Rock Climbing Grading System

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Rock Climbing Grading Systems Have You Confused?

Don’t worry we are here to help you understand the rock climbing grading system.

First things first. Remember that we climb because we like to rock climb not beacuse we can climb a certain grade.

Now don’t get us wrong we love to push ourselves to reach new grades and to break past our climbing barriers/plateaus.

But and this is a big but, we first and foremost believe that you should climb for yourself. Don’t worry so much about the grades you can climb.

Just focus on having fun, learning new things, enjoying nature, pushing your limits, and creating experiences with your friends.

Ok now that that is off our chest… back to the rock climbing rating systems.

You see in rock climbing climbers give a climbing grade to a route that attempts to assess how difficult and dangerous that route is.

There are a number of factors that contribute to the difficulty of a climb.

• Technical difficulty of the moves

  
  

• Strength and stamina required

  
  

• How difficult is it to protect the climber




Rock Climbing Rating Systems

USA	UK Tech	UK Adj	French	UIAA	Australian
5.5		VD
5.6	4a	S
5.7	4b	HS
5.8	4b	VS	5a	6-	16
5.9	5a	HVS	5b	6	17
5.10a		E1	5c	6+	18
5.10b	5b		6a		19
5.10c		E2		7-	20
5.10d	5c		6b	7	21
5.11a		E3		7+	22
5.11b			6c		23
5.11c	6a	E4		8-	24
5.11d			7a	8	25
5.12a		E5		8+	26
5.12b	6b		7b	8	25
5.12c		E6		9-	27
5.12d	6c		7c	9	28
5.13a		E7		9+	29
5.13b			8a
5.13c	7a			10-	30
5.13d		E8	8b	10	31
5.14a				10+	32
5.14b	7b		8c
5.14c		E9		11-	33
5.14d	7c		9a	11
5.15

For bouldering the most common is John Sherman’s V-grading system and the Fontainebleau scale. I have also compared them to the U.S. decimal scale because some indoor climbing gyms use this scale for their bouldering as well as their rope climbing.

Bouldering Grading System

V-Grade	Fontainebleau	USA
V0	3	5.10a
V1	4-/4+	5.10c
V2	5-/5/5+	5.11a
V3	6a/6b	5.11b
V4	6c/6c+	5.11c/d
V5	7a	5.12a
V6	7a+	5.12c
V7	7b	5.12d/13a
V8	7b+	5.13b
V9	7c	5.13c
V10	7c+	5.14a
V11	8a	5.14b
V12	8a+	5.14c
V13	8b	5.14d
V14	8b+	5.15
V15	8c	5.15a
V16




It should be noted that all grading systems are not exact and are open to interpretation. Always use caution and when climbing in a new area. It is best to start with a few routes below your usual climbing ability. This will allow you to get a feel for that area so that you can judge what routes to climb.

Related posts:

1. What is the History of the Climbing Rating Scale?
2. Bscale vs Vscale