In mountaineering and related climbing sports, climbers give a climbing grade to a route that attempts to assess the difficulty and danger of climbing the route. Different styles of climbing and different nationalities have different grading systems.
There are a number of factors that contribute to the difficulty of a climb including the technical difficulty of the moves, the strength and stamina required, and the difficulty of protecting the climber. Different grading systems consider these factors in different ways, so two grading systems may not be commensurate.
Aid climbing
Aid climbing uses the grades A0 to A5 depending on the steepness of the terrain and the reliability of the gear placements. A climb graded A0 has frequent solid placements, but one graded A5 typically has long sections of unreliable or body-weight-only placements.
Bouldering
There are many grading systems used specifically for bouldering problems. See the grade (bouldering) article.
Free climbing
For free climbing, there are many different grading systems mostly varying according to country:
French grading system
The French grading system considers the overall difficulty of the climb, taking into account the difficulty of the moves and the length of climb. This differs from most grading systems where one rates a climbing route according to the most difficult section (or single move). Grades are numerical, starting at 1 (very easy) and the system is open-ended. Each numerical grade can be subdivided by adding a letter (a, b or c). Examples: 2, 4, 4b, 6a, 7c. An optional + or - may be used to further differentiate difficulty. Many countries in Europe use a system with similar grades but not necessarily matching difficulties.
Ewbank system
The Ewbank system, used in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, 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 you can (at least in theory) walk up, up to 34 (as of 2004).
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.
Yosemite Decimal System
The Yosemite Decimal System originated in the USA and quickly spread to Canada and the rest of the Americas.
The system consists of five classes. Class 1 is walking; classes 2 to 4 are increasing steep classes of scrambling, and class 5 is considered vertical, and requires skill to proceed. The original intention was that the classes would be further subdivided decimally, so that a route graded 4.5 would be a scramble halfway between 4 and 5, and 5.10 would be the hardest rock climbs. However, increasing standards have meant that climbs graded 5.10 in the 1960s are now only of medium difficulty, so rather than regrade all climbs each time standards improve, Letters were introduced for climbs above 5.10. Grades at 5.10 and above can now be further subdivided by adding a letter "a" (easiest), "b", "c" or "d" (hardest), but the difference between letter grades is the same as the difference between number grades that are below 5.10. For example: Going from a 5.12a to a 5.12b is just a difficult as going from a 5.7 to a 5.8.
As of 2004, it is generally accepted that the hardest currently climbable routes are at grade 5.15a.
The Yosemite system considers only the physical difficulty of the climb, and not the quality of protection. Some guidebooks add symbols such as G, PG, R, and X:
- 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 - No protection, extremely dangerous.
British grading system
The British grading system for traditional climbs has (in theory) two parts: the adjectival grade and the technical grade. (Sport climbing in Britain uses the French grading system, often prefixed with the letter "F".)
The adjectival grade attempts to assess the overall difficulty of the climb taking into account all factors, for a climber leading the route on sight in traditional style. In the early 20th century it ran Easy, Moderate, Difficult, but increasing standards have several times lead to extra grades being added at the top. The adjectival grades are as follows:
- Easy (rarely used)
- 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 (XS or E1, E2, E3, ...)
The Extremely Severe grade is subdivided in an open-ended fashion into E1 (easiest) then E2, E3 and so on. As of 2004 the hardest climbs are graded E10, but many climbers consider such high grades provisional as the climbs have not yet been climbed by anyone on sight. As of 2004, the hardest confirmed grade is E8.
Some guidebooks make finer distinctions by adding the prefix "Mild" or "Hard" (thus, Hard Very Difficult and Mild Severe lie between Very Difficult and Severe).
The technical grade attempts to assess only the technical climbing difficulty of the hardest move or moves on the route without regard to the danger of the move or the stamina required if there are several such moves in a row. Technical grades are open-ended, starting at 1 and subdivided into "a", "b" and "c", but you are unlikely to see any mention of them below 4a. As of 2004, the hardest climbs are around 7b.
Usually the technical grade increases with the adjectival grade but a 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 move or 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 and also Switzerland (mostly for alpine routes; the French grading system is more typical for sport climbing). It was originally intended to run from 1 (easiest) to 10 (hardest), but as with all other grading systems, improvements to climbing standards have led to the system being open-ended. An optional + or - may be used to further differentiate difficulty. As of 2004, the hardest climbs are 12-.
Ice climbing
Ice climbing has a number of grading systems. The WI numeric scale measures the difficulty of routes on water ice; the M scale measures the difficulty of mixed climbs combining ice and rock.
Mountaineering
Comparison table
The following table has a basic comparison chart for (some of) the different free climbing rating systems that are in use around the world:
Last updated: 05-22-2005 15:49:53
