Aid Climbing - Grading

Grading

The A grading scale (A for 'artificial' or 'aid') incorporates difficulty of placing protection, and the danger associated with falling. The original scale was a closed gradation scale from A0-A5, modern aid climbers have adopted "new wave" grading which compresses the scale but still uses A0-A5. A parallel scale of C0-C5 has been used to describe routes which can be climbed clean. Clean in this context refers to routes that can be completed without a hammer and the associated pitons even if the route still uses previously installed expansion bolts.

• A0 Pulling on solid fixed gear.
• A1 Easy aid, no risk of any piece of protection pulling out. Safe falls.
• A2 Moderate aid. Short sections of tenuous placements above good protection.
• A2+ May include easier A3 moves but is not hard enough to be rated as such.
• A3 Hard aid. Involves many tenuous placements in a row.
• A3+ May include easier A4 moves but is not hard enough to be rated as such.
• A4 Runout, complex and time consuming. Many body weight placements.
• A4+ May include easier A5 moves but is not hard enough to be rated as such.
• A5 Serious, hard aid with huge falls and possibly lethal results. No bolts or rivets.