In this article we will see what you need to know about Garmin Climb Pro, both what it is and how to use this option on your Garmin.
What is Garmin Climb Pro?
Garmin Climb Pro allows you to see climbs that are on a route that you are following with your GPS showing its length and the different degrees of grade that shown in colors that go from green for light slopes to dark brown tones for the steepest.
As you go up, you will see your progress until you reach the top of that ascent.
To use it, you need to be following a course, that the climbs on it meet the criteria that Garmin uses to define an ascent and configure the Climb Pro screen in the profile you are using. Let’s see each one of them.
First you must follow a route. It must be loaded in your GPS and activate it when you want to follow it to guide you through.
The route must have climbs that meet the criteria established by Garmin that consider both its length and grade.
The length must be at least 500 meters and have a minimum slope of 3 percent.
There are 3 climb classifications that are obtained by multiplying the grade by the length.
- If you configure SHOW ALL CLIMBS, all those with a value of at least 1500 will be seen, that is, the minimum length of 500 meters multiplied by 3 of the grade.
- If you configure MEDIUM TO LARGE CLIMBS, it will only show those with a minimum value of 3500. This is the default setting.
- If you configure ONLY LARGE CLIMBS, it will show those with a value greater than 8000.
The course you are following may have climbs that do not show as they do not meet the criteria.
Garmin Climb Pro Set Up in Edge 1040
To set up Climb Pro on an Edge 1040 follow these steps (we’ll also explain how to do it on an Edge 530 later).
From the home screen press the menu, select Activity profiles, followed by the profile you will be using. If you use more than one profile you must configure each of them. Now go to the climbs option and activate Climb Pro.
In the next field, select the type of climbs to consider according to the criteria that I explained before.
Go back to the previous screen and now select Data Screens, then go to Climb Pro and activate the following options
- Show Screen
- Pop-up on Climb Approach
This will cause the Climb Pro screen to show during a course when a climb that is within the requirements is detected.
Go back to Data Screens. Select map and activate the option Show Elevation Profile so you can see it on this screen and be able to follow both the route guide and the climbs.
You will now be able to see whether the course you are going to follow has climbs that meet the Climb Pro criteria. Go to the home screen and select Navigation and then Courses.
Select the one you are going to follow from the list that appears, as long as you have some already loaded in the GPS. You will see a simple track of the route and the height profile.
Scroll down until you see Climbs and select it. At the bottom you can see the ascents on the route that meet the criteria you selected in the configuration, in this example there are 3.
The data shows how far from the beginning of the route the ascent is, the average grade, the length and the vertical ascent distance.
The colors indicate the values of the slope of a segment following this criteria:
- Green 3 percent or less,
- Yellow from 3 to 6 percent,
- Orange from 6 to 9 percent,
- Red from 9 to 12 percent,
- And brown more than 12 percent
You’re all set on the Edge 1040.
Garmin Climb Pro Set Up in Edge 530
Let’s now configure Climb Pro on an Edge 530.
When you turn on the device, you will be on the home screen. Select menu, scroll down to Settings and select it.
And now Activity Profiles followed by the profile you will be using. If you use more than one profile you must configure each of them. Scroll down and activate Climb Pro,
Return to the previous screen by pressing the lower right button. Now select Data Screens and scroll down to Climb Pro and select it.
Here we will make several configurations. Activate the option Pop-up On Climb Approach that lets you know when you are approaching a climb.
In the next field, select the type of Climbs to consider according to the criteria that we explained above. The options are
- Show all Climbs
- Medium to Long Climbs
- Only Large Climbs.
Then there is the preview of the screen as it will appear when you are following a course that has climbs that meet the Garmin Climb Pro criteria.
And the option to configure the two data fields to show those of your preference.
Return to the previous screen by pressing return and now scroll to Map and select it. Go to Show Elevation profile and turn it on
This will allow you to see it on the map screen and be able to follow both the route guide and the climbs at the same time.
With these settings you will be able to see whether the course you are going to follow has climbs that meet the Climb Pro criteria. Go to the home screen by holding the back button.
Select menu followed by Navigation, then Courses and select one of them.
Scroll down until you find Climbs and select it. You will see a list of ascents within the course that meet Garmin’s criteria. When selecting one, data such as its length, average slope, total ascent and how far it is from the start of the course are displayed.
This completes the Climb Pro setup on the 530.
Let’s see how it works.
For this, we created a route that we call the Climb Pro Test that has a route of 1.13 km and an ascent of 64 meters in total. The ascent data calculated by Climb Pro is a distance of 1.1 kilometers of ascent with an average 6 percent grade.
We touch the GO button to activate the route and press the start button to begin the activity. The GPS will begin to guide you along the route and as soon as the climb approaches, it will indicate it on the screen.
The map screen is shown in this image. At the top we see the track to follow represented by a magenta line and white arrows.
My location is the blue arrow that should always be kept on the pink line to follow the course. The gray arrow that can also be seen on the route is what Garmin calls a Virtual Partner and it is a kind of competitor that you should follow to improve times if that is what you are looking for.
The middle part is the Climb Pro graph that we set to display on the map screen. The black indicator shows my position in relation to the climb and the colors below it show the slope of each section of the climb
The bottom part shows the data fields I like to see when I’m out riding.
The Climb Pro screen shows distance, grade and height remaining, current altitude and grade as well as the climb profile with the color coded grades
You will be able to see when you reach the top of the climb on the Climb Pro graph and in this case also the GPS tells us that we have reached the end of the test run.
I hope this article helps you to use Climb Pro in your rides and see the suffering that lies ahead.
The good thing is that after a good climb, a good descent follows.