Decoding Rock Climbing Grades: Conversion Table for Bouldering

by Avathi Outdoors | Rock Climbing

Decoding Rock Climbing Grades: Conversion Table for Bouldering

Beginner rock climbers get extremely confused by the rock-climbing grade conversions. Particularly because there are different conventions followed by climbers of different countries and there is one for different styles of climbing i.e. there is one for climbing on ropes (sport climbing and trad climbing) and one for bouldering.

At the beginner level, grades do not matter much at all! However, it does help to learn enough about grades as it helps pick rock climbing routes at your level. You would rather spend time climbing at your level and progress to harder grades than flailing on the hardest rock climbing in town and getting depressed. Here a few simple characteristics of climbing grades that should help in getting a hang of all the weird numbers like 7c vs 5.13a. 

Note: We are going to use a few terms like sport climbing, bouldering, and other terms that a total beginner might struggle to understand. Look up our previous stories if you want a quick crash course on all the basic jargon in climbing.  

 

 

curated experiences curated experiences
View All Experiences Now

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!

 

 

img