Originally Posted by
balto charlie
That's how I always describe a route easy, moderate or hard . . . Climbing is rated to death(and purely subjective)...5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.10A...5.10D.....5.14+ and so on. You don't want to go there.
Now, me, I'm *way* more a "just the facts, ma'am" kinda woman. Just tell me how much climbing is involved, and over what distance. I know what the Civil War Century, at 7400 feet, feels like to me; I know what the Seagull Century, at, um, 0 feet
feels like to me. Descriptive word ratings are necessarily subjective. My "moderate" is Isaias' "Come on, man, I'm falling asleep on my bike, here!!"
The trouble is, of course, the incredibly difficulty in getting good data on this question. I've been tempted (but only mildly) to get a bike GPS just for that purpose. (Although I've heard that my bike computer, the VDO MC1.0, is supposed to have a pretty accurate altimeter function.)