Trails For Africa

Climbing grades

Very few trails we offer will require anything beyond a minor scramble. However where necessary we have used the Australian "Ewbank" numerical grading system. With this system the grade increases with climbing difficulty and scrambling ends at about 10 out of a possible 34 which is for people with suction pads instead of fingers.

The following conversion table will allow you to see what the equivalent grade is in other systems.

Australian	US YDS	UK	France	UIAA
1	1			I
2	2			I
3	3	1a		II
4	4	1b		III-
5	5.0	1c		III
6	5.0	2a		III+
7	5.1	2b		IV-
8	5.1	2c		IV
9	5.2	3a		IV+
10	5.2	3a		IV+
11	5.3	3b		V-
12	5.4/5	3b		V-
13	5.6	4a		V
14	5.7	4a		V
15	5.8	4b		V+
16	5.8	4b		V+
17	5.9	4c	6a	VI-
18	5.9	5a	6a+	VI-
19	5.10a	5a	6b	VI
20	5.10b	5b	6b+	VI
21	5.10c/d	5b	6c	VI
22	5.11a	5c	6c+	VII
23	5.11b	6a	7a	VII
24	5.11c	6a	7a+	VIII-
25	5.11d	6b	7b	VIII
26	5.12b	6b	7b+	VIII+
27	5.12d	6c	7c	IX-
28	5.13a	7a	7c+	IX
29	5.13b	7b	8a	IX+
30	5.13c		8a+	X-
31	5.13d		8b	X-
32	5.14a		8b+	X
33	5.14b		8c	X+
34	5.14c		8c+

Mountaineering prides itself on having no written rules: mountaineers, therefore, spend most of their time arguing about their interpretation of the unwritten rules. Nowhere is this more so than in the invariably subjective area of the grading of climbs. Rock is such an irregular medium and climbers come in such a range of shapes and sizes that any grade can only be, at best, a rough indicator of what is to come.

The above table was sourced from www.climb.co.nz

Seriti software