• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

most generous black diamond rating

ss20

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
3,919
Points
113
Location
A minute from the Alta exit off the I-15!
Mohawk Mountain's Route 100 trail. The "headwall" is a legit Mohawk black...but they haven't made snow on it in YEARS (so in CT that means it'll open up for a week once every 3 seasons or so). The rest of the trail parallels the Pine trail which is a green. It has a green pitch and is groomed.

Really a mystery as to why they don't mark it a green or a blue...that terrain is needed more at Mohawk than black terrain.
 

kingslug

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
6,990
Points
113
Location
Stamford Ct and Stowe
Just go to Jackson and see what the upper end of ratings is like. A double D is pretty off the chart there.
" our mountain is like nothing you have skied before"
 

benski

Active member
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
1,114
Points
36
Location
Binghamton NY
I am hoping the next ridiculous lawsuit is over one trail rating system deceiving customers into thinking they cab ski stuff they really can't.
 

nanjil

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
52
Points
6
it can go other way around too. in SR they have new trail marked green. I guess it was marked because they closed a cutoff which used to interfere with racers. The green designation was to make every body feel better. Me thinks it is dangerous because the trail has lot of narrow windy curves and most likely will end up icy. Sanity will prevail and eventually it will be blue. There was a precedence at SR with a trail called "quantum leap (err.. ice)" it started as blue and now designated as double black after many years of hard experience
 

Jully

Active member
Joined
Dec 13, 2014
Messages
2,487
Points
38
Location
Boston, MA
it can go other way around too. in SR they have new trail marked green. I guess it was marked because they closed a cutoff which used to interfere with racers. The green designation was to make every body feel better. Me thinks it is dangerous because the trail has lot of narrow windy curves and most likely will end up icy.

It also has a mostly similar pitch to the two blue trails on either side of it. The pitch is just shortened by sharp curves! Took two beginners/low intermediates that are just this season progressing to blues down it last weekend. They vastly preferred either Wildfire or Cascade (the two wider blue trails) next to it! SR built up massive snowmaking piles at each curve, so there are 5'+ drop offs into the woods on each curve now haha. Someone will get hurt there this season, I'm almost certain.

All we're learning from this thread is that resorts can (not always) use trail designations as marketing tools in addition to actually guiding skiers on the hill.
 

urungus

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 1, 2016
Messages
1,779
Points
113
Location
Western Mass
Cannon boasts about not having any of those silly double diamonds.

IMO having only three different ratings is not sufficient to cover a wide variety of trails. Giving your customers less information than they might need for their own safety is nothing to brag about. I have seen the black diamond inside blue square used to mark more difficult intermediate runs at a few places (Magic and Jiminy Peak come to mind), does anyone else use it? F81836F8-68CE-4326-B25D-C54D64E41F85.jpeg Does any place use a green circle inside a blue square to mark easier intermediate runs?
 

ss20

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
3,919
Points
113
Location
A minute from the Alta exit off the I-15!
IMO having only three different ratings is not sufficient to cover a wide variety of trails. Giving your customers less information than they might need for their own safety is nothing to brag about. I have seen the black diamond inside blue square used to mark more difficult intermediate runs at a few places (Magic and Jiminy Peak come to mind), does anyone else use it? View attachment 23031 Does any place use a green circle inside a blue square to mark easier intermediate runs?

Catamount uses the blue/black rating and used to have a green/blue designation.

I agree that most large areas should use "low blue" and "high blue" designations. The two places I frequent most- Killington and Mount Snow- probably have the greatest "range" of difficulty of their respective "blue" trails in the East.
 

eatskisleep

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
1,544
Points
83
Just go to Jackson and see what the upper end of ratings is like. A double D is pretty off the chart there.
" our mountain is like nothing you have skied before"
2.jpg
 

RISkier

Active member
Joined
Dec 3, 2003
Messages
1,062
Points
38
Location
Rhode Island
IMO having only three different ratings is not sufficient to cover a wide variety of trails. Giving your customers less information than they might need for their own safety is nothing to brag about. I have seen the black diamond inside blue square used to mark more difficult intermediate runs at a few places (Magic and Jiminy Peak come to mind), does anyone else use it? View attachment 23031 Does any place use a green circle inside a blue square to mark easier intermediate runs?

I think it's very difficult to really give skiers, especially beginners/low intermediates, the kind of information they really need. A relatively freshly groomed trail with nice snow skis very differently than the same trail that has been scraped into today's bumps with boilerplate. Or the same trail with spring conditions and slush. And then there are trails that are mostly not very steep but they have a relatively steep headwall or two. That skis very differently than a trail with sustained pitch but which is no more steep at any point. That said, I do agree that it would probably be useful to have a designation that differentiated easier blues from harder blues. And the easier blues really should be trails generally suitable for lower intermediates. I'm less bothered by a solid intermediate getting into something that challenges them than a low intermediate who may be getting into the sport getting into scary situations.
 

benski

Active member
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
1,114
Points
36
Location
Binghamton NY
Item # 6 of the skiers responsibility code: Observe all posted signs and warnings.

I did not base it on the legal standing, or the lack of legal discamers. I am just sick of here everyone I tell I am a skier ask me if I ski blacks like it means something, and I know it does in reality trick a lot of people to get in over there head. One day someone is going to ski a double black at Okemo, think they are an expert, then get hurt on a black at one of these difficult mountains without double blacks and get hurt.
 

tnt1234

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Messages
1,492
Points
48
I did not base it on the legal standing, or the lack of legal discamers. I am just sick of here everyone I tell I am a skier ask me if I ski blacks like it means something, and I know it does in reality trick a lot of people to get in over there head. One day someone is going to ski a double black at Okemo, think they are an expert, then get hurt on a black at one of these difficult mountains without double blacks and get hurt.


Oh, yeah, I'm sure that happens all the time. How can it not? Don't really think there is any way around it.
 

nkLottery

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2015
Messages
61
Points
6
Location
Rhode Island
Ever ski the Butte? It's rowdy.

Yeah I have! Got out there last year and skiied the extremes for a week. Just got back from CB and regrettably no extremes open yet. It is rowdy. That's kind of why I illustrated the irony between CB and Okemo; Okemo's got soft trail ratings while CB is extreme - even for a Colorado resort!
 
Top