The Complete Guide to Bouldering Grades: What You Should Know

When you are new to climbing, your skill jumps fast, and the easiest proof is the bouldering grades you keep ticking off. Bouldering grades are just the difficulty rating for a route, or “problem.” The harder the moves, the higher the grade. If you are still figuring out the sport itself, our beginner’s guide to bouldering is a good place to start first.

Once you start visiting different gyms or trying outdoor climbs, you will notice bouldering grades aren’t as black and white as they look on paper. In this beginner’s guide, we walk through everything that goes into bouldering grades and what you actually need to know to make sense of them.

What are bouldering grades?

Bouldering grades are the scales of difficulty for a route. There are a lot of grading systems around the world, but the two you will run into most are the V-scale and the Font scale.

V-scale

The V-scale was published in 1991 and was originally meant to be an “ego yardstick,” according to Climbing.com. It’s the most common system in the U.S., and you will also see it used in China, Australia, Brazil, and Argentina.

Font scale

The Font scale is the world standard for bouldering, and it’s most popular in Europe, Russia, Iran, Turkey, South Africa, and Peru. Most boulderers climbing at an advanced or professional level know the Font scale well too, even if they live where the V-scale rules.

B-scale

The B-scale was the original universal climbing grading scale. You rarely see it anymore, and these days it’s mostly a footnote in the climbing history books.

Other scales and grading systems

Plenty of countries have their own grading system, and even local gyms often run their own thing. 

I once climbed at a gym in Denver, CO that used an A, B, C scale with plus or minus symbols to break each level down further into easy, intermediate, and advanced. 

Here are the most common “other” systems:

• Japanese Dankyu (common in Japan)
• United Kingdom Technical

V-grade vs. Font scale 

The two most popular grading scales are the V-grade system, which rules in the U.S., and the Font scale, which rules in Europe.

Most of the time you don’t need to compare the two at all. But here are three common reasons you might want to line them up:

1. Traveling or climbing around the world
2. Watching climbers on YouTube and wanting to compare levels
3. Trying to use a MoonBoard in the U.S. and needing to convert the grade

The grading scales don’t line up perfectly with each other, but the conversion and difficulty chart below will get you close.

Bouldering grade conversion chart and difficulty scale

Bouldering vs. rock climbing grading systems

Bouldering and rock climbing use different grading systems. In the U.S., the most popular system for roped rock climbing is the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS). 

V-scale to YDS conversion and difficulty scale

I hesitated to include this conversion, because the strength, endurance, and skill set you need to rock climb is so different from bouldering that the two aren’t easy to compare.

Bouldering is usually more power-driven and rock climbing is more endurance-driven, so even someone who can climb a V9 might not be able to send a 5.10. They may have the raw moves in them, which is how the conversion chart works, but not the endurance to hang on all the way to the top.

Bouldering grades indoors vs. outdoors

A lot of climbers will tell you outdoor climbing feels harder than indoor climbing, even at the same grade. You will hear people say “indoor grades are softer than outdoor grades,” but there’s more going on than that. If this is your first time on real gym walls, our guide to your first time at a bouldering gym covers what to expect.

Bouldering grades come from the hardest move and the techniques you need to link the problem together. With indoor bouldering, you can set handholds and footholds at the exact same angle and spacing as an outdoor climb, which makes the grade the same indoors and out.

Even so, plenty of climbers who recreate outdoor problems inside say it never “feels” as hard as it does outside.

There are a few reasons for that, but the biggest one is mental. Your brain runs a pain-avoidance process, so when it thinks you might get hurt, it throws up some kind of fear to keep you from doing the thing. 

With climbing, the pain you would feel from a bad fall is what triggers that hesitation before a big move or a shift in balance. That’s the fear of falling talking. 

Your odds of getting hurt bouldering indoors are usually low, so the fear of falling stays small. Outdoors, the odds of getting hurt are higher, and the fear of falling gets a lot more paralyzing. 

Even if you don’t notice the fear, your mind quietly holds you back from reaching as far or moving as dynamically, which makes the same move harder outside than it would be indoors.

► Is Bouldering Outdoors Harder Than Indoors

How are bouldering grades decided?

As much as climbers try to make grading feel scientific, it’s nowhere near internationally, or even regionally, standardized. 

