Climbing gym chain · United States

Touchstone Climbing grades, explained

Touchstone Climbing is an independently owned public benefit corporation that runs 18 climbing gyms across California, in the Bay Area, Sacramento, Fresno and the Los Angeles area. Mark and Debra Melvin opened its first gym, Mission Cliffs in San Francisco, in 1995. Most gyms combine roped climbing and bouldering with fitness and yoga, and several are bouldering-only. Touchstone also brews its own beer at Sacramento Pipeworks, and its 10-visit pass works at every location.

Find a gym Gym website

Bouldering grades

Each boulder problem is set in one hold colour and has a start tag with a single suggested V-grade. Touchstone uses this at every gym except Hyperion.

The gym grades in V-scale directly. Here is the range gyms usually set, in Font:

V-scale	Font
VB	3
V0	4B–4B+
V1	5A–5B
V2	5B–5C
V3	5C+–6A+
V4	6A+–6B+
V5	6C–6C+
V6	6C+–7A
V7	7A+–7B
V8	7B–7B+
V9	7C
V10	7C+
V11	8A
V12	8A+

Look up any grade in V-scale

Rope climbing grades

Top-rope and lead routes are labelled with a Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) grade at the start of the route.

The gym grades in YDS directly. Here is the range gyms usually set, in French:

YDS	French
5.6	4a–4b
5.7	4b–4c
5.8	4c+–5a+
5.9	5b–5c
5.10	5c–6b+
5.11	6b+–7a+
5.12	7a+–7c
5.13	7c+–8b
5.14	8b+–9a

Look up any grade in YDS

Touchstone Climbing uses this grading at all its gyms except Hyperion, which grades its own way. From the gym's own grading guide. Gyms reset and regrade often, and grades vary between setters, so treat this as a guide and check the boards when you visit.