Rock climbing grades and conversions. Read more about the difficulties.

Different rock climbing grades across the five most popular systems

There are a variety of different systems used around the world to grade rock climbs. Below you will find a table that compares the different climbing grades across the five most popular systems.

Roped climbing

French
The French system is an internationally recognised system for grading sport climbs and is therefore used on bolted routes within the UK.
UIAA
This system is used in Germany, in other areas of Eastern Europe and in Italy for the classic trad routes.
United States
Yosemite Decimal System(YDS) is a grading system commonly found in the United States, starts with a 5.something.
Grades 1 to 4 refer to walks of increasing difficulty, by the time you reach 5 you are assumed to be scrambling over rocks which equates to about 5.0.
Sub-Grade (Yosemite Decimal System).
The sub-grade ranges from 1 to a theoretically infinite number (today the highest number is 15). The number is increased when a ‘harder’ climb is developed.
Great Britain
The UK system is made of two sub-grades, an adjective grade and a technical grade. The adjective grade describes the overall difficulty of the climb taking into consideration how strenuous the route is, the amount of exposure and the availability of protection.
The adjective grades are as follows: Moderate (M), Very Difficult (VD), Hard Very Difficult HVD), Mild Severe (MS), Severe (S), Hard Severe (HS), Mild Very Severe (MVS), Very Severe (VS), Hard Very Severe (HVS) and Extremely Severe. The Extremely Severe grade is also broken down into 10 further sub grades from E1 to E10.
The numerical technical grading describes the hardest (crux) move on the climb. For a brief explanation of UK traditional climbing grades
follow this link.
Australian
The system used in Australia and New Zealand is perhaps the most logical of all. There are no letters secondary grades, just a single number which gets bigger as the routes get harder.

Rock climbing grades

Francia	UIAA	YDS	GB		AUS	Livello
1	I	5	3a			Novice ↓
2	II	5.1/5.2	3b		11
3	III	5.3/5.4	3c		12
4a	IV	5.5	4a	VD	13	Beginner ↓
4b	IV+	5.6	4b	S	14
4c	V	5.7	4c	HS	15
5a	V+	5.8		VS	16
5b	VI-	5.9	5a	HVS	17	Intermediate ↓
5c	VI	5.10a		E1	18
6a	VI+	5.10b	5b		19
6a+	VII-	5.10c		E2	20
6b	VII	5.10d	5c		21
6b+	VII+	5.11a		E3	22	Advanced ↓
6c	VIII-	5.11b			23
6c+	VIII	5.11c	6a	E4	24
7a	VIII+	5.11d			25
7a+	IX-	5.12a		E5	26
7b	IX- IX	5.12b	6b			Expert ↓
7b+	IX	5.12c		E6	27
7c	IX IX+	5.12d	6c		28
7c+	IX+	5.13a		E7	29
8a	IX+ X-	5.13b				Super Expert ↓
8a+	X-	5.13c	7a		30
8b	X	5.13d		E8	31	Elite ↓
8b+	X+	5.14a			32
8c	X+ XI-	5.14b	7b		90
8c+	XI-	5.14c		E9	34
9a	XI	5.14d	7c		90	Super Elite ↓
9a+	XI+	5.15a			36
9b	XII-	5.15b			37
9b+	XII	5.15c			38
9c	XII+	5.15d			39	Aliens

Rock climbing grades

Bouldering

In the sport of bouldering, problems are assigned technical grades according to several established systems, which are often distinct from those used in roped climbing.
Bouldering grade systems in wide use include the Hueco “V” grades (known as the V-scale), Fontainebleau technical grades, and more. You can read a very detailed article about bouldering grades here: www.99boulders.com.

There are also other systems used around the world to grade rock climbs.

Drawing by Claudio Getto “Caio Comix”

Hueco (USA)	Fontainebleau
VB	3
V0-	4-
V0	4
V0+	4+
V1	5
V2	5+
V3	6A
	6A+
V4	6B
	6B+
V5	6C
	6C+
V6	7A
V7	7A+
V8	7B
	7B+
V9	7C
V10	7C+
V11	8A
V12	8A+
V13	8B
V14	8B+
V15	8C
V16	8C+