discrepancies will be corrected over time, and subsequent guidebooks will show the revised grade.
Finding Your Route
As mentioned above, obvious features such as chimneys, trees and so on will be used as reference points when locating a particular route. However, if you are still having trouble finding a climb, use the information at the start of the route description to help. For instance, it may be graded at ‘V. Diff’ (see Grades), at the easier end of the scale. If the piece of rock you are looking at is smooth and devoid of any holds you are obviously in the wrong place. Use the length of the route – normally given at the start of the description – to help. If the climb is described as being 5m, but the section of rock you are looking at goes up for 30m, that again must be the wrong one.
Check the route description too. A blank-looking slab in front of you with the route line being described as ‘take the obvious chimney’ should set off alarm bells.
The top of the appropriately named ‘Gorse Route’!
The name of the route can sometimes help. Titles such as ‘Classic Crack’ or ‘First Corner’ are obvious indicators. Be aware, though, that the person who first named them may have had a warped sense of humour, and called a route ‘slab climb’ when it is in fact a greasy chimney. Not very common – but misleading nonetheless.
Grades
You need to have a little climbing under your belt before you can start to get an appreciation of what the grading system means and at which level you are comfortable climbing. It seems to be a mass of letters and numbers at first, but will make sense to you before too long. The table below gives an indication of how these figures fit together.
| UK SERIOUSNESS | UK TECHNICAL |
| Easy | – |
| Moderate | – |
| Difficult | 3a |
| Very Difficult | 3a, 3b |
| Hard Very Difficult | 3b, 3c |
| Mild Severe | 3c, 4a |
| Severe | 4a, 4b |
| Hard Severe | 4, 4b, 4c |
| Mild Very Severe | 4b, 4c |
| Very Severe | 4b, 4c, 5a |
| Hard Very Severe | 5a, 5b |
| E1 | 5a, 5b, 5c |
| E2 | 5b, 5c, 6a |
| E3 | 5c, 6a, 6b |
| E4 | 6b, 6c |
| E5 | 6b, 6c |
| E6 | 6c, 7a |
| E7 | 6c, 7a, 7b |
| E8 | 6c, 7a, 7b, 7c |
| E9 | 7a, 7b, 7c, 8a |
| E10 | 7b, 7c, 8a |
| E11 | 7b, 7c, 8a etc |
The left-hand column shows how ‘serious’ a climb is going to be; it can be used as an indicator as to how much protection there is on the route and how sustained it is. This is sometimes known as the ‘adjectival’ grade. The right-hand column shows the technical grade, which indicates the difficulty of the hardest move or sequence of moves. Combining these two together will give a lot of information about a climb. Note that routes below ‘Difficult’ standard, and often those below ‘Severe’ standard, are not often given a technical grading as it is felt that the adjectival grade gives enough information at that level.
As you progress through the grades you will need to know how they fit together. Each of the higher grades, from ‘Severe’ upwards, has a ‘benchmark’ grade. This is a degree of seriousness and technical difficulty that can be seen to be an average given that level of climbing. These benchmarks are given in bold type on the table above.
For instance, Very Severe (VS) 4c is a benchmark grade, where the seriousness and the technical difficulty are what you would expect at that level of climbing. However, there can be considerable variation within this. An example would be a route graded at VS 5a. This means that the technical grade is harder than the benchmark, with the seriousness being a little less than you would normally associate with a 5a route. Thus you would expect the climb to be quite tricky but with good protection. Conversely, a VS 4b route would have no very hard moves, but the seriousness would be as for a route that was trickier. The climb, therefore, would not be too difficult to ascend, but may not have as much protection as you would normally expect at that grade.
‘Pink wall’, VS 5a, Pass of Ballater – steep but well protected
Note
Anyone starting to climb outdoors after a few sessions on a climbing wall will find that the grades feel different to those used in doors. As a general guideline, indoor grades, which are based on French sport grades, tend to be about two steps ‘up’ from the UK outdoor grades. Thus, a climbing wall grade 5 would be about 4a outside.
Where to Start?
As already mentioned, you will probably only start to get an idea of how the grading system works after climbing a few routes. You may find the following useful to get you up and running.
Easy The UK grading system starts here. This level of climb will be one with a great number of large holds, quite possibly set back at an amenable angle. It will present little difficulty to anyone keen to get on with climbing, but will still present the possibility of a fall, so ropework and gear placement skills will be paramount. My daughter seconded her first proper rock climb at the grade of ‘Easy’ when she was four years old. However, that is not to say that the grade is a doddle, and great care should be exercised at all times.
Moderate This is the next grade up, and will be a little trickier. It should present few problems to a keen and sensible group, but may be quite steep, albeit on large holds. A number of classic mountain routes will be at this grade.
Diff and V. Diff The top grades that most people getting into climbing will want to try. They cover a variety of route types – chimneys, slabs, corners and so on – with the route being a bit steeper than for the last two grades, and the holds requiring a little more thought prior to being used.
To recap, I suggest that you start out with the lowest possible grade of climb and see how that feels. You can easily work your way up on to harder levels. It’s best to start with something too easy than too hard. If you have a bad experience early on you could be put off climbing altogether.
