Don't buy a Garmin for Climbing

They don't give a shit about climbers, they just want our money. Across all current Garmin watches, the indoor climbing activity enforces auto start and auto finish behavior with no option to disable it. This design choice is fundamentally incompatible with how climbing actually works and results in an activity mode that is distracting, inaccurate, and borderline unusable.

Auto start and finish regularly trigger while resting, chalking, belaying, downclimbing, or even standing still. The watch vibrates mid route, breaks concentration, and produces activity data that is wrong by orders of magnitude rather than minor errors. Routes are split incorrectly or the wrong grade, rest time is misclassified, and total climbing time is meaningless. Climbers do not move continuously or rhythmically, and any system that assumes they do is poorly conceived for the activity it claims to support.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that this is not a new issue, a firmware regression, or a small edge case. This problem has been raised repeatedly by users across multiple product lines including Epix, fēnix, Forerunner, and Instinct watches, over multiple years. The common request is simple and reasonable: provide a basic on or off toggle for auto start and auto finish, or allow fully manual control. Garmin’s own documentation confirms that no such option exists, meaning this limitation is intentional rather than accidental.

Despite the volume and consistency of user feedback, Garmin has neither addressed the underlying problem nor acknowledged that the current implementation fails climbers. The result is an activity profile that exists more as a marketing checkbox than as a functional training tool. For a company that positions itself as a premium multisport brand, the refusal to provide basic user control is difficult to justify.

Below is a non exhaustive list of public complaints from Garmin’s own forums and related communities, all documenting the same issue.

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/epix-2/401250/indoor-climbing---auto-start-no-longer-works/1887901

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/285041/indoor-climbing-auto-start-problem

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/242731/indoor-climbing-incorrect-auto-starts

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/281937/climbing-app-disable-auto-start-end

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-7-series/353630/way-to-disable-auto-lap-auto-route-on-indoor-climbing-sport-as-it-frequently-stops-and-starts-routes-mid-climb-while-resting

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/epix-2/342142/climb-indoor-disable-auto-start

https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-955-series/341019/rock-climbing-indoor-outdoor-profile-useless-because-of-autostart

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation-archive/f/instinct/350801/indoor-climbing-activity-and-auto-climb---please-turn-off

https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/1m23jsu/disable_auto_start_on_indoor_climbing/

Garmin can resolve the majority of these complaints with a single design change: allow climbers to disable auto start and auto finish. Until then, the indoor climbing activity remains a clear example of a feature built without meaningful engagement from the people it claims to serve.

Don't buy a Garmin till they fix this. 

OK

You wear a watch climbing? Like on your wrist. I think it might be you not Garmin 

Wow, I would be very frustrated too. However, I not sarcastically recommend only expecting a watch to tell the time. I’ve been training my whole life, personally and professionally. All that “biometric data” these devices collect is not nearly as accurate or useful as the industry wants you to believe.

Wearing a watch while climbing?
Think again. 

This comment section is the funnyest thing today. Bravo Lol.

Marc801 Cwrote:

Wearing a watch while climbing?
Think again. 

Some folks throw the watch on their harness and just wear a chest band or arm band for tracking. I think Honnold even said he does something similar with the whoop band

If you didn’t Strava your climb did you really even send?