most generous black diamond rating

[nkLottery]

Right. "So dad, a double black at Stratton is like a hard blue or easy black at Magic?" -my 9 year old

Worst rating I've ever seen was double black for Spruce at Stratton. It's got 1-2 steep pitches, otherwise its a nice cruiser. They rarely let it go au natural.

I had a Strattitude pass a few seasons ago on a killer snow year for Stratton. Spruce is very fun on ungroomed, good snow

 

[kingslug]

I laugh when asked if I ski black runs...
but I do find that there are double D runs such as some of the tops of Stowe's front 4 that are harder than off the grid nuthouse chutes that are so far off the charts they are not even rated. Its because they have snow on them, so I go down them, not pretty but I go down them. Some of VT's runs under the chairs are downright crazy in my opinion..yet I see kids go down them once in a while. They grew up doing it. Its all relative and really doesn't define you as a skier. There is always someone doing it better.

 

[ceo]

One time at Cannon I rode up a lift with a dad who said he'd had to explain to his kids that, just because they were allowed to ski single blacks but not double blacks at Sunday River, that did not mean they were allowed to ski Kinsman Glade.

 

[SkiingInABlueDream]

I remember a time before double blacks were a thing, in the northeast at least. Im generally blasé about DD (trail marking) but if kinsman glade and tram line and nothing else at cannon were marked DD it’d be totally appropriate IMO.

 

[deadheadskier]

I remember a time before double blacks were a thing, in the northeast at least. Im generally blasé about DD (trail marking) but if kinsman glade and tram line and nothing else at cannon were marked DD it’d be totally appropriate IMO.

I'd say the same about Wildcat with Hairball and Starr Line. Maybe Feline too due to the big ledge at the bottom.

Sent from my XT1565 using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[machski]

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

True on QL, but for that there have been plenty that have gone the other way. Dreamaker was originally a blue and Jibe and Rogue Angel were originally blacks (both probably should still be as well).

Sent from my XT1650 using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[SkiMom80]

One time at Cannon I rode up a lift with a dad who said he'd had to explain to his kids that, just because they were allowed to ski single blacks but not double blacks at Sunday River, that did not mean they were allowed to ski Kinsman Glade.

I get asked by my 9-year-old every weekend, "when can I ski DJ's Tramline?" (More because I don't think I'll ever want to do it than he won't be good enough)

 

[xlr8r]

True on QL, but for that there have been plenty that have gone the other way. Dreamaker was originally a blue and Jibe and Rogue Angel were originally blacks (both probably should still be as well).

Sent from my XT1650 using AlpineZone mobile app

Sunday River has a lot of trails mislabeled in my opinion. Some are marked too easy like Lollapalooza should be blue, the top of it is too tough to be a green. Excalibur, Rogue Angel, Northern Lights, Jibe all have steep sections that are black worthy. But then there are a bunch that are labeled too hard like Assumption and Snowbound should be marked blue, but are marked black because they lead onto Obsession and White Heat which are blacks as well. But those are the low portions of the trail where it is not steep, so lower White Heat and Obsession could and should be marked blue. Also Finally Goat Path should be marked black as all it serves is a cat track to access expert trails on Barker from Locke. My Mother got stuck on Goat Path once thinking it would be a nice blue cruiser to get over to Spruce from Locke, she traversed out of it in the end and got pretty upset about it.

 

[gnardawg]

No one would stay at the Jordan Hotel if there were 2 double blacks, 2 blacks and a blue to get back to the hotel.

Sunday River has a lot of trails mislabeled in my opinion. Some are marked too easy like Lollapalooza should be blue, the top of it is too tough to be a green. Excalibur, Rogue Angel, Northern Lights, Jibe all have steep sections that are black worthy. But then there are a bunch that are labeled too hard like Assumption and Snowbound should be marked blue, but are marked black because they lead onto Obsession and White Heat which are blacks as well. But those are the low portions of the trail where it is not steep, so lower White Heat and Obsession could and should be marked blue. Also Finally Goat Path should be marked black as all it serves is a cat track to access expert trails on Barker from Locke. My Mother got stuck on Goat Path once thinking it would be a nice blue cruiser to get over to Spruce from Locke, she traversed out of it in the end and got pretty upset about it.

 

[xlr8r]

No one would stay at the Jordan Hotel if there were 2 double blacks, 2 blacks and a blue to get back to the hotel.

No one is staying at Jordan anyway the way it is now. Jordan Hotel has to be one of LBO's biggest blunders. Boyne always has Grand Summit rooms priced more than Jordan rooms. Rogue Angel should be black, Excalibur is debatable, and Lallapalooza should be blue. The hotel should have been built at the base instead of a third of the way up the mountain. Many days the Hotel loses ski in access with Jordan Express down for wind. It is moronic neither Boyne or ASC has built a lift that starts at Jordan base and ends at the hotel to be able to get people back there without having to go to the top. Then that lower portion of Lallapalooza could be marked green.

