Climbing Ratings

Boulder Scales

Table:

Free Climbing Grade Comparisons

Table:

The U.K. ratings are overall grades, and take into account not only the technical difficulty and stamina requiered, like the Y.D.S. grades, but also protection difficulties and commitment.

Aid Ratings

A0: Aiders not required; carabiner handholds, piton footholds, pendulums and tension traverses, resting on gear.

A1: Aiders needed; bolt or piton ladders, reliable placements, and straightforward cracks.

A2: More awkward, strenuous, or tricky than A1, with or without occasional less-than-perfect placements.

A2+: Consecutive placements that won't hold hard falls, but few bodyweight placements and limited danger in the event of a fall; easy hooking and bat-hooking; scary rivet ladders and fixed copperheading.

A3: "5.11" aid; huge air unlikely but considerable know-how required for safe passage; sections requiring multiple tricky or bodyweight placements; expando hazards; complex rope maneuvers.

A3+: Crux sections of sustained trickery and bodyweight placements; bad falls possible, either short and hazardous or clean but long (18+ meters).

A4: Extreme aid; many consecutive bodyweight placements; huge falls possible, with obstacles to hit.

A4+: Sustained A4; falls unthinkable from most parts of the pitch.

A5: Usually the maximum pitch rating; full ropelength of bodyweight placements, no drilled holes, dire consequences if a piece blows.

A6: Seldom used; reserved for A4+ or A5 pitches above unreliable belay anchors, where a blown piece would strip the entire team from the wall.

Mixed Ratings

The relatively new "M" system applies to winter routes that require crampons and ice tools on rock, called "drytooling". Note that this is a "free" grade; if you hang on protection or hang in your harness from your tools, the M grade no longer applies.

M1: Requires an occasional drytool move.

M2: Invelves a couple of drytool moves; beginners should have no problem with this grade.

M3: Several bodylengths of very easy M1 or M2; or single drytool moves that require some thought.

M4: Mixed routes of any real difficulty usually start at this grade; solid ice climbers shouldn't have any problems.

M5: Drytooling requires considerable effort. Placements can pop, but are generally straightforward.

M6: Real possibility of falling; lengthy sections of drytooling.

M7: Feels like 5.11+ rock climbing; usually little ice involved.

M8: Feels like 5.12; mostly drytooling on severely overhanging rock; ice is usually spotty patches or detached, free-hanging icicles.

M9: This unconsolidated grade is difficult to pin down, but can involve entire pitches - or numerous pitches - of M8.

M10: Generally regarded as 5.13 drytooling.

M11: Generally regarded as 5.13+ drytooling.

M12: The highest grade; not fully defined, as there are only a couple in the world.

Ice Ratings

Note: The prefixes of New England Ice (NEI), Alpine Ice (AI), and Water Ice (WI) are mostly interchangeable. For instance, NEI 5 is close in difficulty to AI 5 and WI 5; the primary difference is geographic - the AI grade means that the route is in an alpine environment. NEI is self-explanatory, though back East they factor commitment into the grade, meaning that a NEI 3 near the road is technically harder than a NEI 3 in the backcountry. WI routes are usually near a road. Many climbers use WI to rate their routes, regardless of where they are.

WI 1: Low-angle ice that you can climb with only one tool. Competent ice climbers don't require a rope.

WI 2: Steepening terrain, though you usually will only need one tool.

WI 3: WI 2 with the occasional near-vertical section.

WI 4: Requires two tools and mostly frontpointing; vertical ice mixed with lower-angled bits.

WI 5: Continuous vertical ice; placing protection is strenuous; expect at least half a rope of this terrain.

WI 6: Vertical to overhanging (rare) ice; ice may be rotten and difficult to protect.

WI 7: Laborious, usually rotten ice that requires extensive cleaning; tool placements are difficult; protection is sparse; leader feels lucky to have survived the pitch.

Commitment Grades

Grade I: Short (a couple of pitches); near a road.

Grade II: Longer climbs; up to five pitches if moderate and near a road.

Grade III: Serious multi-pitch routes with some difficulty of retreat, or very sustained technical difficulty; some parties may take a full day.

Grade IV: Exceptionally long and committing moderate routes (possibly remote or at high elevation); very difficult free or mixed free-and-aid climbs of eight pitches or more.

Grade V: For free-and-aid climbs, most parties will bivouac while strong parties will take a full day.

Grade VI: Requires at least two bivouacs (speed ascents of Yosemite wall excepted) and perhaps 10 or more; on continuosly difficult rock.

Grade VII: Very remote and long alpine wall climbs. Reserved for the biggest Baffin Island and Himalayan walls.