First, the generation of difficulty.
Difficulty is the language of rock climbing, and difficulty level is an expression of route or bouldering. The earliest difficulties were born because people wanted to express how difficult the road they climbed or walked in a way, so they decided to describe it with a quantitative index.
Yosemite difficulty system
In 1930s, the Sierra Club of America developed a difficulty system, which is now Yosemite decimal system (hereinafter referred to as Y.D.S). The system is divided into six levels, as follows:
The first level is to walk on a stone slope, generally without hands to help balance.
The second level is sometimes by hand, but beginners and inflexible people don't have to use ropes to protect them.
The third level is quite dangerous after falling, so it is often used. Better get the rope ready.
Band 4 requires some climbing skills. Most people think that rope is necessary, because if you fall, your life will be in danger. Most climbers need protection, and the protection point is easy to find.
Level 5 requires ropes and protection to prevent serious consequences caused by falling, and special climbing and protection techniques are needed to varying degrees. Starting from this level, it is called "technical climbing".
The fifth level here refers to the current rock climbing, which is what we often call five-level technical rock climbing. In the 1950s, the five-level climbing was divided into 5.0, 5. 1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5. 10. Since then, many routes have their own difficulties, which also gives climbers a lot of convenience.
But soon the problem appeared again, and the level of climbers improved rapidly. After the first route of 5. 10 appeared, many routes with a rating of 5. 10 appeared one after another. Many of these routes were considered to be more difficult than the earlier route of 5. 10, and some may be much more difficult. In order to solve this problem, the Y.D.S. system becomes an open system, starting from 5. 10, and increasing the sub-difficulty levels represented by letters A, B, C and D, so that the Y.D.S. system becomes an open system from 5.0 to 5. 15.
Generally speaking, people without training can go up to 5.6, and those with basic technical training can go up to 5.6-5.9. From 5. 10, they need regular technical and strength training. But this is a very general statement. At present, the most difficult route in the world is probably 5. 14d or 5. 15a. The difficulty of the new route is given by the climber according to his previous climbing experience (very subjective), and then more people climb, and the given subjective level is gradually fixed.
Yds scores the route according to the most difficult "technical action" in the route. There are ten 5. 10 movements, and only one near-ground 5. 10 movement has a route of 5. 10. In addition, the grades of different routes (plane, crack, friction ...) are actually sometimes difficult to compare. But there are more people crawling.
B-level bouldering difficulty system
In 1960s, John Gill brought modern bouldering into a brand-new era, with more and more bouldering enthusiasts and routes. Moreover, due to the characteristics of bouldering, most of the bouldering lines are difficult to reach 5. 10 (note: the Y.D.S system was still a closed system at that time), so John Gill decided to make a special difficulty system for bouldering. B difficulty is also a closed system, with only three difficulty levels, B 1, B2, B3; John gill defines these three levels as follows:
B 1: A very difficult bouldering route, even more difficult to climb than the most difficult route at that time;
B2: The bouldering line, which is more difficult than B 1, is very difficult to repeat, that is, it is difficult to successfully complete it twice;
B3: The bouldering line that cannot be copied will be downgraded to B2 if copied;
However, this system also has many problems. Due to the different levels of climbers, it is difficult to accurately set the level of the bouldering line. In the 1960s, B 1 was about 5. 10, and in the 1980s, B 1 was about 5. 12. Therefore, the B difficulty has been rarely used in recent years, and it has been replaced by the V difficulty.
V-level bouldering difficulty system
V difficulty was born in 1980s, and was first used by a group of bouldering enthusiasts in HUECO TANK, USA. Later, it was sorted out by john sherman and became a complete difficulty system. The letter V before V difficulty is said to be the first letter of john sherman's nickname, and the earliest V difficulty began with V 1. The difficulty is equivalent to 5. 1 1 of the Y.D.S difficulty system. Later, when sorting out this system, john sherman added V0-, V0, V0+ to reduce the difficulty level of bouldering and let more people participate in the sport of bouldering. Now the difficulty system of bouldering has been widely used.
Second, the role of the difficulty comparison table
With the increasing popularity of rock climbing in the world, climbers from all over the world began to communicate; However, the difficulty of rock climbing varies from place to place, which brings trouble to communication, so the difficulty comparison table comes into being, which gives climbers around the world a reference to the difficulty around the world. Because there are many difficulty systems in the world, including France, America, Britain, Australia, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden and so on. Later, UIAA formulated the corresponding difficulty system and unified the difficulty levels in the world. Unfortunately, it is not widely used. This paper mainly discusses the difficulty systems in France and the United States.
First of all, the difficulty comparison table can let you know the difficulty of the line. When you climb a bouldering line, someone may tell you that the difficulty of this bouldering line is 5. 12-, and you only know the V difficulty of bouldering. At this time, you can find from the cross-reference table that 5. 12- is roughly equivalent to V4 in V difficulty. Or when you watch a short film about bouldering abroad, you see a person climbing the route of bouldering with the difficulty of 8b. At this time, don't compare the level of the route with the corresponding V difficulty. Looking at the comparison table, we can see that 8b equals V 13 of V difficulty. Sometimes you may climb some routes, all of which are marked with the Y.D.S difficulty system, but you don't know this system, only the French Fontainebleau difficulty system. At this time, you can also solve it through the difficulty comparison table.
Secondly, the difficulty comparison table can also let you know your climbing level. For example, you'd better finish a V7 bouldering route, but you don't often climb long routes and don't know much about your climbing ability. Then you can know your route climbing ability through the difficulty comparison table. First of all, it is found that the Y.D.S difficulty corresponding to V7 is 5. 13a, but this is not your red dot ability or your sight ability. Subtracting 3 or 4 from this level is your red dot ability, which means your red dot ability is about 5. 12a or 5. 12b. And your on-the-spot ability should be reduced by about 3 levels at this level, which means that your on-the-spot ability is about 5. 1 1b or 5.11c. If you are used to the French Fontainebleau system, you can also find the corresponding difficulty level through the difficulty comparison table; In this way, you can choose the route you want to climb according to your climbing level, and you don't have to waste time on the route that is too simple or far beyond your climbing level.
Three. About this difficulty comparison table