Rating & Grade systems

Each country have different difficulty rating system of routs. We present some rating system comperative tables

The Russian Federation, the Western European
& Latvian Difficulty Rating system

RUS EuA LAT
1A F I
1B F+
2A PD II
2B PD+ III
3A AD IV
3B AD+ IV+
4A D V
4B D+ V+/VI-
5A TD/TD+ VI-/VI
5B TD+/ED1 IV+
6A ED1/ED2 VI+/VII-
6B ED2/ED4 VII-/VII+

UIAA rating system

The Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA) rating scale, an ill-fated attempt at international standardazation, is used mostly in Western Germany and Austria.

The North American Grading System

In North America, grades denote the normal amount of time required to complete a route. This time is based on a team of average climbers using normal techniques.

Class I   - Requires 1-2 hours
Class II  - Requires half a day
Class III - Requires most of a day
Class IV  - Requires a very long day
Class V   - Requires an overnight stay on the route
Class VI  - Requires a few days
Class VII - Expedition

YDS (Yosemite Decimal System)

The Yosemite Decimal System is the North American rating system. The first number in the YDS designates the class of the climb (always "5" for free climbs), the second number defines the difficulty.
Although the YDS is the most popular rating system in North America, other systems exist (you may have that old guidebook that still lists them). Some may have the NCCS scale (see below), others may have an old YDS that stops at "5.10" no matter how hard that climb is (my old Carderock guidebook had one of those and the "5.10" in there was corrected to a "5.12" when the new guide came out).

The French rating system

The French rating system is slowly becoming the international standard, at least for comparing really hard climbs. It's used in France (what a surprise), but also in Spain and Italy. Note that "+" but not "-" is used for further subdivisions.

The British grading system

The British rating system - had you expected anything else - is a bit more difficult and a little less comprehensible than the rating systems used in the rest of the world. The Brits have two different ratings (they say grades): an adjectival grading and a technical grading. The adjectival grading says something about the overall difficulty of the climb. The technical grading says something about the most difficult move of the climb. So, an easy climb with a difficult move would have a relatively low adjectival grading with a high technical rating (like E4/6c). A sustained climb with long runouts and poor pro - a real British climb - but no real difficult technical moves then has a high adjectival rating with a low technical rating (like E7/6b). If you also know that a "difficult" climb is easy, that there are no technical ratings for climbs less than severe (eqv. UIAA 5) and that the adjective Extreme was split up into E1-E9, you're all set. The table below should clarify it all...

|-----------------|
|EASY             |
|-----------------|
|MODERATE         |
|-----------------|
|DIFFICULT        |
|-----------------|
|VERY DIFFICULT   |
|-----------------|
|4a |      |      |
|---|SEVERE|      |------|
|4b |      | HARD |      |
|---|------|SEVERE| VERY |------|
|4c |      |      |SEVERE| HARD |
|---|      |------|      | VERY |----|
|5a |             |      |SEVERE|    |
|---|             |------|      |    |----|
|5b |                    |------| E1 |    |
|---|                           |    |    |----|----|
|5c |                           |    | E2 |    |    |
|---|                           |----|    |    |    |----|
|6a |                                |    | E3 |    |    |
|---|                                |----|    | E4 |    |----|
|6b |                                     |    |    | E5 |    |
|---|                                     |----|    |    |    |
|6c |                                          |    |    | E6 |
|---|                                          |----|----| to |
|7a |                                                    | E9 |
|---|                                                    |    |
|7b |                                                    |    |
|---|                                                    |----|

The Alpine Grading System

Routes in the Western Alps are generally given an overall grade - in addition to a pitch-by-pitch rating. The overall grade says something about the general difficulty of the climb. It takes into account the technical difficulty, the quality of the belays, the nature of the rock, the exposure of the climb, the objective dangers, etc. The grading system uses letters (derived from the french words - in parenthesis) and sometimes uses "+" and "-" to indicate smaller differences.

F   - Easy. (Facile)
PD  - Moderately difficult. (Peu Difficile)
AD  - Fairly difficult. (Assez Difficile)
D   - Difficult. (Difficile)
TD  - Very difficult. (Tr?s Difficile)
ED  - Extremely difficult. (Extr?mement Difficile)
ABO - Horrible. (Abominable)

Saxon - (The old ex GDR)

The Saxon Rating System, or the East German (ex GDR) rating system as it was known before the Wall came down, is used in all of the former East Germany. This includes the formidable climbing area of the Elbsandsteingebirge in the state of Saxony.
The Saxon rating system, however, is not complete without the rating scale for Jumps. For those of you not familiar with the Elbsandsteingebirge, some routes require horizontal dynos. Most often, that means standing on one sandstone tower and lunging for a hold on an adjacent tower - bridging the void between them. Those jumps are rated using arabic numerals between I and IV, where I is easy and IV is a very difficult jump.

The German Grading System

The German grading system considers the seriousness or Ernsthaftigkeitsgrad of a climb. This grading scale considers all aspects of the climb which have nothing to do with the technical difficulty: average runout distance, quality of the protection placements, objective dangers, quality of the rock, etc. The scale goes from E0 to E5. E0 is a normal route, with solid fixed pro and ample opportunities for placing pro. E5, at the other end of the scale, stands for a largely unprotected and unprotectable route with manky pitons and crummy rock. On an E5 climb, falling is generally a lethal idea. In most topos, routes with an Ernsthaftigkeitsgrad above E0 are marked as suc

Comparative table

UIAA French UK USA ex DDR
V 4+ 4b 5.7 VI
V+ 5a 4c 5.7 VIIa
VI- 5b 5a 5.8 VIIb
VI 5c 5a/b 5.9 VIIb/c
VI+ 6a 5b 5.10a VIIc
VII- 6a+ 5b/c 5.10b-c VIIIa
VII 6b 5c 5.10c-d VIIIb
VII+ 6b+ 5c/6a 5.11a VIIIc/IXa
VIII- 6c/6c+ 6a 5.11b-c IXa/b
VIII 7a 6a/b 5.11d IXb/c
VIII+ 7a/7a+ 6b 5.12a-b Xa
IX- 7b 6b/c 5.12c Xb
IX 7b+/7c 6c 5.12d-5.13a Xb/c
IX+ 7c/7c+ 6c 5.13b Xc
X- 8a/8a+ 7a 5.13c
X 8b 7a 5.13d
X+ 8b+ 7b 5.14a
XI- 8c/8c+ 7b 5.14b

http://www.climbing.apollo.lv/dif_syse.htm

Last Updated on 21 Sep 2000 by RL