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The ratings on these, as on any other
routes in the alps, are given in terms of the alpine or UIAA scale, which was derived by Walther Flaig from the
Welzenbach scale, and (for rock climbs) gives the class in roman numerals, as opposed to the Yosemite
Decimal System (YDS) that is universally used in the U.S. and uses roman numerals for the grade .
The alpine scale has no separate concept of grade; or rather, grade and class are often kind of folded into one.
To add to the confusion, the resulting composite rating is called "grade" ("Grad" in German), cf. Reinhold
Messner's famous book, The Seventh Grade . When it comes to rating snow climbs it gets even more
confusing, as there the roman numerals are used for what in the U.S. would be called "grade".
Beware when interpreting `dictionaries' that translate one rock scale into the other; contemporary American climbers may find the European routes hard for the translated rating (especially on easy and moderate climbs, which tend to be very old), and the fixed protection kind of scary. I know at least one who does! Having said that, here is such a dictionary, for what it's worth, which has been compiled from various books plus my own experience.
The UIAA scale uses + and - designations on ratings I through V as well; they correspond roughly to the upper and lower range, respectively, of the YDS rating given. Both scales are open above. | |||||||||