Terrain & Difficulty Rating Guide
I was on GC and found this little table. I never tought that much about the T & D when setting out my own caches, but now that I am finding it near impossible to get 4.5 for T to fill my T & D chart, I have been looking at how to rate them. I found it interesting so…. Here is what GC says:
Geocache Rating System.
Difficulty Rating:
- *
- Easy. In plain sight or can be found in a few minutes of searching.
- **
- Average. The average cache hunter would be able to find this in less than 30 minutes of hunt.
- ***
- Challenging. An experienced cache hunter will find this challenging, and it could take up a good portion of an afternoon.
- ****
- Difficult. A real challenge for the experienced cache hunter – may require special skills or knowledge, or in-depth preparation to find. May require multiple days / trips to complete.
- *****
- Extreme. A serious mental or physical challenge. Requires specialized knowledge, skills, or equipment to find cache.
Terrain Rating:
- *
- Handicapped accessible. (Terrain is likely to be paved, is relatively flat, and less than a 1/2 mile hike is required.)
- **
- Suitable for small children. (Terrain is generally along marked trails, there are no steep elevation changes or heavy overgrowth. Less than a 2 mile hike required.)
- ***
- Not suitable for small children. (The average adult or older child should be OK depending on physical condition. Terrain is likely off-trail. May have one or more of the following: some overgrowth, some steep elevation changes, or more than a 2 mile hike.)
- ****
- Experienced outdoor enthusiasts only. (Terrain is probably off-trail. Will have one or more of the following: very heavy overgrowth, very steep elevation (requiring use of hands), or more than a 10 mile hike. May require an overnight stay.)
- *****
- Requires specialized equipment and knowledge or experience, (boat, 4WD, rock climbing, SCUBA, etc) or is otherwise extremely difficult.
I have not hid anything hard to find that would require a high rating. When I do a cache listing I do use the geocaching rating system to determine the D/T rating.
Maybe I should up my ratings a little to compensate for hidden outside of town, or not a P&G cache, or must walk a little.
Just kidding.
I find that most 5/5 caches are rated too high. A difficulty 5 should take hours or many tries to find and just because it is on an Island that a ten year old could paddle to in 10 minutes does not not make it a 5. If it can be made harder to find/reach then it should not be a 5/5 in my opinion. I will never hide a 5/5 unless it is in a fake lava container in a crevice halfway in an active volcano that has just breached the surface in the pacific ocean. Just because you had to bushwhack or climb a steep hill does not make it a terrain 5.
There is a 5/5 earthcache near my familial stomping grounds where the requirement is to ride the ferry between St. George/Deer Island, answer a question, and post a photo.
Check around Martins head, you can drive up to them.
Like most of geocaching, there is no firm rules on terrain and difficulty levels. The CO is free to ssign whatever level he wishes. It is all based on opinion. We may have a contrary opinion but the CO has the final say.
When one of our first caches was placed on Shediac Island, the reviewer said that the terrain should be a 5 because a boat would be needed. When we placed subsequent caches there, we gave a terrain level based on the effort required to snowshoe over there.
When I ceate ML caches I try to assign a difficulty based on what I perceive as the difficulty to solve it manually. But of course if a person uses a program or goes with a freind, they do not experience that difficulty. But of course all the cache finders get to use that difficulty level for their fizzy challenges.