TR: Taboose Pass/Arrow Creek/Gardiner Basin Loop, 8/29-9/5/2

[rlown]

climbing ratings only matter above 3.

As Mark said

1:- trail
2: off trail
3 touching rocks with hands ( sometimes even on 2)
4: rope?

7: "walking the JMT on your hands?"

Mav, you need to spin this off on a thread about now.

Russ

[RiseToADry]

Sweet TR to a very remote location. I appreciate the info you shared about the fish! Cheers!

[sekihiker]

I agree that climbing ratings are not always applicable to judging difficulty when backpacking. I do not know if there is a solution. Even reading trip reports, others have described passes as hard when I thought they were easy, and easy when I thought they were hard.

The most common system for rating the difficulty of crossing terrain is the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS). I propose an alternate system because it does not seem that there are enough divisions at the lower levels of the YDS, especially for those carrying full packs. There are five levels of difficulty in my system, Bill's Terrain Rating System (BTRS), that can be used as alternatives for YDS classes 1, 2 and 3. When finished crossing B-1 terrain, you don't think at all about its difficulty. After a B-2 ascent or descent, you think about how hard you are breathing. A B-3 crossing will cause you to think about how hard your heart is pounding. During and after a B-4 passage, you will notice how bad your armpits smell. The criterion for determining B-5 terrain is to check the wrappers on the candy in your pocket. If the twists at the ends of the wrappers are puckered especially tightly, then you definitely are talking B-5. If you aren't carrying any wrapped candy, to confirm crossing of B-5 terrain just inspect your shorts instead.