The article presents the grades used on camptocamp.org to rate rock climbs or the rock sections of routes in the database.

Difficulties on rock

The free climbing grade evaluates the difficulties of the hardest rock move or pitch on a rock climb. This website uses the standard French grade, which is split into the following grades (ranked in order of increasing difficulty):

II (used to be written as "2" in the site's previous version)
III III+ (used to be written as "3a" & "3b")
IV- IV IV+ (used to be written as "4a", "4b" & "4c")
5a 5b 5c
6a 6a+ 6b 6b+ 6c 6c+
7a 7a+ 7b 7b+ 7c 7c+
8a 8a+ 8b 8b+ 8c 8c+
9a 9a+ 9b

The obligatory grade of a climb is given on the same scale as the free climbing grade. It indicates the highest grade that cannot be avoided by using a point of aid (for exemple "french-freeing").

Other grading systems exist. You can compare them to the French system on the American Alpine Journal's website (available in PDF here: http://www.americanalpineclub.org/pdfs/ … _Final.pdf).


The overall alpine grade

The overall grade of a climb incorporates the highest difficulties likely to be encountered as well as how sustained these might be. It also takes into account the overall duration of a route or climb. For alpine climbs, either on rock or snow/ice and mixed terrain, we follow the standard alpine grading system:

F = Facile (Easy):
A straight forward route, possibly including a glacier approach with simple scrambling. Snow or ice slopes will be at angles of less than 35° allowing the climber to walk up them.
PD- PD PD+ = Peu Difficile (Somewhat difficult):
Routes harder than grade F with more complex glacier routes, harder scrambling and objective dangers. Routes may also be longer and at altitude. Snow and ice slopes with angles of up 35 - 45° may be encountered.
AD- AD AD+ = Assez Difficile (Pretty difficult):
More significant slopes of snow and ice with angles of up to 40 - 55°. Rock climbing up to UIAA Grade III may also be encountered but unlikely to be sustained.
D- D D+ = Difficile (Difficult):
- A more serious undertaking with possibility of rock climbing at around UIAA Grade IV or V and snow and ice slopes at angles of up to 50 - 70°.
TD- TD TD+ = Tres Difficile (Very difficult):
Significant and sustained snow and ice slopes at angles of up to 65 - 80° are likely to be encountered. Hard rock climbing a possibility at UIAA Grades V or VI with some aid routes also a possibility. Routes at this grade are a serious undertaking with high levels of objective danger.
ED- ED ED+ = Extremement Difficile (Extremely difficult):
Extremely hard routes with vertical ice slopes likely and rock climbing at UIAA Grades VI to VIII. Aid pitches are a possibility with exceptional objective danger.
ABO- ABO = Abominablement Difficile (Abominable)
Self-explanatory!


Alpine rock climbs and multi-pitch cliff climbs (in the lowlands) are also given a commitment rating.