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How does ClimbPro work?

acousticbiker
over 4 years ago
I am considering the 945 and because I live among mountains one of the features I’m most interested in is ClimbPro. I’ve tried looking on the web and on the forums but have not been able to get a good practical explainer that addresses:

- Can it only be used with courses or will the onboard maps detect a climb during an activity?
- If a course is required:
+ Given the onboard maps, when I’m at a trailhead, is there an option to select from among courses associated with that trailhead?
+ Has Garmin made it easier to use one? I haven’t really used courses on my Garmin watches because I vaguely remember it not being easy/quick to set up
+ Specifically, what is it easy to set one up if I’m running/biking/hiking a route which is not already a pre-defined course in the Garmin map database?
- Has Garmin enabled the option for the ClimbPro screen to popup automatically in conjunction with the Auto Climb feature? I saw a thread on this, think it’s a great suggestion (surprised it wasn’t already an option), and didn’t see any resolution
- How accurate have people found it?
  • 0 over 4 years ago
    It requires a course. The watch has no way of knowing which path you are taking up the mountain so currently navigating on a course is required.

    Courses are easier to use than they used to be. It's also easier to use on any device (like the 945) that has routable maps. The reason is because you can be at a trailhead, select navigation, and then the "use map" option to simply select the general place you want to head to on the map itself. The device will then route a path to that destination using hiking trails in its database. In that sense it's much easier to create courses on the fly.
  • 0 over 4 years ago
    The most info I've found is here re ClimbPro

    https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/04/garmin-edge-530-cycling-gps-in-depth-review.html

    It requires that you have some route/course loaded, so it knows where you’re going.

    I think your other questions are addressed by the Trailforks feature, which the 945 DOESN'T HAVE that same review says:

    ForkSight: This trail chooser screen automatically appears when you pause at a trail intersection
    Find my Edge: While not absolute to mountain riding, this helps you find your bike computer if it flies off the mount on the trail
    Trail Planning: You can ask the Edge to pick a trail of a certain rating, and it’ll find you something to ride

  • 0 over 4 years ago
    Thanks! Any word on whether 945 or Fenix might get Trailforks?
  • 0 over 3 years ago

    And to add to all other answers a little more in depth info on how it actually calculates the climbs:

    https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/download.navigation-professionell.de/Garmin/Manuals/Understanding+ClimbPro+on+the+Edge.pdf

    This manual is for the Edge but some time ago I've read it somewhere as an official answer for 945 also.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    For the Climb pro function you must always pre-load the route, and he will give you a real-time estimate of the difference in altitude and the remaining time. In case you want to use this function, I recommend the Koomot app, fantastic for creating routes and uploading them to Garmin. If you want a similar function but without loading the maps every time, use the Auto-climb function and 3d speed; with the first one it will detect an automatic when you are going up a hill and it will show you the screen with vertical speed. With the second one you will estimate the step based on the difference in altitude covered. Excellent both. ;)

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    What qualifies as a climb in hike vs bike mode?  If I preview a specific course in a bike activity, I can preview 11 climbs, if I preview the same course in a hike activity, I can preview 32 climbs.  So, there is obviously different climb criteria for different activities.