problems aren’t listed from left to right or top to bottom, but rather start the list randomly in the middle of the wall. That seems like another easy fix that would make use of the app a lot better.

Prior to finding the KAYA app, I had tried every other app out there for logging my sessions, logging climbs, being part of a community, etc and usually ended up deleting them within a week as they were never quite what I wanted. But then I found KAYA, which is by far the best climbing app I’ve ever used and I can say I’ve had it on my phone for months now with no desire to delete it! KAYA makes it super easy to log climbs, see beta, see what other members think the grade is, compete in super fun challenges, post your climbs and keep track of your sessions! It’s definitely changed my climbing sessions for the better and it’s a very fun and easy app to use. I would (and have) recommend this app to anyone! What an amazing idea!