The difficulty of a climb gets decided by a community of climbers, then printed in a guidebook and published online. There are rough guidelines for what that community looks at, but it’s still heavily subjective.

Common considerations when grading a climb

• What techniques the climb requires
• How long the route is
• How the route compares to other climbs in the area
• How the route compares to other climbs the deciding community has done

How are bouldering routes graded?

Here’s a quick summary of how a bouldering route actually gets its grade:

1. A climber sends the route
2. The climber decides what grade they think it is
3. The climber reports their suggested grade to a boulder route database
4. Other climbers send the route, decide on their own grade, and report it to the database
5. Someone writing a guidebook reviews the reported grades and comes to their own conclusion
6. The author records that grade in a guidebook that gets published
7. Climbers use the guidebook and talk it over with other climbers
8. Steps 1 to 7 keep repeating until the end of time, when the rock no longer exists

► How Are Climbing Routes Graded

Common criticisms

Since grading routes isn’t a perfect system, there are plenty of criticisms of it. Listing them all would fill a book, so here are the two most common ones:

1. Routes of similar difficulty get graded completely differently from one region to the next. This is closely tied to gym grading systems, but it happens outdoors too, because the community climbing those routes has different experience than a community somewhere else, so they read the difficulty differently.
2. Outdoor route difficulty changes with conditions and use. A heavy rainstorm or an earthquake can change the face of a rock, and a climber can accidentally snap off a handhold, which changes the route. Even then, the grade usually doesn’t get updated for at least a year after the incident.

Route classifications

On top of the basic grading systems, there are also route classifications. These tell you whether you need your hands and feet or can just hike, so they’re mainly useful for planning a climbing day or trip when you need to know how strenuous it is to reach the crag, not just the climbing once you’re there.

• Class 1: Hiking. Any trail that doesn’t need your hands, where you can keep your balance easily on your feet.
• Class 2: Simple scrambling. Mostly hiking, with a few spots where you might use your hands.
• Class 3: Scrambling. A trail that needs your hands, where carrying a rope may be a good idea.
• Class 4: Simple climbing. A rope is commonly used for safety, and a fall could be fatal.
• Class 5: Rock climbing. This is where the YDS system kicks in, which is why every YDS grade starts with “5.” It’s technically also where bouldering grades begin.

Want to push your grades? Train the movement

Here’s the honest truth about climbing through grades: past the beginner stage, strength alone stops being the thing holding you back. It’s movement. Cleaner footwork, better body position, and knowing when to move fast will unlock harder problems faster than another month of hangboarding. That’s a skill you build with a little focused practice each week, and our guide to bouldering drills is a great place to start.

If you want that kind of practice handed to you, we run a free newsletter that sends one short climbing drill a week, about 15 minutes each, straight to your inbox. Grab the free weekly drills here and start turning those next grades into sends.

Related questions

What does the V stand for on the V-scale?

The V stands for “Vermin,” the nickname of climber John Sherman, who developed the scale at Hueco Tanks in Texas. Sherman created the V-scale almost as a joke and called it an “ego yardstick.” 

What is the highest bouldering grade?

The V-scale doesn’t have a cap, so there isn’t an official “this is the hardest bouldering grade.” 

The hardest recorded route to date is graded V17. Not many climbers have repeated those problems to confirm the grade, so the climbing community still questions it.

Most professional climbers, Olympians included, don’t climb over V14. 

Way back, outdoor climbing was the only option, and you had to use trad gear like nuts to work your way up the wall. Back then, people thought 5.10 was the hardest route anyone could ever climb, long before the V-scale existed.

Then bolting, lead climbing, and aid climbing made climbers comfortable trying harder routes, humans pushed past the 5.10 barrier, and now some climbers are sending over 5.14.

What is a good bouldering grade?

When people start climbing, they usually want to know what grade makes them “good.”

There’s no hard line, but most climbers feel like beginners until they reach the V6 grade.

Once you’re climbing V6, you can usually enter regional bouldering competitions and sometimes state comps. The bigger the competition, the higher the grade you’ll need.

Professional climber grades

• Olympic climber Kyra Condie (one of the best climbers in the U.S.) can climb V12
• Olympic climber Nathaniel Coleman (one of the best boulderers in the world) can climb V14
• Free solo legend Alex Honnold can climb V14

Here’s the reality, though: most people can’t climb a V3 on natural ability alone, even crossfit champions, so being able to climb a V4 already counts as “good.”