Again this has come up as an issue with my family when we used to go to Sunday River each year. We only ever stayed at Jordan once. During that weekend, one day Jordan Express was shut down for wind, so we all had to shuttle over to south ridge, a process that wasted almost an hour.

 

[Zand]

I'm sure you could add any trail at Sunapee to this list, but Goosebumps being DOUBLE black is the most laughable. Even Stratton wouldn't make it a double black.

 

[machski]

No one is staying at Jordan anyway the way it is now. Jordan Hotel has to be one of LBO's biggest blunders. Boyne always has Grand Summit rooms priced more than Jordan rooms. Rogue Angel should be black, Excalibur is debatable, and Lallapalooza should be blue. The hotel should have been built at the base instead of a third of the way up the mountain. Many days the Hotel loses ski in access with Jordan Express down for wind. It is moronic neither Boyne or ASC has built a lift that starts at Jordan base and ends at the hotel to be able to get people back there without having to go to the top. Then that lower portion of Lallapalooza could be marked green.

Again this has come up as an issue with my family when we used to go to Sunday River each year. We only ever stayed at Jordan once. During that weekend, one day Jordan Express was shut down for wind, so we all had to shuttle over to south ridge, a process that wasted almost an hour.

It's a blunder now only because Otten dreamed too big. The hotel was supposed to be the anchor for the Mountain Village over there. I think a lift up there from Jordan base was in those plans as we're plans for more trails off the ridge and behind the hotel down into the valley. But when that failed, the Jordan was orphaned out there.

Sent from my XT1650 using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[jimk]

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?

A fun recollection from 2003 about a trail at Winter Park marked with a sign with a black diamond inside a blue square:

[Around 3 p.m. I suggested that we head back to higher ground and make Hughes Run our finale. The necessary return drive over cloud-shrouded Berthoud pass was weighing in the back of my mind. Hughes is one of Winter Park’s classic runs and descends about 1,700’ of vertical in about one mile. We had seen some incredibly skilled disabled skiers training here earlier in the day. Paraplegics, amputees, sight impaired, mentally challenged, you name it; they were still out there by the dozens, skiing, riding and racing their buns off.

Hughes has an unusual marking as a blue trail with a black diamond inside the blue square. It’s also a busy place cutting down the heart of the front of the mountain to the main base. Despite the helpful snow-squall earlier in the day, by 3 p.m. much of the powder dusting was scraped off. In the East there’d be nothing blue about Hughes Run, except maybe an intermediate’s hurt feelings at being coerced to give it a try. It was a challenge for my three young kids, but all the way down my rallying cry was “if the special skiers can do it, you guys can too.” Not sure if I’ll get away with that next time, but on this day it seemed to work and when we made it to the bottom we knew we’d completed a week of big time Colorado skiing.]

 

[So Inclined]

Madbox at Hunter...........

Ha! You beat me to this. I took it for maybe the third time in 10 years of skiing Hunter last weekend. I cannot figure out the point of that thing, much less how they get a black diamond out of it.

 

[urungus]

How About ‘Ridge Run’ at Killngton? Hard to believe it is the same category as Superstar, East Fall, Highline ...

 

[benski]

How About ‘Ridge Run’ at Killngton? Hard to believe it is the same category as Superstar, East Fall, Highline ...

Thats crazy, I just realized Kilington has a new Trail map. It looks like the same artist Gore and Whitefaces map.

 

[gnardawg]

I believe Ridge Run was the formerly named West Glade. If I remember correctly they don't groom the run and leave it bumped. While it isn't steep it is narrow and windy.

Thats crazy, I just realized Kilington has a new Trail map. It looks like the same artist Gore and Whitefaces map.

 

[ZackM17]

Ha! You beat me to this. I took it for maybe the third time in 10 years of skiing Hunter last weekend. I cannot figure out the point of that thing, much less how they get a black diamond out of it.

It's because the trail feeds into Jimmy Heuga which is a black diamond. Mad Box is really just for carrying traffic that goes right after getting off the six pack.

 

[Keelhauled]

Thats crazy, I just realized Kilington has a new Trail map. It looks like the same artist Gore and Whitefaces map.

It's a VistaMap, which is CGI. Also ugly as sin.

 

[BenedictGomez]

In the East there’d be nothing blue about Hughes Run, except maybe an intermediate’s hurt feelings at being coerced to give it a try.

That's funny, in my limited experience skiing the west (which is limited, I've only been to Colorado, Utah, and Banff, and skied 11 areas) I feel our eastern trail ratings hold up nicely out west.