*** European Climbs Grading System ***

From: henry@erdw.ethz.ch (Henry)
Newsgroups: rec.climbing
Subject: Re: grading system on alpine style routes?
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 10:43:28 +0200
Organization: ETH

Helgi Borg Johannsson asked:
>Could anyone explain the grading system(s) used on long alpine style
>routes. Or point me to a homepage where these are explained.
>
>Thanks
>Helgi Borg Johannsson

Here's a summary of the normal grading system:

Most big alpine routes are given an overall adjectival grade, and then
individual pitches (or longer sections) are graded separately for
technicality. The other factor which makes an important part of the
grade is the guidebook time.

The adjectival grade is usually french

F    facile
PD   peu difficile
AD   assez difficile
D    difficile
TD   tres difficile

ED   extremement difficile     ED1 \
ABO  Abominable                ED2  |_ These grades used in English
                               ED3  |   guidebooks to maintain an
                               ED4 /    open system

In some Swiss and Austrian guidebooks the equivalent german adjectives
will be used (L, WS, ZS, S, SS, AS, ES).
The adjectival grade can then be modified by a +/- to indicate if its
hard or easy for the grade (sometimes in french guides this is spelled
out as sup./inf.)

Rock climbing technicalities are usually graded with the UIAA grading
scale (however the Piola guidebooks use the French system), Aid pitches
are given the normal A0, A1, A2, A3... and ice is usually just quoted as
both the average and steepest gradient encountered.

Finally look at the time quoted to climb the route, TD could represent
an afternoon climbing in rock boots with a small pack, or it could
represent a three day epic.

On face routes that are entirely on ice remember that many of them
were graded in the days of step-cutting, and so might be a bit soft for
the grade if you are confident front pointing for long distances. So just
because you can race up D+ on ice doesn't necessarily mean that it will
feel quite so easy on rock or mixed routes.

This is the system used here in the Alps, I'll leave it to the people
across the pond to describe the system used in N.America which is
somewhat different.

Hope this helps,
Henry.

Henry Lickorish
ETH-Zurich
henry@erdw.ethz.ch

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