One nice thing about the climbing community is that we’ve all been beginners, so it’s unlikely anyone will tell you that you “aren’t good.” Well, unless you taunt them like an immature monkey.

Is climbing a V4 good?

Once you hit the V3 and V4 grades, you have to combine strength with technique and skill, and that takes a lot of time and energy to dial in, so yes, it’s a good climbing grade. You should be proud of getting that far.

Most climbers feel like beginners until they reach V6, but it’s more accurate to say V6 is the point where you’re better than the majority of climbers around the world.

How difficult is bouldering?

Bouldering demands a lot of strength on top of technique and skill, so it’s considered very difficult. Even among climbers, bouldering is known as one of the most technical and powerful climbing disciplines there is.

► Is Bouldering Hard

How do you start a bouldering problem?

One of the first things you learn in bouldering is how to start a problem. Before you get on the rock, read the whole problem (also called the route) and figure out what moves you’ll make and where you’re going (the beta), so once you start climbing you can just execute instead of burning energy solving it while you’re hanging on.

When you’re ready to climb, you place your hands on the starting holds and your feet on an established part of the wall.

Established outdoor routes and indoor routes usually have set starting holds. In a bouldering gym, for example, the starting holds have tags on them.

With both hands on the starting holds, you set your feet on the rock. Indoor climbs make you use only the footholds established for that route, whereas on outdoor boulders you can put your feet anywhere.

Once your hands and feet are on the wall and you’re in control of your movement, you can reach for the next holds.

Who are the best climbers in the world?

There are a lot of famous climbers, and plenty who’ve documented their feats in books and films, but it’s tough to say who’s the best. That said, these are the 10 best climbers I’m familiar with and confident saying I don’t know of anyone better.

Outdoor climbers

• Alex Lowe (died in 1999)
• Conrad Anker
• Adam Ondra
• Ashima Shiraishi
• Daniel Woods

Indoor climbers

• Jain Kim
• Janja Garnbret
• Shauna Coxsey
• Bassa Mawem
• Sean McColl

RedBull put out their list of top 11 climbers in the world today, and while I agree all 11 are among the best out there, they’re also all sponsored by RedBull, so who’s to say RedBull just happens to sponsor the top 11 in the world. There might be a little funny business in that lineup.

This is such a cute bouldering kit from So iLL! You can get pretty much everything you need for bouldering (besides shoes) in one kit, which is so handy. Get the pricing details from REI here.

Is bouldering harder than climbing?

Bouldering asks for more dynamic strength and technique, while roped climbing asks for more endurance and overall strength. So if you’re a more technical, dynamic climber, bouldering feels easier. If you’ve got more endurance and overall strength, bouldering feels harder.

Bouldering and roped climbing are both climbing disciplines, and there are plenty of differences between them.

► Bouldering vs Climbing: training, skills, strength, grades

Frequently asked questions

What are bouldering grades?

Bouldering grades are the difficulty rating for a route, or “problem.” The harder the moves, the higher the grade. The two most common systems are the V-scale, used mostly in the U.S., and the Font scale, used mostly in Europe.

What is a good bouldering grade for a beginner?

There’s no hard line, but most climbers feel like beginners until they reach V6. Since most people can’t climb a V3 on natural ability alone, being able to climb a V4 already counts as a good, respectable grade.

What is the highest bouldering grade?

The V-scale has no cap, so there’s no official hardest grade. The hardest recorded route to date is graded V17, though few climbers have repeated it, so the community still questions that grade. Most professional climbers don’t climb over V14.

Are indoor and outdoor bouldering grades the same?

On paper they can be, since a gym can set the exact angles and spacing of an outdoor climb. In practice, most climbers say outdoor problems feel harder at the same grade, mostly because the higher risk of a fall triggers a stronger fear of falling that quietly holds your movement back.

What does the V in the V-scale stand for?

The V stands for “Vermin,” the nickname of climber John Sherman, who developed the scale at Hueco Tanks in Texas and called it an “ego yardstick.”

Sara Climbing Coach, Climbing Trainer, Writer

Sara is the founder of Send Edition, author of '77 Drills to Help You Climb Better,' the creator of 'Elevate Your Climbing: Training Planner and Tracker,' and climbing coach.

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