Climbing Grade Converter
How to Use This Climbing Grade Converter
This tool lets you enter a climbing grade in the system you know best and see approximate equivalents in other major grading systems. It is designed for trip planning, reading foreign guidebooks, or comparing bouldering and route grades across regions.
- Select your source climbing system from the dropdown (for example, V-scale, YDS, French, UK, UIAA, or Australian).
- Type the grade you want to convert exactly as you would write it in a guidebook (for example,
V4,5.11b,6b+,E2 5b,VIII-, or22). - Run the conversion to see approximate equivalent grades in the other systems.
The output gives you a practical sense of how hard a climb is relative to what you already know. It is most useful for:
- Planning trips to areas that use a different grading system.
- Comparing grades between guidebooks written in different systems.
- Getting a rough feel for where your current limit falls in another system.
Conceptual Relationship Between Grade Systems
Although each grading system has its own history and style, they all try to express the same underlying idea: how physically, technically, and mentally difficult a climb is. A simple way to think about this is to break the challenge into three components:
where:
- R is the overall perceived route difficulty,
- M is the hardest individual moves or boulder problem,
- E is the endurance or pump factor over the length of the climb, and
- P is the psychological and protection factor (exposure, runouts, fall consequences).
Different systems weight these factors differently:
- V-scale (bouldering) is dominated by M (hardest moves) with relatively little weight on endurance or protection.
- Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) blends M and E, with only a rough, indirect nod to protection.
- French sport grades focus on overall sustained difficulty (M + E) for bolted routes.
- UK traditional grades try to separate M and P by combining an adjectival grade (overall seriousness) with a technical grade.
- UIAA and Australian grades sit conceptually between YDS and French systems, with their own regional traditions.
Worked Example: Converting a Familiar Grade
Suppose you climb comfortably around French 6b+ at your local sport crag and you are planning a trip to the United States. You want to know which YDS and V-scale grades will feel similar.
- Choose French Sport Grades as the source system.
- Enter
6b+as the source grade. - Run the conversion.
A typical cross-system chart will place French 6b+ roughly around:
- YDS: about 5.10d–5.11a, depending on the specific route style,
- V-scale crux: somewhere near V3–V4 for the hardest move,
- UIAA: approximately VII+,
- Australian: around 21–22.
If you normally onsight many 6b+ routes, you might expect to feel similarly comfortable on well-protected 5.10d or soft 5.11a sport routes in the US. In contrast, a boulder graded V4 may feel like the hardest moves you would encounter on your limit sport pitches.
Typical Cross-System Grade Comparison
The exact mapping between systems is not universal, but the table below shows commonly accepted approximate equivalences around intermediate difficulty. Your converter uses a more detailed internal table than this simplified example, but the relationships are similar.
| V-Scale (Bouldering) | YDS (Sport/Trad) | French Sport | UK Tech / Adjectival | UIAA | Australian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V1 | 5.9 | 5c–6a | 4c / HS–VS | VI | 18 |
| V2 | 5.10a–5.10b | 6a–6a+ | 5a / VS–HVS | VI+ | 19–20 |
| V3 | 5.10c–5.10d | 6a+–6b | 5b / HVS–E1 | VII–VII+ | 20–21 |
| V4 | 5.11a–5.11b | 6b–6b+ | 5b–5c / E1–E2 | VII+–VIII- | 21–22 |
| V5 | 5.11c–5.11d | 6c | 5c / E2–E3 | VIII | 22–23 |
Use these ranges as a ballpark reference, not as strict rules. Individual routes can feel easier or harder than their nominal grade, especially when they favor or punish your personal strengths.
Interpreting Your Results
When you convert a grade, the output is an approximation of where that climb would sit in other systems if climbers in that region had graded it. Expect small disagreements between guidebooks, online databases, and local climbers. That is normal and reflects the subjective nature of grading.
A few practical tips:
- Treat the converted grade as a starting point when choosing climbs, then adjust up or down based on how stiff or soft you find the area.
- For bouldering vs. route comparisons, remember that a V-grade mainly describes the hardest move, while a route grade also includes how long and pumpy the climb is.
- On traditional climbs, the adjectival component in the UK system or reputation of a route ("serious", "bold") might matter more than its nominal difficulty when you decide whether it is appropriate.
About These Grade Conversions
The equivalences used in this calculator are based on widely circulated comparison charts from guidebooks, climbing magazines, and community consensus, along with the kinds of tables that appear in many climbing gyms. There is no single official conversion endorsed by all organizations, so every chart, including this one, represents an informed best effort.
When multiple reputable sources disagreed on specific crossover points, the mapping tends to follow the middle of the common range rather than the most aggressive or soft interpretation. The goal is a tool that feels reasonable to most climbers most of the time, not to settle grading debates.
Limitations and Assumptions
Climbing grades are notoriously subjective. Two climbers of different heights, styles, and strengths can have very different experiences on the same line. Any converter must therefore make simplifying assumptions. This calculator assumes the following:
- Average conditions. Grades are calibrated for typical dry rock and standard conditions, not unusual heat, humidity, or polish.
- Modern consensus. Old sandbagged routes or newly upgraded climbs may sit outside the ranges used here.
- Rounded difficulty. The tool rounds to the nearest commonly used grade rather than outputting fractional or in-between values.
- Route style neutrality. It does not explicitly distinguish between slabs, overhangs, crack climbs, or endurance pitches, even though these style differences can strongly affect your personal perception of difficulty.
- Trad vs. sport simplification. For UK, YDS, and Australian grades, the psychological and protection aspects are not modeled separately in the numerical conversion.
Because of these limitations, you should not use the output as a safety guarantee. Always back off or down-climb if something feels harder or more serious than the converted grade led you to expect.
When Conversions Are Most and Least Reliable
Conversions tend to be most reliable when:
- You are comparing modern sport crags between regions where grades have been updated and consensus is strong.
- You have a decent sample of routes at a given grade and can mentally average your experience.
- The routes are of similar style (for example, vertical face climbing on well-bolted limestone in two different countries).
They tend to be least reliable when:
- You are looking at single famous sandbags or historically undergraded areas.
- The comparison spans very different styles, such as short, powerful boulders versus long pumpy pitches.
- You are near the limits of current difficulty (cutting-edge grades), where consensus is still evolving and climbers are few.
- Protection quality or fall consequences dominate the experience, as on bold traditional lines.
Use the converter as one of several tools: combine it with local advice, guidebook descriptions, and your own judgment when choosing what to try.
Enter a climbing grade to see equivalent difficulties across all rating systems.