Announcement: Adopting British E-Grades as the Standard Grading System

Published 1st April 2026

After several months of internal discussion and feedback from contributors, the moderation team have made the decision to adopt British E-grades as the single, unified grading system across all of Climbing History.

Why E-grades?

Climbing grading has always been a fragmented affair. The French numerical system, the Hueco V-scale, the UIAA system, the Australian system, South African grades, and many more all compete for space on the same page. This creates confusion for readers and a significant maintenance burden for contributors who must decide which system to use for each climb.

The British E-grade system, originally developed for trad climbing in the UK, offers several compelling advantages:

• Holistic assessment - Unlike most systems which grade only technical difficulty, E-grades incorporate seriousness, protection quality, and overall challenge into a single number. This gives readers a more complete picture of what a climb involves.
• Historical precedent - British climbing has the longest continuous grading tradition in the world, dating back to the early 20th century. As a site dedicated to climbing history, it feels appropriate to honour this heritage.
• Simplicity - A single letter followed by a number (E1, E2, E3...) is easier to read and compare than juggling between 8a, V10, 5.13b and 32 for what is essentially the same level of difficulty.
• Community consensus - In our contributor survey conducted in February, 73% of respondents agreed that a single grading system would improve the site's usability, and E-grades were the top choice among the options presented.

How it works

All grades across the site have been automatically converted to their nearest E-grade equivalent using the IRCRA (International Rock Climbing Research Association) universal scale as an intermediary. Each grade's IRCRA value was matched to the closest E-grade with a corresponding IRCRA value, ensuring conversions are as accurate as possible.

We recognise that no conversion is perfect. Some nuance is inevitably lost when translating between systems that measure slightly different things. However, we believe the benefits of consistency outweigh the minor inaccuracies in edge cases.

What this means for contributors

Going forward, all new climbs should be graded using E-grades. The grade selectors throughout the site have been updated to reflect this. If you spot a conversion that seems particularly off, please raise it in the forums and the moderation team will review it.

Historical grade data has not been deleted. The original grades are preserved in the database and can be restored if needed. We are also considering adding a toggle in user preferences to display grades in your preferred system, though this is not yet on the roadmap.

Feedback

We know this is a significant change and we welcome constructive feedback. Please direct any comments or concerns to the discussion forums.

- The Climbing History Moderation Team