2021_03_06_Rotes Beil_Bischofsmütze_Felb

RATING SCALES

ALPINE KNOWLEDGE

A guide through the different scales for alpine sports

There are many different rating scales in mountaineering. In fact, there is one for every alpine discipline: mountaineering, alpine climbing, via ferrata, sport climbing, bouldering, ice climbing, ski touring, and hiking. There are different ratings in the different Alpine countries and they all use their own systems. I've compiled the most important and most used ones here. If there are several different scales for an alpine sport in different countries, you'll find a comparison of these ratings.

Alpine mountaineering scale of the SAC

It is the most common scale for classic alpine tours in the Alps and is recognized and adopted in several countries.

Only the name and description are translated into the respective national languages.

Mountain and Alpine Hiking Scale SAC

This scale is used to rate mountain hiking trails. This rating system, introduced by the SAC in 2002, is particularly common on multi-day high-altitude trails and long-distance hiking trails in the Alps.

The "T" in the rating stands for trekking.

SAC mountain and alpine hiking scale.png

This rating scale dates back to the time before the emergence of modern sport climbing. It is used primarily for classic multi-pitch routes in the Dolomites, but also in the rest of the Alps. It is generally used for routes where the climber still has to provide their own intermediate anchors. Existing anchor points must be valuated independently and improved if necessary.

The French rating scale has become established for routes equipped with bolts or adhesive anchors.

Comparison of UIAA scale and French scale

sport climbing

One of the most confusing areas are the scales for sport climbing. Different countries have a wide variety of terms and approaches for rating local climbing routes. The individual rating scales are still in use in each country. Therefore, climbers have no choice but to convert the local scale to a familiar one in order to get an idea of the difficulty of the routes.

Here is an overview of the most common scales for the largest and most popular climbing areas:

SAC ski touring scale

Bouldering

Technical climbing

Ice and mixed climbing

Avalanche warning levels for the entire Alps region

Vie Ferrate

There are several different rating scales for vie ferrate.

Here are the most common scales in the Alpine region and a comparison table of the different difficulty ratings.

The individual scales are described with more details here.

Snowshoe hiking SAC

Die Vielzahl an verschiedenen Ansätzen und Versuchen die Gefahren, Schwierigkeiten und Gesamtansprüche von Touren zu beschreiben hat zu einem etwas unübersichtlichen Angebot an Bewertungsskalas geführt. Vermutlich werden auch in Zukunft immer wieder neue dazu kommen. Ob es irgendwann DIE Skala in den jeweiligen Disziplinen gibt bleibt abzuwarten. Auf alle Fälle setzen sich einige besser durch als andere. Momentan bleibt nur der Vergleich und das grobe Abschätzen anhand der Informationen, die man durch die Bewertungsversuche erhält um sich bestmöglich auf die anstehende Tour vorzubereiten.