Author: Xu Hongbo

I. The Origin of Difficulty Ratings
Difficulty is the language of rock climbing. Difficulty levels serve as a way to express the challenge of a route or boulder problem. The earliest difficulty ratings emerged because climbers wanted a way to describe how hard a climb or path they had undertaken was—so they decided to quantify it. In the 1930s, the United States’ SIERRA CLUB developed a difficulty system, which is now known as the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS), abbreviated here as Y.D.S. This system consists of six levels, as shown below:
1. Hiking
2. Crawling with little to no hand use
3. Crawling where a rope might be carried but is rarely needed
4. Usually requires a rope, with natural protection points that are fairly easy to find; falls can be fatal
5. Technical climbing requiring certain climbing skills; ropes and protection are mandatory
6. Climbing that necessitates the use of equipment

       The fifth level refers to what we now call rock climbing, also known as fifth-class technical climbing. By the 1950s, fifth-class climbs were subdivided into 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10. The initial digit 5 still represents fifth-class climbing, while the numbers after the decimal (0 to 10) indicate the difficulty of the route. It’s a closed system where the easiest routes are defined as 5.0 and the hardest as 5.10. Since then, many routes have been assigned specific difficulty grades, offering great convenience to climbers. But soon, a new issue arose: climbers improved rapidly, and after the first 5.10 route appeared, many more were graded 5.10—but some of these were considered harder than the earlier ones, in some cases significantly so. To address this, the Y.D.S. became an open system, and starting from 5.10, sub-grades using letters a, b, c, and d were added. This evolved the Y.D.S. into the current open system ranging from 5.0 to 5.15.
        In the 1960s, JOHN GILL ushered in a new era for modern bouldering. As the number of bouldering enthusiasts and problems grew, and due to the nature of bouldering—where most problems proved harder than 5.10 (note: the Y.D.S. was still a closed system at the time)—JOHN GILL decided to create a dedicated difficulty system for bouldering. Thus, the B-grade system was born. B-grade is also a closed system, consisting of only three levels: B1, B2, and B3. JOHN GILL defined them as follows:
B1: Extremely difficult boulder problems, harder than the hardest routes of the time
B2: Harder than B1, very difficult to repeat—that is, successfully completing them twice is rare
B3: Impossible to repeat; if repeated, the grade is downgraded to B2

      However, this system had many issues. Due to varying skill levels among climbers, it was difficult to accurately grade boulder problems. In the 1960s, B1 was roughly equivalent to 5.10, but by the 1980s, B1 was closer to 5.12. As a result, in recent years, the B-grade system has been rarely used, replaced by the V-grade system.
      The V-grade system originated in the 1980s, initially used by a group of bouldering enthusiasts in the HUECO TANK area of the United States. Later, it was organized by JOHN SHERMAN into a complete grading system. The "V" in V-grade is said to come from the first letter of JOHN SHERMAN’s nickname. The original V-grade started at V1, roughly equivalent to 5.11 in the Y.D.S. system. Later, during JOHN SHERMAN’s refinement of the system, V0-, V0, and V0+ were added to reduce the difficulty level of boulder problems and encourage more people to take up the sport. This bouldering grading system is now widely used.

II. The Purpose of the Difficulty Comparison Chart
      As rock climbing has grown in popularity worldwide, climbers from different regions began exchanging experiences. However, differing difficulty grading systems created communication barriers, leading to the creation of the difficulty comparison chart. This allows climbers around the world to refer to and understand difficulties across regions. There are many grading systems globally, including those from France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden, and others. Later, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) also developed a unified grading system, though it has not been widely adopted. Here, we mainly discuss the French and American grading systems.
First, the difficulty comparison chart lets you understand the difficulty of a route. For example, when climbing a boulder problem, someone may tell you it's graded 5.12-, but you’re only familiar with the V-grade system. Using the chart, you can find that 5.12- is roughly equivalent to V4. Or, when watching foreign bouldering videos, you might see someone climbing an 8b-rated problem. Rather than directly matching that to the V-grade, consult the chart to see that 8b equals V13. Sometimes you may climb routes graded under the Y.D.S. system, which you’re not familiar with, but you know the French Fontainebleau system—again, the comparison chart can help.
      Second, the difficulty comparison chart can also help you assess your own climbing level. For instance, you may be able to complete a V7 boulder problem, but you don’t often climb long routes and aren’t sure about your ability on them. By referring to the chart, you can find out your route-climbing capability. First, look up that V7 corresponds to 5.13a in the Y.D.S. system—but that’s not your RED POINT ability, let alone ON SIGHT ability. Subtracting 3 or 4 grades from this level gives you your RED POINT ability—likely around 5.12a or 5.12b. Your ON SIGHT ability is roughly another 3 grades lower, around 5.11b or 5.11c. If you're used to the French Fontainebleau system, you can also find the corresponding grade via the chart. This way, you can choose routes that match your climbing level without wasting time on problems that are too easy or far beyond your ability.

III. About This Difficulty Comparison Chart
       Some may say this chart isn’t accurate because all the grades appear to align perfectly, whereas other charts they’ve seen are not aligned. First, I believe an aligned difficulty chart is more user-friendly since the whole point of a comparison chart is to align and compare grades. Among the eight different difficulty charts I downloaded online while compiling this one, although no two were exactly the same, six of them did align the grades. Second, the misalignment in some charts—especially between the Y.D.S. and French systems—is often due to human factors, possibly related to individual climbers’ perceptions of different routes. This is also why some routes get downgraded while others get upgraded. Third, it’s related to climbers in different countries not being fully familiar with grading systems elsewhere. Lastly, grading itself involves a degree of subjectivity—it’s based on personal perception. No one can concretely define the difference between 10a and 10b, as that difference can’t be quantified.
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