|
GRADE SYSTEMS FOR MOUNTAIN ACTIVITIES
In guidebooks about rock climbing, mountaineering and other climbing disciplines, route descriptions provide a climbing grade describing the difficulty and danger of climbing the route concisely
Italian Alpine Club classifies hiking trails as follows:
T - tourist - walks have flat or easy gradients and a wide, smooth, solid trail tread. They are often well maintained and near to civilization. Paths are not so long and in good weather conditions there are not orienteering difficulties.
E - hikers - hikes have moderate slopes and generally solid trail tread. They are often well maintained: walkers find cairns (a cairn is an artificial pile of stones erected as landmarks) or signs painted on rocks or trees to indicate the right way. Sometimes "E" trails can be hiked also if covered with snow, but only for moderate slopes. Specific hiking gear, orienteering abilities and long walk training are required.
EE - skilled hikers - Trails are often marked but orienteering skills are actually required: routes usually encounter slippery grassy slopes, short sections of scree (small loose rocks on average angle slopes). Rock outcrops can usually be negotiated without the use of hands, but sometimes hikers could have to climb short rock bands requiring use of hands.
Scrambling does not usually require specialized climbing equipment or skills, but hikers can meet with short and easy equipped stretches of trail. Alpine experience, firm and steady step are required. Hikers may also be exposed to heights and have to be trained for a whole day walk.
EEA - skilled and equipped hikers - Mountain routes which are equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. The use of these aids allows otherwise isolated routes to be joined to create longer routes which are accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities. Walkers and climbers can follow via ferratas with no need to use their own ropes and belays, and without the risks associated with unprotected scrambling and climbing (via ferrata).
Top
Difficulty evaluations are referred to normal mountain conditions, good weather. Both physical and psychological training must be adequate.
Rock Climbing. For free climbing, there are many different grading systems varying according to country. For the sake of simplicity, we report and describe only the UIAA system (difficulty is signified by Roman numeral grade). Here below you can find a comparison table containing French and US systems.
I - it is the easiest kind of scramble. Frequent use of hands is required to support balance and hand and foot-holds must be trusted.
II - The real climb begins at this step of difficulty. Climbers have to move one limb at a time even if specialized rock climbing techniques are usually not necessary. Actually many hand and foot-holds are available along the route.
III - Rocks are more vertical, hand and foot-holds are not so many, but climbers may still choose which holds to take and moves are not fixed.
IV - Holds begin to be small and few: specific rock climbing techniques are usually necessary to challenge particular rock structures (chimneys, cracks, edges ..).
V - Climbing becomes tricky and technical (slabs) and physical strength is required. Moves must be planned.
VI - Specific and steady training is required to improve arm and hand strength. Climb may be very tricky with move sequences which must be planned; often routes are overhanging.
VII - Hand and foot-holds are more spaced: balance and slab climbing techniques are absolutely necessary together with specific training to strengthen hands and fingers.
The UIAA system ranges over the X grade. From grade V a + or a - is placed after the grade to indicate if a particular climb is at the lower or upper end of that grade.
Top
|
COMPARISON TABLE - ROCK CLIMBING RATING SYSTEMS
|
|
|
SCALA
UIAA
|
SCALA
FRANCESE
|
SCALA
USA
|
|
IV-
|
|
IV
|
|
IV+
|
|
V-
|
|
V
|
|
V+
|
|
VI-
|
|
VI
|
|
VI+
|
|
VII-
|
|
VII
|
|
VII+
|
|
VIII-
|
|
|
4a
|
|
4b
|
|
4c
|
|
5a
|
|
5b
|
|
5c
|
|
6a
|
|
6a+
|
|
6b
|
|
6b+
|
|
6c
|
|
6c+
|
|
|
5.5
|
|
5.6
|
|
5.7
|
|
5.8
|
|
5.9
|
|
5.10 a
|
|
5.10 b
|
|
5.10 c
|
|
5.10 d
|
|
5.11 a
|
|
5.11 b
|
|
5.11 c
|
|
|
|
SCALA
UIAA
|
SCALA
FRANCESE
|
SCALA
USA
|
|
|
VIII-
|
| VIII |
|
VIII+
|
|
IX-
|
|
IX
|
|
IX+
|
|
X-
|
|
X
|
|
X+
|
|
XI-
|
|
XI
|
|
|
6c
|
|
6c+
|
|
7a
|
|
7a+
|
|
7b
|
|
7b+
|
|
7c
|
|
7c+
|
|
8a
|
|
8a+
|
|
8b
|
|
8b+
|
|
8c
|
|
8c+
|
|
9a
|
|
|
5.11 b
|
|
5.11 c
|
|
5.11 d
|
|
5.12 a
|
|
5.12 b
|
|
5.12 c
|
|
5.12 d
|
|
5.13 a
|
|
5.13 b
|
|
5.13 c
|
|
5.13 d
|
|
5.14 a
|
|
5.14 b
|
|
5.14 c
|
|
5.14 d
|
|
|
Top
GRADE SYSTEMS FOR AID CLIMBING
Aid climbing is a style of climbing in which fixed or placed protection is used to make upward progress.
Aid climbs are graded A0 to A5 or A6 depending on the reliability of the gear placements
A0 = A free climb with an occasional aid move that does not require specialized aid gear ("aiders" or "etriers"). Pulling on gear during a free ascent is often referred to as A0.
A1 =Requires specialized gear (pitons and other hardware) but all placements are solid and easy. Ladder aiders (etriers) may come in handy.
A2 = Good placements, but sometimes tricky and strenuous to place. The stretch is difficult (often on slabs or overhanging). Ladder aiders and a good technique are required.
A3 = Many difficult aid moves. Some of the placements might only hold body-weight.
Higher grades involve lower reliability. The system ranges up to A5 or A6.
When in a route description both free climbing grade and aid climbing grade are provided, it means that one or more stretches may be challanged either using gear placements or free climbing.
Top
Caratteristiche della via.
Alpine mountaineering routes are usually graded based on all of their different aspects, as they can be very diverse. Thus, descriptions provide: elevation gain, length (when a route is not linear), difficulty, rock quality or different kind of ground (in case of snow and rock routes), protection conditions, exposure and commitment-level (e.g. how hard it may be to retreat), escape possibility and so on.
Overall grade.
The French alpine grades give an overall difficulty grade to a route, taking into consideration technical, physical and phychological difficulties. Danger and hazard factors are not taken into account. Grade concerns the hardest section of the route. They are, in increasing order:
F = facile (easy)
PD = peu difficile (not very difficult)
AD = assez difficile (fairly difficult)
D = difficile (difficult)
TD = très difficile (very difficult)
ED = extrêmement difficile (extremely difficult)
EX = Abominablement difficile (Abominable) (Extremely difficult as well as being dangerous)
Top
GRADE SYSTEM FOR SNOW AND ICE CLIMBING
Average good (not excellent) ground and snowy conditions are taken into consideration. Maximum steepness of the route is provided in descriptions.
Also for snow and ice climbing the overall grade system (F, PD, AD, etc.) is used.
In case of routes with snowy and rocky stretches, descriptions usually provide also rock climbing grade.
Top
|
