Simply put, grades in climbing and bouldering are subjective scores given to judge the difficulty of a particular route or problem. Grades can be a bit confusing to a new climber due to their mix of letters, numbers, and -/+ symbols, and if you ever climb while visiting another country as an experienced climber, you may find yourself confused once again. The grading systems in use today were developed at different times in different regions, by climbers and boulderers with different skillsets and goals - due to these reasons, comparing grades in different regions can be quite a subjective task. However, there are a few well-known routes that serve as reference points in modern climbing which allow for estimated comparisons between each system. Please keep in mind that as each system is subjective, and there are sometimes overlaps in levels between each grading system, there is no perfect way to estimate each route or problem around the world.
In recent years, bouldering and climbing circles have moved towards standardization of grades using a couple of systems for each category. In climbing, the Yosemite and French systems are the most popular, with both being used in competitions throughout the world. In bouldering, the Hueco and French systems are the most popular around the world - with one exception being the 段級 (Dankyu) system used in Japan. Check below to see a brief summary of each of these popular systems, as well as basic charts comparing their levels.
(coming soon)
(coming soon)
Primarily used in North America, this was developed at Hueco Tanks in the 1990s..
Developed in the Fontainebleau bouldering area in France in the mid 1900s, and used throughout a large portion of Europe.
段級 (read "Dankyu") is a system that was developed in Japan by Japanese climbers. This is a grading system that was originally developed for Go over 300 years ago, but has since been applied to other fine and martial arts throughout Japan. Kyu (級) is generally considered "student" or beginner ranks, and they count down from 10 to 1 (think of them as negative numbers; 9kyu is easier than 8kyu, and so on), while Dan (段) refers to advanced and professional levels; 1 Dan follows 1 Kyu, and counts up from 1 to 10.
First and foremost, we want each climber to show and see their profile in the grading system that they are most familiar and comfortable with. We also want each gym and session to be displayed in the grading that is actually being used in that country or individual gym. To that end, each gym has a detail/property showing which grading system is in-use, and session check-ins at that gym will be locked-in to this native grading system. For displaying best sends and statistics on profiles, we will be using each individual's "preferred grading." When producing each user profile, we use some code to convert the send to the user's preferred grading system; we will, however, show the native grade as a tooltip for these displays.
段級 |
Hueco |
Font |
|---|---|---|
| 10級 | (VB) | |
| 9級 | ||
| 8級 | 1+ | |
| 2 | ||
| 7級 | 2+ | |
| 3 | ||
| 6級 | V0- | 3+ |
| V0 | 4 | |
| 5級 | V0+ | 4+ |
| V1 | 5 | |
| 4級 | V2 | 5+ |
| V3 | 6a | |
| 3級 | 6a+ | |
| V4 | 6b | |
| 2級 | 6b+ | |
| V5 | 6c | |
| 1級 | 6c+ | |
| V6 | 7a | |
| 初段 | V7 | 7a+ |
| 7b |