Climbing Grade Conversion Charts: V, Font, Dankyu & YDS
Looking up a grade? Start with the tables below. V and Font describe bouldering; YDS and French describe roped routes. Conversions are approximate, and a gym or guidebook may use a different reference.
V Scale to Font and Japanese Dankyu
This table shows ClimbingNote+ 2.8.1’s built-in reference for V0–V6, not a universal V/Font conversion chart. Other charts can differ: the app pairs V3 with 6B and V4 with 6C. Keep the grade assigned by the gym or guidebook as your original record.
| V Scale | Font | 段級 / Dankyu |
|---|---|---|
| V0 | 4 | 8級 |
| V1 | 5 | 6級 |
| V2 | 6A | 5級 |
| V3 | 6B | 4級 |
| V4 | 6C | 3級 |
| V5 | 7A | 2級 |
| V6 | 7A+ | 1級 |
YDS to French route grades
These broad ranges are an outdoor reference based on UIAA comparison tables, not the app’s internal conversion values. Local guidebooks and setters remain the reference for a particular route.
| YDS | French |
|---|---|
| 5.10a–5.10b | 6a–6a+ |
| 5.10c–5.10d | 6a+–6b+ |
| 5.11a–5.11b | 6b+–6c |
| 5.11c–5.11d | 6c+–7a |
| 5.12a | 7a–7a+ |
| 5.12b | 7a+–7b |
How to read the systems
V grades increase with the number. Font bouldering grades use numbers and capital letters, such as 6A and 7B+. Japanese kyu grades get harder as the number falls toward 1級, followed by dan grades. French route grades such as 6a and 7b are a different scale from Font. UIAA uses Roman numerals; Ewbank uses increasing numbers. British Trad combines technical difficulty with an adjectival assessment of seriousness.
Can you convert 5.12 to a V grade?
There is no reliable one-to-one conversion. A short boulder problem and a roped route test different combinations of movement difficulty and endurance. Record the discipline and its original grade rather than treating a YDS-to-V estimate as an equivalent climb.
Bouldering color grades are gym-specific
Hold or tape colors may identify a route, a difficulty band, or both. There is no universal easiest or hardest color. Read that gym’s key and keep its labels separate from other gyms.
How to record custom gym grades
From a grade lookup to a personal climbing log
For example: start a gym session, choose bouldering, record a V3 send, then record a V4 attempt with an optional “slab” tag. These are illustrative entries, not performance claims. Keep the original grades and review your sends and attempts by grade or tag in Insight.
ClimbingNote+ supports built-in grade systems, per-location preferences and custom bouldering scales. Your records stay in the local database; no account is required. Export a JSON backup before moving devices.
Record your next session
Sources and limits
Bouldering app-reference values were checked against the 2.8.1 grade catalog on 7 October 2026. The route ranges and discussion of separate grading systems use UIAA’s reference below. None of these tables measures fall risk or guarantees that two climbs will feel equally hard.