Grade 1 involves walking on rocky slopes, generally without needing to use your hands for balance.
Grade 2 sometimes requires using your hands, but beginners and less agile people don’t need ropes for protection.
Grade 3 carries considerable danger if you fall, often requiring the use of your hands. It’s best to have a rope ready.
Grade 4 requires certain climbing techniques. Most people believe that because falling can be life-threatening, ropes are necessary. Typically, climbers need protection, and protection points are relatively easy to find.
Grade 5 absolutely requires ropes and protection to prevent serious consequences from falls. To varying degrees, it demands special climbing and protection techniques. From this grade onward, it is called "technical climbing."
Grade 5 was originally divided into 10 levels of difficulty, known as the "Yosemite Decimal System" (YDS, Yosemite is also translated as "Yosemite").
The format is "5.0", "5.1", "5.2"... "5.10". By definition, anything above 5.10 is considered Grade 6, which means artificial aids must be used directly to climb. However, with advancements in climbing techniques and equipment (such as climbing shoes and chalk), the YDS became an open-ended grading system, leading to the emergence of "5.11"... To further subdivide the grades, each "number grade" after 5.10 is further divided into four "letter grades": a, b, c, and d. Currently, the most difficult routes in the world are probably around
5.14c or 5.14d. The difficulty of new routes is initially estimated by climbers based on their experience with previously climbed routes
(which is quite subjective), and then as more people climb them, the subjective grades gradually become standardized.
For example, when the hardest grade was still 5.10, someone climbed a new route and felt it was more difficult than the gap between 5.10 and 5.9,
necessitating a breakthrough beyond the artificially defined upper limit of Grade 5—thus naming it 5.11.
Generally speaking, untrained individuals can manage up to 5.6, those with basic technical training can handle 5.6–5.9,
and starting from 5.10, regular technical and strength training is required. But this is a very generalized statement.
The YDS grades routes based on the hardest "technical move" on the route. A route with ten 5.10 moves and one with just one 5.10 move near the ground are both rated 5.10. Moreover, the grades of routes of different types (slabs, cracks, friction, etc.) are sometimes difficult to compare. However, as more people climb them, the grades become more objective and strict. The UK, France, Germany, and Australia have their own grading systems. The UK system combines technical difficulty and risk into its grading.
With strict grading in place, selecting routes and planning training improvements becomes easier. But chasing numerical grades can make climbing less enjoyable. However, that’s a matter of personal preference.
With strict grading in place, selecting routes and planning training improvements becomes easier. But chasing numerical grades can make climbing less enjoyable. However, that’s a matter of personal preference.