Climbing grades

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Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills
by the Mountaineers Club

In mountaineering and related climbing sports, routes are often given a grade in an attempt to quantify various aspects, including their overall difficulty.

Table of contents

1 Aid climbing

2 Free climbing

2.1 French grading system
2.2 Yosemite Decimal System
2.3 Ewbank system
2.4 British grading system
2.5 UIAA
2.6 Comparison table

3 Bouldering

Aid climbing

Aid climbs use the grades A1 to A5 depending on the steepness of the terrain, the reliability of the gear placements, exposure, and the general experience necessary.

Free climbing

For free climbing , there are many different grading systems mostly varying according to country:

The French grading system goes from 1 (easy) to 9 (very difficult). Usually a letter ( a , b or c ) augments the number. An optional "+" or "-" may be appended to further differentiate difficulty. Examples: 2, 4, 4b, 6a, 7c. Many countries in Europe use a system with similar grades but not necessarily matching difficulties!

Yosemite Decimal System

The Yosemite Decimal System originated in the USA and quickly spread to Canada and the rest of the Americas .

Grades 1 to 4 vary from a gently incline to scrambling up rock, while Grade 5 involves placing gear, or 'protection', in the rock to prevent falling to the ground, or 'decking'. Grade 5 was initially expected to reach 5.10, but modern climbing has taken grades well beyond that difficulty. Starts at 5.0, 5.1... 5.9, 5.10a, .10b, 5.10c, 5.10d, 5.11a, 5.11b... up to 5.15a which is the grade given to the hardest completed route to date.

Symbols such as G, PG, R, and X are often appended to extend the information given by grades where the symbols describe the subjective quality and quality of protection:

G - Good, solid protection ground up.
PG - Pretty good, few sections of poor or non-existent placements.
R - Runout, some protection placements may be very far apart.
X - Little or no trustworthy protection, extremely dangerous.

e.g. 5.10b G, 5.9 PG

Ewbank system

The Ewbank system, used in Australia and New Zealand , was developed in the mid- 1960s by John Ewbank . (Ewbank also developed an open ended "M" system for aid climbing.) The numerical Ewbank system is open-ended, starting from 1 (which relates to a 5.1 in the Yosemite Decimal System ) which you can (at least in theory) walk up, and currently reaching 34 (about 5.14c).

While the Ewbank system was originally intended to simply grade the hardest individual move on a climb, the current practice is to take all factors into account, and the grade in modern Australian and New Zealand guidebooks makes no attempt to distinguish between different types of difficulty - strenuousness, exposure, technical difficulty, protection - simply to grade a climb as an overall experience . Thus a poorly protected and strenuous but technically easy climb with no move harder than about 14 might be graded 17, while another climb that is well-protected and offers good rests but has a couple of very difficult moves around 19 or 20 might also be a 17. The common factor is that, to safely lead either climb, you need a certain level of competence.

British grading system

The British grading system has two parts: the Adjectival grade and the Technical grade. Many climbs are only given an Adjectival grade, though on indoor walls the Technical grade is the one used.

The Adjectival Grade attempts to assess the overall difficultly of the climb taking into account a number of factors: strenuousness, exposure, protection, length, rock quality. It has the following scale:

Easy (sometimes abbreviated E but this can get confused with Extremely Severe)
Moderate (M)
Difficult (D, or 'Diff')
Very Difficult (VD, or 'VDiff')
Severe (S)
Hard Severe(HS)
Very Severe (VS)
Hard Very Severe (HVS)
Extremely Severe (E)

The Extremely Severe grade is open ended and starts at E1 and goes up E2 E3 ... currently up to about E10 (Extremely Severe was formerly abbreviated XS). Most grades at E8 and above are considered provisional because very few people will have managed the climb.

Some regions and/or guidebooks use a few more finely distinguished grades: Mild Very Severe (slightly easier than VS), Mild Severe, Hard Very Difficult (slightly harder than VD), Hard Difficult (slightly harder than D). The Technical Grade attempts to assess only the technical climbing difficulty of the hardest move or moves on the route without regard to the consequences of failing to do the move. Notionally technical grades start at 1a and go 1b 1c 2a 2b 2c ..., but you are unlikely to see any mention of them below 4a.

Usually the technical grade increases with the adjectival grade but hard technical move very near the ground (that is notionally safe) may not raise the standard of the adjectival grade very much. VS 4c might be a typical grade for a route. VS 4a would usually indicate very poor protection (easy moves, but no gear), VS 5b would usually indicate the crux move was the first one or very very well protected. On multi-pitch routes it is usual to give the overall climb an adjectival grade and each pitch a separate technical grade (such as HS 4b, 4a).

UIAA

The UIAA grading system is an ill-fated attempt at international standardization. It is used mostly in Western Germany and Austria. It used to be a scale ranging from 1 (easy) to 10 (very difficult), an optional + or - may be used to further differentiate difficulty. With harder sport routes getting climbed over the years the system steadily extends to todays top grades of 11+/12-.

