Yosemite Decimal System

The system now divides all hikes and climbs into five classes:[3] The exact definition of the classes is somewhat controversial,[4] and updated versions of these classifications have been proposed.[5]

Class 1

Walking with a low chance of injury, hiking boots a good idea. You can balance with your hands.

Class 2

Simple scrambling, with the possibility of occasional use of the hands. Little potential danger is encountered. Hiking boots highly recommended. You can use a rope if necessary.

Class 3

Scrambling with increased exposure. Handholds are necessary. A rope should be available for learning climbers, or if you just choose to use one that day, but is usually not required. Falls could easily be fatal.

Class 4

Simple climbing, with exposure. A rope is often used. Natural protection can be easily found. Falls may well be fatal.

Class 5

Is considered technical roped free (without hanging on the rope, pulling on, or stepping on anchors) climbing; belaying, and other protection hardware is used for safety. Un-roped falls can result in severe injury or death. Class 5 has a range of sub-classes, ranging from 5.0 to 5.15d,[6] to define progressively more difficult free moves.

Guidebooks sometimes append some number of stars to the YDS rating, to indicate a climb's overall "quality" (how "fun" or "worthwhile" the climb is). This "star ranking" is unrelated to the YDS system, and varies from guidebook to guidebook. Information about the difficulty of a summit block is sometimes added. For example, a rating of 3s4 means that most of the climb is class 3 but the summit block is class 4.[7]

Classification of climbs between indoor gym, sport and traditional climbing can also vary quite a bit depending on location and history.

A formula that combines average speed, class of climb, distance and elevation gain for use in planning has yet to be published.

The YDS grade system involves an optional Roman numeral grade that indicates the length and seriousness of the route. The grades are:

The Grade is more relevant to mountaineering and big wall climbing, and often not stated when talking about short rock climbs.

An optional protection rating indicates the spacing and quality of the protection available for a well-equipped and skilled leader. The letter codes chosen were, at the time, identical to the American system for rating the content of movies:

The G and PG ratings are often left out as they are typical of normal, everyday climbing. R and X climbs are usually noted as a caution to the unwary leader. Application of protection ratings varies widely from area to area and from guidebook to guidebook.

Originally, hikers and climbers in the Sierra Nevada would describe routes relative to other routes. For example, Z was harder than X but easier than Y. This primitive system was difficult to learn for those who did not yet have experience of X or Y. In the 1930's, the Sierra Club therefore adapted a numerical system of classification that was easy to learn and which seemed practical in its application. This system, without the decimals, was initially referred to as the "Sierra Club grading system." Class 1 was a hike, and higher classes were more difficult and technical, going up to class 6, which referred to aid climbing.

The fifth class encompassed a wide variety of levels of difficulty in roped free climbing, however, and the system began to be refined by climbers at Tahquitz Peak in Southern California. Fifth-class climbs were initially described as easy, moderate, or hard. This was found to be too coarse-grained, so Royal Robbins, Don Wilson, and Chuck Wilts came up with a decimal subdivision of fifth class consisting of 5.0, 5.1, and so on up through 5.9. This system was implemented in the early 1950's, with new routes and ratings at Tahquitz being described in mimeographed newsletters of the Rock Climbing Section of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club.[8] The system was originally referred to by names such as "Southern California" or "Wilts-Sierra system," but eventually came to be referred to as the Yosemite Decimal System, even though it was devised and standardized at Tahquitz, not Yosemite.[9] The first systematic presentation was in the 1956 edition of Wilts's guidebook for Tahquitz. Mark Powell is said to have exported the system to Yosemite around the same time.[10]

The original standards for the fifth-class climbing grades were as follows:

The original intention was that 5.9 would be the hardest possible free climb, with class 6 aid-climbing routes. Initially the scale was based on ten climbs at Tahquitz, and ranged from the "Trough" at 5.0, a relatively modest technical climb, to the "Open Book" at 5.9, considered at the time the most difficult unaided climb humanly possible. In later years, as gear and athletic standards in the sport became more advanced, many aid routes were "freed" (i.e., climbed without aid), and the class 6 label fell into disuse, so that 5.x could be a label for any technical rock climb, regardless of whether most people were doing it free or aided. By the 1960's and 70's, increased athletic standards and improved equipment meant that class 5.9 climbs from the 1950's became only of moderate difficulty for some, while new 5.9 climbs were much harder. Class 9 began to be subdivided as 5.9- and 5.9+. Eventually, climbers began adding classes of 5.10 and 5.11. In the early 1970's, it was determined that the 5.11 climb was much harder than 5.10, leaving many climbs of varying difficulty bunched up at 5.10. To solve this, the scale has been further subdivided for 5.10 and above climbs with suffixes from "a" to "d".[11] As of 2020, only two climbs are considered to have a difficulty of 5.15d: Silence, first climbed by Adam Ondra on September 3, 2017, and Bibliographie, climbed by Alexander Megos on August 5, 2020.[12][13]

There are other systems used throughout the world. They are covered in the article about Grade (climbing).

• Aid climbing
• Ice climbing