Climbing ice difficulty

The difficulty of ice climbing is determined by the first climb of an experienced climber, whose reference is a permanent alpine climbing route that does not change with season and time. The traditional difficulty classification uses the Scottish difficulty system and is divided into 7 levels:

Level 1 Difficulty: Short climbing routes, medium difficulty ice slopes, slopes below 50 degrees;

Level 2 Difficulty: The climbing route is longer, the slope of ice and snow is greater than 50 degrees, and there are ice, snow or rock canal in some places;

Level 3 Difficulty: Longer climb routes, with gradients approaching 90 degrees in some places;

Difficulty level 4: The 90 degree vertical ice climbing route is longer, climbing is difficult, and some locations may have mixed climbing;

Level 5 Difficulty: The climbing route is very long, almost full of 90 degree vertical ice walls. There are a lot of difficult places, many of which have mixed terrain;

Level 6 Difficulty: The climbing route is very long and most of it is alpine permanent ice wall and mixed climbing, especially difficult;

Level 7 Difficulties: High-altitude mountains such as the Himalayas and remote areas unattended. The climbing route is long, climbing difficulty and danger are very large.

The American mountaineer Jeff Lowe classified the permanent ice wall and seasonal ice wall according to these seven grades.

AI is a permanent ice wall

WI is seasonal ice wall

When the climber sees one of the two symbols, he knows whether he will climb the seasonal ice wall or the permanent ice wall.

Although it is difficult to climb ice, the difficulty of climbing will vary depending on the season and climate. The situation on the ice wall often undergoes some changes. Each climber must increase the difficulty of ice climbing by one level while climbing, thus ensuring the completion of the climb.

Finally, the ice-climbing enthusiasts were asked to carefully collect information on the ice walls they were going to get ready for climbing. Climbing ice must be bold and discreet.

The Sierra Club in the United States established the following grades for the ease of describing the difficulty of climbing routes in the early years:

Level 1 is on the slope of a stone, generally not helping balance with hands

Secondary is sometimes handy, but beginners and inflexible people do not have to be protected by ropes

Three levels are quite dangerous after a fall. They often use their hands. It is best to prepare the rope.

The fourth level requires certain climbing techniques. Most people think that because of the danger of life if they fall, the rope is necessary. General climbers need protection and protection points are easy to find.

Five levels must use ropes and protection to prevent serious consequences from falling, requiring special climbing and protection techniques to varying degrees. Starting from this level is called "technical climbing."

The five levels were originally divided into 10 levels according to the degree of difficulty. The Yosemite Decimal System (Yosemite Decimal System, or YDS. Yosemite also translated “Yosemite Land”) was in the form of “5.0”, “5.1”, and “5.2”--. 10 "Anything more than 5.10 is defined as a sixth level by definition, that is, it must be manually used to climb. However, with the advancement of rock climbing techniques and equipment (rock climbing shoes, magnesium powder), YDS has become an open level, so there is "5.11 "Subdivision level, each of the "digital levels" after 5.10 is divided by a degree of difficulty a, b, c, d four times the "letter level." Now the world's most difficult route is probably 5.14c or 5.14d. The course difficulty is given by the climber according to the level of experience (subjectively) that he has climbed before, and then the number of climbers is increased, and the subjective level is gradually fixed, for example, the difficulty level is still 5.10. Someone climbed a new route and felt that the difficulty was higher than the 5.10 and 5.10. The difficulty was higher than the difficulty between 5.10 and 5.9. Therefore, it was necessary to break the artificial upper limit of 5.10 and call it 5.11.

In general, people who do not have training can go up to 5.6. Those who have basic technical training are 5.6-5.9. From 5.10 onwards, regular skills and strength training are needed. But this is a very general statement.

The YDS is rated on the route according to the most difficult "technical action" of a route. There are ten 5.10 moves and only one 5.10 action route near the ground is 5.10. And the different nature of the route (plane, crack, friction) The grade between the two is actually hard to compare at times. However, there are more people climbing and the level becomes objectively strict. England, France, Germany, Australia have their own hierarchy. The British level consists of two parts: technology and risk.

With strict levels, route selection and training improvements are easy to do. But it is boring to pursue numerical grade rock climbing. But this is a matter of personal taste.