The Yosemite class rating system describes how difficult and exposed terrain is to travel, from Class 1 to Class 5. Class 1 is walking, Class 2-3 is steeper hiking and easy scrambling, Class 4 is exposed scrambling where many use a rope, and Class 5 is technical roped climbing. It helps hikers gauge a route's seriousness.
Ice climbing grades use the WI (water ice) scale, running from WI1 to WI7+, to rate the difficulty of frozen waterfalls and ice routes. The number reflects steepness, ice quality, and how sustained and protectable the climbing is. A parallel 'AI' (alpine ice) scale is used for glacier and alpine ice that is generally less steep.
The British trad grade is a two-part system for traditional climbs combining an adjectival grade for overall seriousness (Moderate, Severe, E1, E2, and upward) with a technical grade for the hardest single move (4a, 5b, 6a). Together they convey not just difficulty but how bold or well-protected a route is — a distinctive feature of British climbing.
The Ewbank system is an open-ended climbing grade scale using a single number — 1, 12, 25, 35 and upward — used in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. A higher number means harder, with no letters or pluses. It rates a route's overall difficulty and converts approximately to YDS and French grades.
The Font grade, from Fontainebleau in France, is the European system for grading bouldering difficulty, written as a number plus an uppercase letter and optional plus — 6A, 7B+, 8C — with the capital letters distinguishing it from French route grades. It is the main bouldering scale outside North America, where the V-scale dominates.
The UIAA grade is a climbing difficulty scale using Roman numerals (I, II, up to XII), maintained by the international climbing federation and used mainly in Germany, Austria, and Eastern Europe. Higher numerals mean harder climbing, and plus or minus signs add finer steps between grades.
The V-scale (or Hueco scale) is the American system for grading bouldering difficulty, running from V0 for beginners upward — V5, V10, V15 — with no fixed upper limit. Created at Hueco Tanks, Texas, it rates the hardest moves of a boulder problem and is the most common bouldering grade system in the US.
The French grade, or sport grade, is the most widely used system for rating climbing routes worldwide. It uses a number plus a letter and an optional plus — such as 6a, 7b+, or 8c — with higher values meaning harder. It rates a route's overall difficulty and is the standard for sport climbing across much of the world.
The Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) is the rating scale used in the United States to describe how difficult terrain is to travel, from flat walking to hard rock climbing. It runs through five classes; Class 5 covers technical roped climbing and is subdivided with decimals from 5.0 up to 5.15 for increasing difficulty.