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Via ferrata difficulty grades explained: which route is right for you?

· 4 min read

A climber in a white helmet and blue backpack holds the cable on a mossy rock wall above clear turquoise pools of the Piva, with a second climber behind him and the green canyon beyond.

A via ferrata grade tells you how hard the most difficult passage on a route is. Several scales are in use, and which one you meet depends on the country and the guidebook. Via Ferrata Piva is graded B/C on the Schall scale, which is the one used in Austria and Slovenia.

The Schall scale: A to E

The Schall scale runs from A to E. Half grades such as A/B or B/C sit between the letters, for a route harder than one grade but not quite the next. The German Alpine Club (DAV) describes the steps roughly like this:

  • A, easy: secured paths with short exposed bits.
  • B, moderately difficult: stretches of steeper, exposed rock, longer ladders and rungs.
  • C, difficult: steep to very steep rock, exposed passages with small footholds.
  • D, very difficult: vertical and often overhanging rock, very exposed, rungs far apart. Needs strong arms and good technique.
  • E, extremely difficult: mostly overhanging, with extreme demands on strength and nerve. For experienced climbers only.

There is also an F, but it’s given to only a couple of extreme routes. The joint chart of the Alpine clubs stops at E/F, and you can treat E as the top of the scale for planning.

The Hüsler scale: K1 to K6

The Hüsler scale, named after Eugen Hüsler, has six steps from K1 to K6. The K stands for Klettersteig, the German word for a via ferrata. K1 is a secured walking path, K4 is steep with short overhangs, and K6 is very steep to overhanging rock with only the steel cable to hold, which is very strenuous. It is the main scale in Switzerland.

The Schall and Hüsler scales roughly correspond. The Alpine clubs’ chart spreads A to E/F across K1 to K6, so a letter doesn’t match exactly one number.

The French and Italian scales

France grades via ferratas on the six-step alpine scale: F (facile, easy), PD (peu difficile), AD (assez difficile), D (difficile), TD (très difficile) and ED (extrêmement difficile). Italy uses a similar but different set of five: F, PD (poco difficile), D (difficile), MD (molto difficile) and ED (estrema difficoltà). Both add a plus or minus for half steps, as in PD+.

The same letters don’t mean the same thing on every scale. On the French and Italian scales, F is the easiest grade and D sits in the middle, while on the Schall scale F barely exists and D is very difficult.

Which countries use which scale

  • Austria, South Tyrol, Trentino and Slovenia: Schall (A to E)
  • Switzerland: mostly Hüsler (K1 to K6)
  • Germany: both, with guidebooks using Schall letters as well as Hüsler numbers
  • France: the French scale (F to ED)
  • Italy: the Italian scale (F to ED), except in South Tyrol and Trentino

The DAV notes that Schall and Hüsler grades now appear on French and Italian routes too. The via ferratas in Montenegro, Piva included, are given Schall grades such as B or B/C.

What a grade leaves out

Each scale rates the hardest single passage on a route, so a grade is only a rough guide. A long route with one C move and a short route that is C all the way can carry the same grade. Read the description alongside it, and look at how long the route is and where the hardest part comes.

What B/C means on Via Ferrata Piva

The official route map grades each part of the loop separately, and the overall B/C comes from the last 80 m.

The cabled path that starts at the bridge is graded A, and the forest path that drops from it to the river is B. You walk on earth, roots and rock with the cable beside you, and it’s where you get used to moving the carabiners.

The traverse is B. It runs back downstream along the canyon wall a few metres above the river, on iron pegs and staples, short ladders and steel grates over the pools. In places the wall drops straight into the water below you, but you mostly move sideways.

The wall is B/C. From the river it goes 80 m straight up pale limestone to the bridge, on iron rungs with the cable beside them. Your legs do most of the work, but you need some arm strength as well. About 50 m up there’s a steel bench bolted to the rock where you can sit down.

Seen from above, a single climber in a blue helmet climbs the iron rungs on a wide pale limestone face, with the steel bench and its sign higher up the wall.

Near the top the rock leans out a little for a few moves, and that slight overhang is the steepest part of the route.

A climber in a white helmet and orange T-shirt pulls up over a bulge on the iron rungs, clipped to the cable, with the concrete bridge high overhead against a blue sky and the sun behind a tree.

No climbing experience is needed, and moderate fitness is enough. Climbers have to be between 12 and 60 years old and up to 120 kg. The other via ferratas in Montenegro, from Kotor to Prokletije, are compared in via ferratas in Montenegro.

After a B/C route

From B/C you can move on to via ferratas graded C, D and above. If you would rather climb the rock itself, the next step is rock climbing on a rope. Sport climbs use their own scale of numbers and letters, such as 5a or 6b, which has nothing to do with via ferrata grades. Plužine has a bolted sport-climbing crag, and our partners Adventure Montenegro run guided sport climbing in Piva, with sessions for complete beginners and the rope, harness, helmet and shoes provided.

What is a via ferrata? explains how the cable and the set work, and via ferrata safety equipment explained covers the equipment.