Climbing grades are a simple scale of difficulty. The two most popular scales used across the world are the American system and the French system. The Americans use Yosemite Decimal system (YDS) for Trad and sport climbing and the Hueco system (or V-Scale) for bouldering. The British and Australians also have their own grading systems, but we will stick with the American and the French scales for now.

The YDS system starts from grade 1 (hiking) and up to grade 5 (which is where technical rock climbing starts). One indicator of technical rock climbing is the need for rock climbing shoes and other safety equipment - we are only talking about climbs that are grade 5 and above. They then go up from 5.0 to 5.9 and then from 5.10, there is an additional suffix (a to d) i.e. 5.10a to 5.10d, then 5.11a to 5.11d and so on. The highest rock-climbing grade now is 5.15d, a rock climb called Silence opened by the legendary climber Adam Ondra.

The French system is (only) slightly easier to understand than the YDS. It starts from 1 through 9 and has additional suffix from grade 5 from a to c. There is also an additional ‘+’ that is added to make the grade more specific. i.e. 1 to 5 and then 5a, 5b, 5c and 6a, 6a+, 6b. The French system is the same for both bouldering and rope climbing.

The V-scale, named after pioneering American boulderer John Sherman nicknamed Verm (short for “Vermin”) starts from V0 and goes up to V17.

Here is basic the grade conversion chart:

After a climber finishes a route, he is able to ‘grade’ the difficulty of the climbing route — which is a subjective guess. Different climbers might come up completely different grades for the same climb.

The overall grade of climb is just a ‘consensus estimate’ of the grades provided by all climbers that have completed the route. i.e. if you have not completed (Sent) a route, then your guess is not helpful enough.

The most important thing to remember:

Climbing grades are subjective and which is why you should not get hung up by the exact grade of a route. At a beginner level, knowing whether a route is easy, moderate, or hard should just do to see which ones to pick and enjoy climbing and being outdoors. Happy climbing!