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Ski Trail Ratings: America vs. Europe

Posted on January 8, 2012 - Filed Under Europe Vacation

Trail ratings can be a very interesting topic, and are often rather trivial. The most important thing to remember when considering trail ratings is that there is no board or organization which rates slopes – the ratings are done by the resorts themselves. What this means is that slopes are rated according to relative difficulty in comparison with the other slopes at that resort! So, a black diamond at one US resort could be a blue square at another. Despite this, once you have a feel for how a specific resort rates trails, trail ratings can be very useful.

European trail ratings differ from American trail ratings in a few ways. Here is an overview of both systems:

Europe Vacation

American Trail Ratings:

Green Circle – Beginner trails.

Blue Square – Intermediate trails, often varying changing between steeper parts and a short flat area to rest.

Black Diamond – Expert trails, often, but not always, groomed.

Double Black Diamond – For Experts Only, often narrow with obstacles, moguls, near-cliffs, etc.

European Trail Ratings:

Green – Learning and baby slopes.

Blue – Beginner trails.

Red – Intermediate trails, steeper than Blues, mostly groomed, sometimes not.

Black – Expert trails, steep, sometimes groomed, sometimes with moguls, has a large range: from a bit harder than a red up to steep icy slopes with looming moguls.

By keeping the European ratings in mind while, you can avoid standing at the top of a slope and wishing you had taken a vacation to Hawaii instead. On the other hand, you can only improve your skiing by pushing yourself to your limits…

Ski Trail Ratings: America vs. Europe

Corey Hannum is the president of European Adventure Travel [http://www.eatravel.net], a provider of guided luxury adventure travel tours in Europe, and authors the Adventure Travel News [http://www.eatravel.net/sphpblog/index.php] blog. He is also a certified paramedic, and has bachelors’ degree in German. In addition, he is a dedicated skier and sports enthusiast.

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