UCD Mountaineering Club

For Trad. climbing in Ireland there are two types of grade to be aware of. These grades are an "adjectival grade" and a "technical" grade. A technical grade is easy to understand, it is the relative difficulty of the hardest individual move on the climb. The adjective grade takes into account other factors such as the length of the route, the level of sustained climbing i.e. the number of moves at or close to the technical grade of the climb and the quality and availability of the route's protection. Here are some examples: A climb with a high technical grade and low adjective grade may have the following character: one hard move on a short well-protected pitch. On the other hand a climb with a particularly high adjectival grade and low technical grade could have the following character: poorly protected with questionable rock in places.

Below is a table that is often recognised as being quite good for the conversion of grades between one system and another. This table is for well protected routes, for bouldering conversions and conversions of "bold"routes, you should consult the ROCKFAX website. The table below is also available in high quality PDF format here.