Built by a climber who got stuck, and found a way out.

The plateau

I've been climbing for over 15 years. For a long stretch of those, I was stuck — same grade, season after season, no matter how much I climbed or how hard I tried. If you've been there, you know the feeling: you're putting in the hours, but the sends don't come. You start wondering if this is just your ceiling.

Then I tried a structured training plan from Lattice. For the first time, I had a program built around my actual weaknesses — measured, not guessed. And something clicked. The effort I was putting in started translating into visible progress. Grades went up. Sessions had purpose. That feeling — effort becoming results — was the emotional trigger that eventually became NextGrade.

The problem with what's out there

But the experience also exposed how broken the options are.

Lattice is excellent — genuinely, the gold standard in remote climbing coaching. But it costs around €180 for a 12-week plan, and it's rigid. Real life doesn't respect a 12-week block. You get sick. You tweak a finger. You have less time than you planned. When the plan can't bend, you're left either abandoning it or feeling like you're failing something you paid good money for.

Crimpd is cheaper, but at its core it's an exercise library — an image, a description, and a timer. Useful, but not a training plan. And it locks basic features behind artificial paywalls: more exercises, saved workouts, things that should just work.

Neither option gives you a plan that's personal, grounded in training science, and flexible enough to survive a normal life.

What we're building

That's the gap NextGrade fills. We test your finger strength, pull power, core, and endurance — real numbers, not vibes — and build a plan around where you actually are and where you want to go. The methodology is rooted in established periodization science: structured phases, progressive overload, deload weeks. Nothing invented, nothing hyped.

And when life happens — because it does — the plan adapts. Missed sessions, injuries, busy weeks: the schedule adjusts instead of breaking.

NextGrade is built by Peter Stahr — a climber of 15+ years, Fachinformatiker, and UX Design BSc. I built the tool I always wished existed, and I'm making it accessible to everyone who's tired of guessing.