GRADING

HOW IT WORKS

The grade of each climb is indicated by one of seven different coloured tags, with two additional tag designs for Mystery and Kids’ climbs.

Note that the hold colours do not indicate grade! The colour system allows our routesetters to have the freedom to use all of the holds throughout the whole range of grades, so climbers won’t be stuck on the same hold sets.

The coloured tags will also have the name of the colour on them, and the posters in the gym will have the names of the colours on the bands, so that our colourblind climbers will be able to identify climbs.

WHY WE’VE CHANGED OUR SYSTEM

Our updated grading system does not affect our routesetting and climbs themselves. The primary reasons for changing to this colour grading system is that it is a more realistic way to describe the difficulty of our climbs, and will encourage a more holistic approach to progression in climbing in our gyms.

Moving through overlapping grade bands is a more realistic way to progress in climbing, because not only are grades subjective, but individual strengths, weaknesses, and climbing styles also influence the difficulty of each climb.

WHY WE’VE MOVED AWAY FROM V-GRADES

The V-grade system was developed for outdoor bouldering, which is extremely difficult to compare to indoor bouldering. Further, it is nearly impossible to standardise a universal grading system between indoor bouldering gyms in Australia, let alone globally.

Using the V-grading system in our gyms created the perception of absolute levels of progression, when in reality progression in climbing doesn’t always work in this linear way. Rather, progression in climbing also includes improving on weaknesses, developing new climbing techniques, learning new climbing styles, and increasing confidence on the wall. We feel this is much better captured in our new grading system.