How UK walls grade

Two walls twenty minutes apart can describe the same move as a green circuit, a Font 6A and a V3. None of them is lying. This is which system each wall actually uses, and the colour ladders they publish — so you know what you are walking into before you pay.

The systems, briefly

Colour circuit

Coloured holds or tape define a band. No numbers. Easiest for beginners, vaguest for everyone else — and the bands are set locally, so a wall's "green" means nothing at the next wall.

Font

Fontainebleau: 3, 4+, 6A, 7B+. The default bouldering scale in the UK and Europe. Open-ended and unforgiving at the bottom.

V-scale

V0 to V17, from Hueco Tanks. More common in the US; some UK walls dual-grade with it.

French sport

4, 5, 6a, 7c+ for roped routes. What almost every UK lead wall uses indoors.

UK trad

Adjectival plus technical — HVS 5a, E2 5c. Rare indoors, but the reason indoor and outdoor grades never quite line up.

Convert between grading systems →

What walls use for bouldering

V-scale (V0–V12) (7)

Colour circuit (6)

Font (6A, 7B+) (4)

Font + colour circuit (3)

In-house system (2)

V-scale + colour circuit (1)

What walls use for roped routes