I may have mentioned before that I love to go rock climbing. I have only done it indoors at this point but I am excited to go outdoors once it thaws a little here in Northern Utah. I started climbing when my beautiful wife got me some lessons for my 35th birthday while we lived in New Zealand.
Now, there are several ways of rating the difficulty of the climb and I have often wondered how the climbs I did New Zealand compared with those I’ve done in Salt Lake City. Sooo, I was pleased to find this comparison chart on WikiPedia today and will show it here so others can easily compare and so I can too. 🙂
If you haven’t tried climbing yet I highly recommend it. Even if you are a little afraid of heights. (I am too.)
Just start out in a climbing gym or with someone who is very good at climbing safely.
Free climbing ratings comparison table
A comparison chart for some of the free climbing rating systems in use around the world:
| Free Climbing Grading Systems | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YDS (USA) |
British
Tech/Adj |
French | UIAA | Saxon | Ewbank (Australia, NZ & South Africa) | Finnish | Norwegian | Brazilian | |||
| 5.2 | 1 | I | I | Isup | |||||||
| 5.3 | 2 | II | II | 11 | II | ||||||
| 5.4 | 3 | III | III | 12 | 3 | IIsup | |||||
| 5.5 | 4a | VD | 4 | IV | IV | 12 | 4 | III | |||
| 5.6 | S | 5a | V+ | V | 13 | 5− | 5− | IIIsup | |||
| 5.7 | 4b | HS | 5b | VI- | VI | 14 | 5 | 5 | IV | ||
| 4c | 15 | ||||||||||
| 5.8 | VS | 5c | VI | VIIa | 16 | 5+ | 5+ | IVsup | |||
| 5.9 | 5a | HVS | 6a | VI+ | VIIb | 17 | 6− | V | |||
| 5.10a | E1 | 6a+ | VII- | VIIc | 18 | 6− | 6−/6 | VI | |||
| 5.10b | 5b | 6b | VII | 19 | 6 | VI/VI+ | |||||
| 5.10c | E2 | 6b+ | VII+ | VIIIa | 20 | 6 | 6+ | VIsup/VI+ | |||
| 5.10d | 5c | 6c | VIIIb | 21 | 7- | VIsup | |||||
| 5.11a | E3 | 6c+ | VIII− | VIIIc | 22 | 6+ | 7 | 7a | |||
| 5.11b | 6c+ | VIII- | 23 | 7b | |||||||
| 5.11c | 6a | E4 | 7a | VIII | IXa | 24 | 7− | 7+ | 7c | ||
| 5.11d | 7a | VIII | IXb | 7c | |||||||
| 5.12a | E5 | 7a+ | VIII+ | IXc | 25 | 7+ | 7+/8− | 8a | |||
| 5.12b | 6b | 7b | 26 | 8− | 8- | 8b | |||||
| 5.12c | E6 | 7b+ | IX− | Xa | 27 | 8 | 8 | 8c | |||
| 5.12d | 6c | 7c | IX | Xb | 28 | 8+ | 8/8+ | 9a | |||
| 5.13a | E7 | 7c+ | IX+ | Xc | 29 | 9− | 8+ | 9b | |||
| 5.13b | 8a | 9 | 9- | 9c | |||||||
| 5.13c | 7a | 8a+ | X− | 30 | 9+ | 9−/9 | 10a | ||||
| 5.13d | E8 | 8b | X | 31 | 10− | 9 | 10b | ||||
| 5.14a | 8b+ | X+ | 32 | 10 | 9/9+ | 10c | |||||
| 5.14b | 7b | 8c | 33 | 10+ | 9+ | 11a | |||||
| 5.14c | E9 | 8c+ | XI− | 34 | 11− | 10− | 11b | ||||
| 5.14d | 7c | 9a | XI | 35 | 11 | 10 | 11c | ||||
| 5.15a | 9a+ | XI+ | 10+ | 12a | |||||||
| 5.15b | 9b | 12b | |||||||||
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