Comparison table

The following table has a basic comparison chart for various free climbing rating systems that are in use around the world:

------------------------------------------------------------------  UIAA |  USA  |French|Aussie|   UK    | Saxon |Czech | Nor | Swe | ------------------------------------------------------------------   1   |  5.2  |  1   |  10  |  easy   | I     |      |     |     | ------|-------|------|------|---------|-------|      |     |     |   2   |  5.3  |  2   |  11  |   m     | II    |      |     |     | ------|-------|------|------|---------|-------|      |     |     |   3   |  5.4  |  3   |  12  |   d     | III   |      |     |     | ------|-------|------|      |---------|-------|      |     |     |   4   |  5.5  |  4   |------|   hvd   | IV    |      |     |     | ------|-------|      |  13  |---------|-------|      |     |     |   5-  |  5.6  |------|      |   ms    | V     |      |     |     | ------|-------|  5   |------|---------|-------|      |-----|-----|   5   |  5.7  |      |  14  | 4a : s  | VI    |      |  5- |  5- | ------|       |------|------|----:    |-------|      |-----|-----|   5+  |-------|  5+  |  15  | 4b :vs  | VIIa  |------|  5  |  5  | ------|  5.8  |      |------|----:    |       |   6  |-----|-----|   6-  |       |      |  16  | 4c :hvs |-------|------|  5+ |  5+ |       |-------|      |------|----:    | VIIb  |   7  |     |     | ------|  5.9  |------|  17  | 5a :    |       |      |-----|-----|   6   |       |  6a  |------|    :    |-------|------|  6- |  6- | ------|-------|      |  18  |----:    | VIIc  |  7a  |     |     |   6+  | 5.10a |      |------| 5b : e1 |       |      |-----|-----|       |-------|      |  19  |    :    |-------|------|  6  |  6  | ------| 5.10b |  6a+ |------|----:    | VIIIa |  7b  |     |     |   7-  |-------|------|  20  | 5c :    |       |      |-----|-----|       | 5.10c |  6b  |      |    :    |       |      |     |     | ------|-------|      |------|    :    |-------|------|  6+ |  6+ |   7   | 5.10d |      |  21  |    : e2 | VIIIb |  7c  |     |     |       |-------|  6b+ |      |    :    |       |      |-----|     | ------| 5.11a |------|------|    :    |-------|------|  7- |     |   7+  |       |  6c  |  22  |----:    | VIIIc |      |     |-----|       |-------|      |------| 6a :    |       |      |     |  7- | ------| 5.11b |      |  23  |    : e3 |-------|      |     |     |   8-  |-------|  6c+ |------|    :    | IXa   |      |-----|     |       | 5.11c |------|  24  |    :    |       |      |  7  |     | ------|-------|  7a  |------|    :    |-------|      |     |-----|   8   | 5.11d |      |  25  |----: e4 | IXb   |      |-----|  7  |       |-------|      |      | 6b :    |       |      |  7+ |     | ------| 5.12a |      |------|    :    |-------|      |     |-----|   8+  |-------|  7a+ |  26  |    :    | IXc   |      |-----|  7+ |       | 5.12b |------|      |    :    |       |      |  8- |     | ------|-------|  7b  |      |    :    |-------|      |     |     |   9-  | 5.12c |      |------|    : e5 | Xa    |      |-----|-----|       |       |  7b+ |  27  |----:    |       |      |  8  |  8- | ------|-------|------|      | 6c :    |-------|      |     |     |   9   | 5.12c |  7c  |------|    :    | Xb    |      |     |-----|       |-------|      |  28  |    :    |       |      |     |  8  |  -----| 5.13a |      |------|    : e6 |-------|      |-----|     |   9+  |-------|  7c+ |  29  |----:    | Xc    |      |  8+ |     |       | 5.13b |------|------| 7a :    |       |      |     |     | ------|       |  8a  |  30  |    :    |-------|      |-----|-----|  10-  |-------|      |------|    :    |       |      |  9- |  8+ |       | 5.13c |  8a+ |  31  |    :    |-------|      |     |     | ------|-------|------|------|    : e7 | Xc    |      |     |-----|  10   | 5.13d |  8b  |  32  |    :    |       |      |-----|  9- |       |-------|      |------|----:    |       |      |  9  |     | ------| 5.14a |      |  33  | 7b :    |       |      |     |-----|  10+  |       |  8b+ |      |    :    |       |      |     |  9  |       |-------|------|      |    : e8 |       |      |-----|     | ------| 5.14b |  8c  |      |    :    |       |      |  9+ |     |  11-  |-------|      |      |    :    |       |      |     |-----|       | 5.14c |      |      |    :    |       |      |-----|  9+ | ------|-------|  8c+ |      |    : e9 |       |      |     |     |  11   | 5.14d |------|      |    :    |       |      |     |-----|       |-------|  9a  |      |    :    |       |      |     |     |       |       |      |      |    : e10|       |      |     |     | ------------------------------------------------------------------

Bouldering

In the sport of bouldering there are several established technical grading systems for boulder climbing problems, including the Hueco "V" grades, Fontainebleau technical grades, route colours, and overall difficulty grades, Peak District grades, and British technical grades.

In North America , the "V" grades devised by John Sherman at Hueco Tanks are prevalent having largely displaced use of the older "B" grades introduced by John Gill . The "B" grade system has only three categories, B1, B2 and B3. B3 problems are those that have only been completed once. B2 as problems that are "harder than B1". B1 problems are those relating to "a hard toprope climb". The "V" grading system currently covers a range from V0 to V15. It is difficult to directly compare bouldering technical grading systems to climbing technical grading systems, however, a V0 boulder problem would relate approximately to the crux of a 5.9+ climb using the Yosemite Decimal System that is also common in North America. A B1 problem was defined by John Gill in 1987 as a 5.12, but in 1969 as a 5.10. This highlights the constant evolution of the "B" scale.