Your Climbing Atlas: Using the Location Tree for Exploration

If the Location Bar Race is your climbing timeline, the Location Tree is your world atlas. Its purpose is not to show your history, but to provide a single, powerful snapshot of your entire geographic footprint. It’s a tool for analysis and exploration planning.

This chart honors the deep roots you've put down at your home crag while simultaneously revealing the blank spots on your personal map, inviting you to your next adventure. It answers the question: "Based on where I've been, where should I go next?"

How to Read the Chart: A Quick Guide

The Location Tree is a hierarchical, radial chart that grows from the center outwards.

• The Center: Represents the highest level of organization, like "North America."

• The Layers: Each ring moving outwards represents a more specific geographic level (Country > State > Area > Crag).

• The Size of the Segments: The size of each segment corresponds to the volume of climbing you've done there. A large "California" segment means you have deep experience in that state.

What Your Chart Can Tell You: Geographic Analysis

The shape of your tree tells the story of your geographic focus.

The Regional Expert

• What it looks like: One or two branches of your tree are incredibly detailed and fleshed out, reaching into the outer rings with large, dominant segments. The rest of the tree is sparse.

• What it means: You have an intimate, expert-level knowledge of a specific region. Your climbing style has been profoundly shaped by its unique rock and culture.

The Globetrotter

• What it looks like: Your tree has many different branches sprouting from the center, but none of them are particularly deep. You have segments in many different states or countries, but few in specific sub-regions.

• What it means: You are a classic Explorer, motivated by seeing new places. Your experience is broad rather than deep.

Putting Your Insights into Action: Planning Your Next Trip

This chart is a powerful tool for strategic exploration planning.

1. Perform a Gap Analysis: The most powerful use of this chart is to see what's missing. If you see a fully developed "Western US" branch full of granite cracks but your "Southeast" branch is completely empty, it's a clear invitation to plan a trip. For instance, this insight might lead you to plan a fall trip to the Red River Gorge to specifically experience and train on steep sandstone, directly addressing a gap in your skillset.

2. Leverage Your Expertise: Look at your most developed branches. Are there sub-regions within them you still haven't explored? If you're an expert in Colorado's Front Range, maybe it's time to plan a trip to explore the Western Slope.

3. Align with Your Goals: Your tree should reflect your chosen Climber Archetype. A Performer might have "Deep Roots" in one or two major crags where all their goal projects are located. An Explorer, on the other hand, will be actively working to grow a "Wide Canopy" by adding new branches to their tree each year.

What This Chart Isn't

• It's not a timeline. It doesn't show when you visited a location. A trip from ten years ago and a trip from last week are displayed with the same visual weight. For that story, you'd look at the Location Bar Race.

• It doesn't measure difficulty or style. The size of a segment is based on volume (number of pitches), not the grades you climbed or whether it was bouldering or sport.

The Location Tree is your personal climbing atlas. It shows the world you've explored and, more importantly, the new worlds that are waiting.

Now, head to the app and explore your Location Tree. What does the map of your climbing life look like?