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The Scottish Winter Grading System:
Developed by the SMC and is a two tier system made up of an overall grade and a technical grade. The overall grade describes the overall difficulty of the climb taking into consideration its length, angle of slope and the different climbing techniques required. The technical grade as with the UK rock climbing system, describes the hardest section (crux) of the route. | Overall Grade | Description |
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| I | Snow gullies of around 45 degrees or easy ridges. A single ice axe is all that is usually required, although cornices can present problems. These routes are often used as descent routes by climbers coming of other routes so beware descending traffic! | | II | Steeper snow, with potential for short ice pitches. Ridges at this grade would generally be easy scrambles in the summer. A second tool should be carried and cornices maybe difficult. Any difficulties encountered will generally be short in duration. | | III | Sustained gullies or ridges and steeper than grade II routes. | | IV | Routes start to become more technical in nature at this grade, with snowed up easy rock routes being climbed. Route will normally contain steep sections of ice, either long sections of between 60-70 degrees or short vertical steps. On mixed routes, more advanced techniques such as torquing will generally be required. | | V | Potential for sustained steep ice at 60-70 degrees. Mixed routes could be up to VS summer routes and may require the linking of multiple advanced moves. | | VI | Long vertical sections of ice, sometimes poor in quality and with little chance of rest. Mixed routes will be as for grade V but harder. Mixed routes will be at least VS summer routes. | | VII | As VI but longer and harder. Could include overhanging sections so strength, stamina and skill is required! | | VIII onwards | As VII but even longer and even harder! |
Scottish winter routes are easily susceptible to changes in the weather. To cater for this it is quite common to find routes that are given a split grade, for example II/III. This indicates the wide variation in the route depending on conditions. Technical Ice Grades:
The following table outlines the different technical ice grades available: | Technical Grade | Description |
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| 1 | Easy angled ice with no particular problems. | | 2 | Slight steeper than 1 but of good quality with excellent protection available. | | 3 | Ice up to around 60 degrees, generally of good quality with good belays. | | 4 | Ice up to 70 degrees, good ice and gear. | | 5 | Ice up to 80 degrees, ice is generally not as good as grade 4 and there may be few opportunities for rest. | | 6 | Vertical ice! Ice formations such as overlaps may exist and protection will be limited and difficult to place. | | 7 | Onwards As 6 but longer, harder, poorer ice and less protection! |
Scrambling Grades:
The following table will give you an understanding of scrambling and rock climbing grades which is useful where rock climbing ability is essential for example Ama Dablam. | Technical Grade | Description |
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| Grade 1 | Short steps of rock where you will need to use your hands to make upwards progress ropes not normally used. | | Grade 2 | More frequent sections of rock with longer sections requiring the use of hands to climb upwards, a rope might be used to safeguard difficult sections. | | Grade 3 and 3S | Exposed often with rock climbing moves such as those encountered on routes of British Grade difficult-very difficult. Lots of moving together using a shortened rope and short pitches of more difficult sections. |
The British Rock Climbing Grading System:
Ranges from moderate to extreme with extreme as an open ended scale from E1 to E12. Below is a brief outline of the grades to describe their difficulty. | Technical Grade | Description |
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| Moderate | A similar standard to Grade 3 and 3S scrambles. | | Diff | Difficult | | V Diff | Very difficult | | S | Severe. | | VS | Very severe | | HVS | Hard, very severe | | Extreme | E1 - E12 |
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