climbing pitches

Question
What is the scale of climbing pitches? I have a friend who wrote me:

a pitch is anywhere from 120-150 feet, the rating scale ranges from 5.1 (easy) to 5.15 (impossible) with 5.9 being moderate

Should this read:

... from 5.1 (easy) to 5.15 (moderate) with 5.9 being impossible?

or what?

Answer
Mike,
I do not know Mark, though I know he is a contributor to Climbing Magazine.
You said he writes  for "us". Are you afiliated with a climbing related magazine?

Jeff
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Mike, A pitch is the distance between belay positions/anchors on a climb. Typically we measure a full pitch as a rope length. Ropes usually are between 150 and 200 feet long.  So pitches usually are between 75 and 200 feet in length. When most climbs were put up, 165 foot ropes were used so generally a full pitch is about 165 feet.  The 200 foot ropes have alloud us to "link" piches together and do longer climbs in less pitches.

The difficulty ratings have nothing to do with pitches. A climb is rated by it's hardest pitch and a pitch is rated by it's hardest move or combination of moves.
Currently the rating system goes from 5.0  (very easy) to 5.14 there has yet to be a 5.15 but it is not far off.  If I took you climbing today and you had no experience I would start you off on a 5.5-5.6 rated climb.  I would say moderate is about 5.7 - 5.8. 5.9 can be tricky and I would not call that moderate. It can take a couple years before a climber is ready to LEAD a 5.9. It may take a week before that same person can climb it. leading a climb and following are 2 very different skill sets and mind sets.   I have been climbing for 27 years and lead 5.10d-5.11.   5.12/13/14 are and will always be out of reach for me. Just to give you an idea of how hard 5.12 and above are.  

Hope this clarifys for you

Jeff Vargen