Climb Patterns
Climb patterns are the core primitive of Boulder Roller. They represent verified records of effort on specific geographic or physiological features.
What Is a Climb Pattern?
A climb pattern is a defined effort signature tied to real-world geography. When you climb a specific hill, your ride produces data - GPS coordinates, elevation changes, timestamps - that matches the pattern's definition.
Think of it like this: the hill exists in the real world. A climb pattern is our protocol's representation of that hill and the effort required to climb it.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ REAL WORLD PROTOCOL │
│ │
│ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────┐ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ Mount Tam │ ────────▶ │ Pattern #4521 │ │
│ │ East Peak │ │ Difficulty: High │ │
│ │ │ │ Avg Grade: Steady │ │
│ │ │ │ Elev Gain: High │ │
│ └─────────────┘ │ Activity: High │ │
│ └─────────────────────┘ │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Pattern Types
Boulder Roller detects three pattern types from every ride:
Climb Patterns
Sustained uphill efforts. Detected when your ride includes:
- Sustained uphill gradient (minimum threshold)
- Significant elevation gain
- Consistent effort over distance
Climb patterns are scored by W/kg (watts per kilogram) and have their own leaderboard.
Steady Patterns
Zone 2-3 aerobic efforts. Detected when your ride includes:
- 20+ minutes of sustained effort
- Consistent power output in aerobic zones
- Low variability index
Steady patterns are scored by duration and intensity. One per ride maximum.
Exploration Patterns
New territory discovery. Detected when your ride includes:
- Tiles (geographic hexagons) you haven't visited before
- Bonus for globally new tiles (first rider ever)
Exploration patterns are scored by unique tiles visited. One per ride maximum.
How Patterns Are Detected
When you upload a ride, our pattern engine:
- Indexes by tile — Your GPS track is mapped onto a spatial grid
- Extracts elevation — We pull elevation profiles from multiple data sources
- Calculates gradients — Rolling averages smooth out noise
- Identifies candidates — Sections meeting thresholds become pattern candidates
- Matches known patterns — Candidates are compared against registered patterns
- Registers new patterns — Novel efforts can become new patterns
The detection is deterministic. Upload the same ride twice, get the same patterns.
Pattern Attributes
Each pattern has:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| ID | Unique identifier |
| Location | Geographic bounding box and centerpoint |
| Elevation Gain | Total vertical meters |
| Distance | Length in kilometers |
| Average Grade | Mean gradient percentage |
| Max Grade | Steepest section |
| Difficulty Score | Composite difficulty rating (relative scale) |
| First Roller | Account that first registered this pattern |
| Total Rolls | Number of verified completions |
| Participation | Number of verified completions |
Your Patterns vs. Community Patterns
Your patterns are the patterns you've personally rolled (completed). They appear in your account as verified effort records.
Community patterns are all patterns registered in the protocol. Anyone can view them or attempt to roll them.
When you roll a pattern that doesn't exist yet, you become its first roller - a permanent attribution in the protocol.
Why "Patterns" and Not "Segments"?
We deliberately chose different terminology for legal and philosophical reasons.
Legal: "Segment" is strongly associated with specific fitness platforms. We're building something different.
Philosophical: "Pattern" emphasizes the repeatable, verifiable nature of the effort. A pattern is something you can match, prove, and own. It's a signature, not just a section of road.
Pattern Economics
Patterns have value determined by:
- Difficulty — Harder patterns earn more points
- Scarcity — First rolls and rare patterns earn bonuses
- Activity — Frequently rolled patterns indicate community interest
Tokenized staking and reward mechanics are planned for post-launch.
Next Steps
- Understand effort records
- Learn about tokens (planned)
- Start rolling