Climbing Calorie Calculator

The wall-angle adjustment is asymmetric by design: every degree past vertical (a positive angle, meaning overhang) increases the MET value by about 1.5%, since your arms and core have to fight gravity more directly with no wall to stand on. Slab angles (negative, down to -45°) only reduce MET by about 1% per degree, because even on very low-angle slab your body is still doing some work climbing rather than resting completely, so it never falls to zero effort.

Each level from 1 to 5 maps to a fixed base MET value — 5, 7, 8.5, 10, and 12 respectively — reflecting escalating intensity from easy top-rope or bouldering up to projecting near your limit. That MET value is then adjusted for your Wall Angle and multiplied by your body weight in kilograms (times a 1.05 Compendium adjustment factor) to get Calories per Hour, which is then scaled by your actual session duration.

They're each calculated by dividing your Total Calories Burned by that activity's own established MET value — 9.8 for running at 6 mph versus 3.8 for brisk walking — then converting back to minutes. Running burns calories roughly 2.5 times faster than walking at those reference speeds, so it always takes far fewer minutes of running than walking to match the same climbing session's calorie total.

No — it treats your entire entered Session Duration as active climbing time at the calculated intensity, so it's on you to exclude rest breaks, socializing, and belaying time when entering minutes. Because MET-based estimates are population averages that don't adjust for individual fitness or technique, the result is best used as a planning figure for nutrition and hydration rather than a precise measurement of what you personally burned.