Originally Posted by Al K
Trails can be rated for technical difficulty, for climbing difficulty, for consequences of an injury (including rescue rescources), and for anything else that experienced mtb'ers consider useful.
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Technical Difficulty: Prime hammerhead territory; very tough, with barely rideable rock gardens, tight single-track, and a shifty shale surface
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Perhaps Joe's approach is better than a numerical rating system.
i agree that trails can and should be rating by different criteria. the single trail scale rates ONLY the technical difficulty.
i agree that rating various aspects as your example from Joe is very good. but i do not think that the technical difficulty description is clear: "Prime hammerhead territory; very tough, with barely rideable rock gardens, tight single-track, and a shifty shale surface" --- what does "very tough" and "barely rideable rock gardens" mean? is that barely rideable for a novice rider with an unsuspended XC bike or barely rideable for an experienced freerider with with 8" of travel?
Joes description ALONG WITH an S-rating would be even more helpful. in this case it could be anything from S-1 to S-5 depending on your perespective (the Innsbruck Vertriders would only say something is "barely ridable" if it is S-5 --> meaning it is really steep, with multiple obstacles/drops in series and requires jumping or hopping to ride)