British Climbing Grades

The British way of grading routes is something one will not run into often while climbing in the States but it is good to have a decent understanding of it if you ever plan to climb elsewhere in the world. The British are different in the sense that they grade the route in two parts. The two parts are Adjectival grade and Technical grade.
First, the adjectival grade; It sounds a little silly but this grading is very straight forward. They define a route as the following:
• Easy (rarely used)
• Moderate (M, or "Mod")
• Difficult (D, or "Diff")
• Hard Difficult (HD - sometimes omitted)
• Very Difficult (VD, or "V Diff")
• Hard Very Difficult (HVD – sometimes omitted)
• Severe (S)
• Hard Severe (HS)
• Very Severe (VS)
• Hard Very Severe (HVS)
• Extremely Severe (E1, E2, E3, ...) *The E1 stands for easiest, E2is harder and so on. *
The terminology may seem a little vague, and it is. To accommodate, the British also include details about a route. Terms such as strenuous, sustained, and bold are used to help depict the route. The adjectival grade also describes the type of rock you will be climbing like if you are climbing a crack.
The other part of the grading is the Technical grade. The technical grade is used to inform the climber of how hard the hardest move on the route is called. This scale looks like this:
• 1a -1b-1c
• 2a-2b-2c
• 3a-3b-3c
• 4a-4b-4c
• 5a-5b-5c
• 6a-6b-6c
• 7a-7b-7c
Typically this rank will increase with the adjectival grade. So when you put it together, you could climb a moderate route (M) with a move on the route that ranks at a 2a. With knowing a little bit more about how the rest of the world ranks its routes, you won’t make the mistake of attempting to ascend a VS 7a without preparing appropriately.