Gym Grades Don't Match? Build Your Own Reference

"I climb red at gym A — what should I climb at gym B?" has no standard answer, because a color grade is only valid inside the gym that set it. But tracking progress needs a consistent reference. The fix: treat every gym's colors as their own dialect, record them as-is, and anchor each to a standard grade as an approximate mapping. Here's why grades drift apart, and how to build a reference that holds up.

Why every gym's grades differ

• Different setters: difficulty is a setter's judgment call; there is no shared ruler between gyms.
• Different volumes and hold density: gyms with big volumes run more sparse, "tension-y" problems at the same grade.
• Different audiences: some gyms grade generous beginner bands; others compress early grades hard.
• Reset cycles: even the same color commonly drifts half a grade to a full grade after a reset.

So any fixed "red at A = orange at B" table only holds for two gyms at one point in time. The reliable approach is per-gym recording, per-gym comparison — with a loose bridge between them.

Build your own difficulty reference in three steps

1. Record each gym in its own terms: log the gym's own colors or labels, untransposed.
2. Anchor every band to a standard grade: give "red here ≈ V4 / 5 kyu" an approximate mapping so your level is legible to others — and to future you.
3. Update after resets: when a new set drifts, adjust the mapping, not your history — past sessions keep the bands they were logged with.

After a couple of months this becomes an asset nobody else has: a difficulty coordinate system across your gyms, calibrated by you. Within a gym, compare raw bands; across gyms, use the mappings.

How ClimbingNote+ handles it

• Create gym custom bouldering scales directly from the bouldering grade-system list — name bands after the gym's colors or numbers and reuse them as templates;
• full-screen band editing keeps the approximate standard-grade mapping visible beside your custom labels while you edit, so anchoring never relies on memory;
• colors carry through the app: the grade picker and saved climbs show your custom colors, so history is recognizable at a glance;
• per-location overrides: a personal default grade system plus one per gym — walk into a gym and the log already speaks its language;
• fix things mid-session: open location settings straight from the session to edit a gym's name, grade system, or coordinates.

Grade systems live in the app's local database like everything else. Editing a system clearly states its impact (how many gyms and records it touches), and bands already used by records can't be silently deleted — history never gets rewritten underneath you.

FAQ

How far apart are the "same" colors across gyms?

Commonly half a grade to a full grade between adjacent bands, and more after a reset with a new setter. Treat cross-gym mappings as living approximations, not conversions.

Should I log raw colors or converted V grades?

Log the raw band; keep the standard grade as a side note. Raw bands keep history comparable within a gym; mappings make your level legible across gyms. ClimbingNote+ shows both side by side for exactly this reason.

What happens to my custom scales when I move cities?

They stay. Scales are bound to their gyms, and old gyms keep their grades and history intact; create a fresh scale for each new gym. If two gyms happen to share a color scheme, duplicate an existing scale and adjust instead of starting from zero.