CWA Blog Archive-How To Routeset & Grade Routes In Gyms Far From Outdoor Climbing

How To Routeset & Grade Routes In Gyms Far From Outdoor Climbing

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Jesse Safford tackles a genuinely tricky question: how should gyms far from outdoor climbing decide on a grading system? As gyms keep opening and more people begin climbing on plastic, the language for describing indoor difficulty keeps evolving, and the traditional assumption that grades should emulate real rock breaks down when a gym's community has no nearby outdoor climbing to reference. Safford acknowledges the core tension. Some setters hold that grades are meant to emulate real rock, but most acknowledge the real discrepancy between indoor and outdoor grades, the numbers simply don't map cleanly. That gap opens room for alternatives. Some gyms are choosing to lean into circuits, grouping boulders by a difficulty spectrum, like a color-coded band, instead of assigning each a specific V-grade. This sidesteps the precision problems of grading while still giving climbers a sense of relative difficulty. The article weighs why grading matters at all: for climbers tracking progression, grading systems provide tools to map their journey, a real benefit that circuits and grades deliver differently. Writing as a setter far from outdoor rock himself, Safford explores how setters can establish systems that genuinely fit their gyms and communities rather than defaulting to conventions built around outdoor climbing. Written for setters, especially those not near outdoor climbing, the piece connects to the CWA's updated 2023 Routesetting Guide. The throughline is that grading is a communication tool for a specific community, not a universal translation of outdoor difficulty. Gyms far from rock should choose the system, precise grades, circuits, or a hybrid, that best helps their particular climbers understand difficulty and track progress, rather than importing an outdoor-referenced system that may not serve people who climb only indoors.

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Jesse Safford examines how gyms far from outdoor rock should choose a grading system, since the assumption that grades emulate real rock breaks down without nearby climbing to reference. He weighs V-grades against circuits that group boulders by difficulty band, arguing grading is a communication tool for a specific community, not a universal translation.