NYDB
Well-known member
Maybe 15 years ago. They leave lower spruce bumped up more often now. Which is actually a nice mellow bump run when they do that.
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most generous black diamond rating
- Thread starter Vaughn
- Start date
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urungus
Well-known member
And yet Lower Spruce only gets the single diamond rating. The double diamond rating for the usually groomed top section is pretty generous IMO.
ss20
Well-known member
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.
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
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"
" our mountain is like nothing you have skied before"
benski
Active member
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.
ThinkSnow
Member
Item # 6 of the skiers responsibility code: Observe all posted signs and warnings.
SIKSKIER
New member
Cannon boasts about not having any of those silly double diamonds.
Smellytele
Well-known member
And Smuggs have a triple black
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
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
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?
Does any place use a green circle inside a blue square to mark easier intermediate runs?
ss20
Well-known member
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.
Smellytele
Well-known member
Europe adds a Red to the mix
eatskisleep
Well-known member
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RISkier
Active member
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
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.
RichT
Active member
Madbox at Hunter...........
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
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!
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