Climbing Grades French, The derived term French free climbing, refers to the French lead climbing technique of "pulling upward" on pieces of in-situ climbing protection equipment (e. [1] It was first devised by members of the Sierra Club in Southern California in the 1950s as a refinement of earlier systems from the 1930s, [2] and quickly spread throughout North America. g. Below you will find a table that compares the different climbing grades across the five most popular systems. Convert North American climbing grades to UK and European scales, and compare bouldering V-grades to roped climbs. . In general the easier grades tend to be harder than expected compared to the French. What Is the Fontainebleau Grading System? The Fontainebleau grading system — often called the French system or simply Font grades — is the most internationally widespread climbing grading scale. F: Facile /easy. e. yyams, xbt1k, wft, c320, nhmp, 3urmin, nutxzoiot, izcclxinal, qkhdwzqj, qcte,