Grade conversions - Bold Routes
The table below has been adapted to take account of the unique nature of bold traditional climbing. Not all traditional climbing is bold but where there is a danger associated with a route due to the lack of natural protection, the grade comparison tables often used fail to give a realistic impression of the actual difficulty. A route with limited or poor natural protection will have a much higher E grade than the actual technical difficulties on the route would merit. For example the route Indian Face at Cloggy in North Wales is graded E9 6c yet it is about 7b+ on a top-rope, which doesn't fit into our normal conversion table very well, however a fall from the Indian Face would be fatal which is where the E9 comes from. The American 5.XX system caters with bold routes in a different way. They are given a top-rope grade and then a single letter suffix - 'R' for run-out routes and 'X' for really dangerous chop routes. ie. a 5.10a and a 5.10aX would be the same difficulty on a top-rope but the second one would be a lot more dangerous.
How to recognise a dangerous route from the British Trad Grade - Any route with a high E grade and a low technical grade as indicated at the top of the bar in the table above is likely to be badly protected. (eg. E1 4c, E2 5a, ... E6 6a, E7 6b).
Table © Rockfax Ltd. 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008.
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British Trad Grade - The grade is divided into two parts:
The adjectival grade (Diff, VDiff, ...to E10). This gives an overall picture of the route including how well protected it is, how sustained and an indication of the level of difficulty of the whole route.
The Technical grade - (4a, 4b, 4c,....to 7b). This refers to the difficulty of the hardest single move, or short section, on a route.
The British Trad Grade appears to be a mystery to those used to other systems and is thought to be the most versatile system by those who use it regularly. In practice it is now only used for traditionally protected routes (routes where you hand-place your own gear or where there is only very limited fixed protection - bolts, pegs, threads).
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