Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Rating question

Can someone help explain the Class 3 and Class 4 rating system? I can't tell the difference.

I climbed most of the way up Rock Route on Clyde Minaret. I went straight up the chute that's supposed to be 5.5. I guess I understand the 5.x rating. There was some interesting chimney work in there, but nothing extreme. The rest of the route, the book says that's a class 4.

Then I went up Middle Palisade which felt very much the same in terms of footing, hand-holds, etc. The book says that's class 3.

Then I went up Mt. Muir - most of that from the trail is just a scree scramble (that's class 2 right, since there's no trail?), but the last bit was as exposed and steep as any thing on Clyde....but Muir is Class 3.

Climbing Williamson from the west, that last bit is supposed to be class 3. But I found it more vertical and exposed than Clyde, which is Class 4.

oh, I'm so confused.

When asked "what's the rating on that?" - I've taken to answering - "I don't know ratings. It was fun/hard/easy/whatever". But I am kind of curious how one tells the difference. Seems to overly subjective to be a valuable distinction between Class 3/4.

Secor's book provides a description that is so subjective that I don't see how Class 3 and 4 can be distinguished. Fewer handholds? How many fewer? Smaller holds? Smaller compared to what?

I was just curious if anyone had a clearer definition? It doesn't matter much to me; just trying to satisfy my curiosity.

You are correct. It is subjective and some people find it confusing.

The way I distinguish it is by difficulty and exposure. When you need your hands and feet it's class 3. 4th class also uses hands and feet but has lots more exposure and more tricky moves.

Given that though there's a big difference between many routes rated class 3 and 4. The Mountaineer's Route on Whitney is class 3. That is a lot easier and more straightforward though than the 3rd class stuff in the Palisades.

You need to take those ratings with a grain of salt and know that sometimes something is rated 4th class and it'll feel easy and straightforward. Other times you'll be on a route rated class 3 and it'll feel a lot more heads up.

This page explains it pretty well

I think the simple answer is that the ratings are inconsistent, especially in the Class 3-4 range.

I have heard that Sierra climbers notoriously abuse the Class 3 rating, which often surprises climbers coming from the Rockies -- but this may just be a rumor designed to annoy the Coloradans.

I would like to see the ratings clarified as follows:

Class 3 - trivial rock climbing *without* exposure
Class 4 - trivial rock climbing with exposure
Class 5 - non-trivial rock climbing, exposure may or may not be present

But that's just me. In the real world, guidebooks rate things as "Exposed Class 3" all the time -- whatever that means!