Climbing Grade Converter

How climbing grades convert between systems

Every climbing region grew its own grading scale. North America uses the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) for routes and the V-scale for boulder problems. Most of Europe uses French numbers and letters for routes and Font grades for boulders. Germany and Central Europe often use UIAA Roman numerals. Britain pairs an adjectival grade with a technical grade, and Australia and New Zealand use the open-ended Ewbank number. This converter reads the grade you pick and looks up the nearest grade in the other systems using the fixed tables below.

Route grades (sport and trad free climbing). Pick the row for your grade and read across. Where two rows share a value in one column, the tool shows a span such as 6a to 6a+, because one grade in a coarse system covers several grades in a finer one.

Boulder grades. The V-scale and Font scale line up well above the lowest grades. A worked example: V4 sits at Font 6B, and V5 sits at Font 6C. Going the other way, Font 7A maps to V6. Font 5+ maps to V2, and Font 6A maps to V3.

A worked example for routes: a 5.10a route converts to French 6a, UIAA VI+, British technical 5a and Ewbank 18. Treat every pairing as an approximate equivalence. Charts disagree by a half step or more at some grades, and local norms vary. British grades also bundle danger and effort into the adjective, so the technical grade alone is a loose match. This page covers conversion only. It says nothing about how hard or risky a particular climb is for you. Gear sizing and rope math live in the climbing rope length finder.

Where these numbers come from

The formulas and default values in this calculator are based on:

• Wikipedia, Grade (climbing) comparison tables (opened 2026-09-30)
• Wikipedia, Yosemite Decimal System and Font grade pages for the boulder pairings. Note: Grade charts differ by source. Where the fetched table was sparse (for example British technical grades and the top Ewbank and UIAA steps), values follow the commonly published chart and should be treated as approximate

This is a planning estimate, not medical, legal or immigration advice. Fees, allowances, limits and entry rules change, so confirm the figures with your airline, cruise line, customs agency or the official government source before you book or travel, and follow their rules if they differ from this page.