Strange beta: an assistance system for indoor rock climbing route setting

This paper applies the mathematics of chaos to the task of designing indoor rock-climbing routes. Chaotic variation has been used to great advantage on music and dance, but the challenges here are quite different, beginning with the representation. We present a formalized system for transcribing rock climbing problems and then describe a variation generator that is designed to support human route-setters in designing new and interesting climbing problems. This variation generator, termed strange beta, uses chaos to introduce novelty. We validated this approach with a large blinded study in a commercial climbing gym, in cooperation with experienced climbers and expert route setters. The results show that strange beta can help a human setter produce routes that are at least as good as, and in some cases better than, those produced in the traditional manner.