The French Sport Grading System Explained
If you clip bolts almost anywhere outside North America, you will meet the French grade. It is the most widely used sport-climbing scale on earth, printed in guidebooks from Spain's Costa Blanca to Thailand's Railay and on the topo of nearly every sport crag in between. The system is elegant in its logic: a number for the broad band of difficulty, a letter to refine it, and a plus sign for the fine gradations between. Understanding it lets you read a route's difficulty at a glance and pace your progression sensibly. Explore the world's great sport crags on the map.
The Basic Structure
A French grade combines a number, a letter, and sometimes a plus. The number sets the broad difficulty band — 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 — and from 6 upward each is divided into a, b, and c sub-grades, with an optional + adding a finer step. So the ladder reads 6a, 6a+, 6b, 6b+, 6c, 6c+, 7a, 7a+, and so on. Each rung is a small but real step in difficulty, and the gap between, say, 7a and 7a+ is meant to be perceptible to a climber operating at that level.
How the Numbers Map to Ability
In practical terms, a fit beginner who has climbed for a season might lead in the 5s and low 6s. Breaking into 6c and 7a marks the move into solid intermediate territory; 7a is a milestone many recreational climbers aspire to. The 7c–8a band is the realm of strong, dedicated amateurs, while 8b and above belongs to elite climbers training seriously. The top of the scale — 9a, 9b, 9c — is occupied by a handful of professionals; Adam Ondra's Silence in Norway stands as the world's first 9c.
The Open-Ended Top
A defining feature of the French scale is that it is open-ended. There is no fixed ceiling: as climbers push standards, new grades are simply added. The scale broke into 9a with Wolfgang Güllich's Action Directe in 1991 (later reassessed within the 9a band), then 9b with Chris Sharma's Jumbo Love, and 9c with Silence in 2017. This open structure means the scale keeps pace with human performance rather than capping it.
Reading Difficulty Beyond the Number
A grade compresses a lot into a single label, and two routes of the same grade can feel very different. A short, bouldery 7a with one hard move rewards power; a long, sustained 7a rewards endurance and the ability to recover on the wall. Guidebooks often add notes — "sustained," "powerful," "technical," "pumpy" — that tell you what kind of 7a you are facing. Learning to read these cues matters as much as the number itself.
Onsight, Redpoint, and Your Real Grade
Climbers usually have several grades. Your onsight grade is what you can climb first try with no prior knowledge; your redpoint grade is what you can do after rehearsing the moves. The redpoint grade is typically one to three letter-grades higher than the onsight. When someone says they "climb 7b," it usually means redpoint. Being honest about which grade you mean prevents the frustration of jumping on a route far above your onsight level and expecting to flash it.
Calibrating in a New Area
French grades drift between regions. The limestone of the Verdon, the Frankenjura's pockets, and Spanish tufa caves all carry their own local feel, and a 7a in one may humble you in another. Seasoned climbers treat the first few days in a new area as calibration, starting a grade or two below their limit to learn the local style before committing to a project. The number is a guide, not a guarantee.
Explore on the map
The French grade unites sport crags across the world, from Spain's sun-baked limestone to the forests of France. Use the interactive map to find sport destinations and routes graded in the system that has become climbing's common language.