Calgary grad student builds 3D app to guide climbers up Mount Yamnuska
A University of Calgary computer science student turned drone photos of a 240-metre limestone climb into a navigation app meant to replace decades-old handwritten route notes.
Why it matters
The app targets a real safety gap for climbers on Alberta's popular Rocky Mountain routes, where getting off course can lead to falls or rescues.
Ben Pearman, a 29-year-old master's student in the University of Calgary's Department of Computer Science, has created an app called ThreeTopo to help rock climbers navigate difficult routes without losing their way on the rock face.
The idea came to him while climbing the south face of Mount Yamnuska in the Bow Valley, on a route known as Red Shirt, a 240-metre limestone wall considered the "crown jewel" of Rocky Mountain climbing. Pearman used a drone to photograph the route in detail and built a three-dimensional digital model of the rock face, which the app uses to give climbers step-by-step directions they can check one-handed at safe resting points.
Previously, climbers relied on cryptic, decades-old typewritten notes for that kind of route information. Miles Abesdris, 38, one of the experienced climbers who tested the app, said it can reduce some of the uncertainty of traditional, or trad, climbing, where the lead climber places removable gear into the rock for protection and must judge the safest path largely by feel and experience.
Pearman plans to make the app publicly available and hopes other climbers will contribute data on additional popular routes across North America, from British Columbia to Nevada, to make the sport safer. He said he knows several climbers who have needed helicopter rescue after getting off route.
Compiled by the Alberta Daily Desk — an AI-written summary of reporting from the credited sources below, produced and reviewed under our editorial policy.