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Essential Fontainebleau > Grades
Grades The modern ‘Fontainebleau’ grade is based on the French numerical grading system, though it has developed very much its own ‘flavour’. It has grades from 1 to 9 and each number is divided into ‘a, b, c’ increments of difficulty e.g. Font 7a, Font 7b, Font 7c. These have further additive + supérieur grades such as 7a+, which is the grade between 7a and 7b. It is not usefully comparative to the popular French sports grading (a ‘Font 7a’ is very different to a sport-grade ‘French 7a’). On first visit, the grades will be a shock to your system as you slip off Font 3s and 4s, (even the 8a climber will do this). The rock is technical and does not give up its grades easily. The grading chart here reflects a rough comparison of various international grading systems, should you wish to translate your ‘home’ grade. Traverses are graded for overall difficulty rather than a single move. Circuits are graded with an Alpine grade, such as AD+, to give an overall sense of severity, though grades will vary within the circuit problems. It is best to view the grading system as a sliding scale of difficulty as grades can be very subjective, due to the erosion or breakage of holds, polish, body-size and, especially at Fontainebleau: conditions!
Notation Notes Contractions used in this guide include: SS (a Sitting Start); CS (a Crouching Start); RH (Right Hand); LH (Left Hand). The topo lines have a solid start circle if a sit start and a transparent circle if standing. Topo circuits starts are marked with a u diamond and feature problems (listed in ascending grades) are marked with A green alphabetic letters on the topo.