10
votes
How do you grade a bouldering problem?
Short answer: Climb lots of other routes in many different areas and have lots of other people climb your routes.
Let me get into why you opened a can of worms with your question:
Ratings for routes ...
- 7,491
10
votes
How do you decide on a climbing grade?
I was a route setter at a UK Wall for about 10 years and we used two primary methods alongside each other.
Experience of the route setter - before you started the route you would have a purpose, ...
- 286
10
votes
Accepted
Explanation of aid climbing grades
I wont cover what is aid climbing here.
Original Aid Rating System:
A0: Occasional aid moves often done without aiders (etriers) or climbed on fixed gear; sometimes called “French free”.
A1: All ...
- 1,858
9
votes
Accepted
What do classifications of belays (like "4th class belay") mean?
The belay class in the linked answer is in reference to the typical methods one would use in grade 4 (or 5) Yosemite Decimal System.
Typically, in a rock climbing context you typically see grades ...
- 4,447
8
votes
Is there a general rule for climbing runout grading?
First of all: Even if in a region/guide the Yosemite Decimal System is used, you cannot be sure that ratings are comparable to other regions/guides using the same system. This varies a lot depending ...
- 21.7k
8
votes
Accepted
Rock climbing grading theory
The theory is that (sport) grades should reflect the technical skill, strength and stamina required to redpoint the route.
Therefore the definition of, say a 8a route is that "a climber that ...
- 1,952
8
votes
Are there particular grades that indoor climbers often struggle with
I can only answer from my personal perspective. It might not be statistically relevant, but I dare say it could be a little generalisable.
I have been climbing actively (more than 3 days a week), ...
- 3,379
8
votes
Accepted
What kind of technique is required for bouldering outdoors?
There is no generic answer to your question - it all depends on the kind of boulders you'll encounter on your destination. For example, if you have overhanging jug problems, the technique required is ...
- 4,447
7
votes
Rock climbing grading theory
There are many aspects to a climbing route's difficulty, so it is fundamentally questionable to lump it all into one number, and is really only accepted because most climbers don't have a huge ...
- 5,153
6
votes
Accepted
What would make one brick wall harder than another?
I don't think there is an (international) standard for making brick walls or even bricks. While it's true that (most) brick walls have a 90 degrees angle, all the other features can be fairly ...
- 3,474
5
votes
How much does an overhang add to the difficulty of a problem?
Contrary to e.g. the aid climbing difficulty scale, sports climbing and bouldering scales are comparative (at least in the grades that came up after the seventies). So a grade does not directly tell ...
- 21.7k
5
votes
Why are indoor climbing grades easier?
I suggest that this is because you climb in gyms more than you do outside. Back when gyms were rare, when I went to the gym, it felt way harder for the grade than outside routes. That was because I ...
- 151
5
votes
Explanation of aid climbing grades
While most people think that the YDS system is easy compared to the British rating system, I am not sure that is the case. In the YDS system, there is a rating, a grade, and a class.
The grade ...
- 10.7k
4
votes
Is there a general rule for climbing runout grading?
From what I can piece together, according to the The Gunks Guide by Swain the protection rating system was proposed in Rocky Heights, A Guide to Boulder Free Climbs by Erickson. According to Swain the ...
- 10.7k
4
votes
What do classifications of belays (like "4th class belay") mean?
A better description for 4th class belay would be simul-climbing or running belays. That is when you are roped together with intermediate protection. I described such a scenario here. Its typically ...
- 69.2k
4
votes
What kind of technique is required for bouldering outdoors?
Required techniques vary from area to area and problem to problem, that said I think there are 3 techniques that are universal. This belief stems from my philosophy that the best thing about climbing ...
- 10.7k
2
votes
Are there particular grades that indoor climbers often struggle with
I can't speak specifically to "indoor climbers", but i've definitely witnessed some fairly common overall plateaus, and experienced a few myself with regards to outdoor climbing. I would however say ...
- 211
2
votes
Why are indoor climbing grades easier?
I find similar graded climbs are so much easier outside than the ones in the gym. Maybe its because I'm a shorter climber, I think I have many more options to find foot and handholds outside. It seems ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible