Winter Climbing
A Visitors Guide to Scotland

GRADING SYSTEM:

For many years, Roman Numerals, from Grade I to Grade V only were used to indicate overall difficulty. As modern ‘mixed’ climbing and a growing number of very thin ice smears and serious rime-ice routes were being done, this was extended to an open system, and now incorporates an Arabic numeral to indicate the technical difficulty of the hardest section of each pitch. This mirrors the two-tiered system used in rock climbing and aims to indicate the high level of difficulty of modern mixed routes (which is generally better protected) as well as the greater seriousness of generally more poorly protected ice routes.

For each overall grade there is an average technical grade, which would not normally vary more than 2 grades above or below that average. The routes are graded for the most usual conditions encountered, although some routes require exceptional conditions of build-up of ice to gain the grade given, and this should be born in mind.

Basic definitions of the overall grades are as follows:

• Grade I
  Simple snow slopes with possible corniced exits
• Grade II
  Gullies with individual or minor pitches
  High angled snow with difficult cornices
  Easier buttress routes
• Grade III
  Gullies containing ice or mixed pitches up to 75 degrees
  Normally with one substantial pitch or several lesser ones
  Buttress climbs without great technical difficulty
• Grade IV
  Gullies and icefalls with sections of 75 degree to near vertical ice
  Buttresses with reasonably technical sections
• Grade V
  Vertical ice for longer sections
  Steeper buttresses with technical difficulties
• Grade VI
  Long sections of vertical and near vertical ice with less resting places
  Vertical buttresses with technical difficulty
• Grade VII
  Thin vertical ice, fragile freestanding pillars and icicles
  Steeper buttresses with high technical difficulty
• Grade VIII
  Extremely serious vertical and overhanging, very thin, ice for long pitches
  Very sustained and technical buttresses for long pitches
• Grade IX
  Extremely technical and sustained climbs on buttresses
• Grade X
  The hardest grade as of 2002.

Winter Sport Climbs
These have only just started to be climbed and the usual grading system is that used in the USA. They equate to the hardest technical standards achievable so far.

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