Terrain/difficulty Rating

[+Lumpy_The_Great]

So I am looking for some difficult Caches in my area and my Pocket query comes up with a few 4/4 and a few 5/5s in my general vicinity. As I am reading through them one of the 5/5 cache's looks like the only real impediment is a swim/boat ride out to what is a fairly obvios stash place. Some of the others seem really straight forward except they mostly include boating/swimming a short distance.

 

This weekend I was seeking two ot three caches that were rated 1-3 with only one having a terrain rating of 3 and all the rest being 2.5 or lower.

 

So the question I Have is this: What cache's do you think were way overstarred on the terrain/difficulty and what cache's were way under starred? What was you biggest dissapointment? the cache that you thought was going to be an ultra challenge but turned out to be way too easy. And what Cache almost killed you when you foolishy approached a 4.5 terrain that was rated 1?

[+Tsmola]

Yeah I've seen too many that were miss-rated: 3, it's a 1 or it's rated 1.5, it's 2.5 or 3

 

I'm hoping to sometime this year place a REAL terrain 5. And not just one that's a 5 because of a boat required or something like that.

[+RPW]

Going by the rating system that is available when you publish new caches. ....

 

Terrain 1 star is "handicapped accessible". In my opinion even if the cache is in very easy terrain if you can't push a wheelchair to the cache then it should not be 1-star; make it a 1.5 star instead.

 

Terrain 5 star is "special equipment needed" and/or "extremely difficult." It doesn't matter how easy the cache would normally be without the special equipment, if the cache requires the equipment then it is automatically 5-star. I once found a 5-star terrain cache in the middle of an island. The walk from my car to the non-island shore was easy. The walk from the island's shore to the cache was easy. The normal rating of the cache should have been 1.5 stars but since it "required" a boat it automatically became a 5-star cache. Unfortunately really difficult and really easy caches get lumped together in the 5-star category. Thus I tend to give the really difficult ones a 4.5 star rating. This keeps them from being confused with easy but equipment required caches.

 

Of course one can argue about when special equipment is truly needed. In the above example the water was narrow enough, shallow enough and calm enough that I could get to the island by wading/dog-paddling. It wasn't much of a challenge at all; I didn't even get my hair wet. But then for non-swimmers they would need a boat.

 

I find terrain ratings vary a lot -- one person will rate a cache much differently than another person. There are also regional differences. What is highly rated in the flat lands of Indiana (where I live) would not get many stars in state with more mountains.

[+ThePropers]

Going by the rating system that is available when you publish new caches. ....

 

Terrain 1 star is "handicapped accessible". In my opinion even if the cache is in very easy terrain if you can't push a wheelchair to the cache then it should not be 1-star; make it a 1.5 star instead.

 

Terrain 5 star is "special equipment needed" and/or "extremely difficult." It doesn't matter how easy the cache would normally be without the special equipment, if the cache requires the equipment then it is automatically 5-star. I once found a 5-star terrain cache in the middle of an island. The walk from my car to the non-island shore was easy. The walk from the island's shore to the cache was easy. The normal rating of the cache should have been 1.5 stars but since it "required" a boat it automatically became a 5-star cache. Unfortunately really difficult and really easy caches get lumped together in the 5-star category. Thus I tend to give the really difficult ones a 4.5 star rating. This keeps them from being confused with easy but equipment required caches.

 

Of course one can argue about when special equipment is truly needed. In the above example the water was narrow enough, shallow enough and calm enough that I could get to the island by wading/dog-paddling. It wasn't much of a challenge at all; I didn't even get my hair wet. But then for non-swimmers they would need a boat.

 

I find terrain ratings vary a lot -- one person will rate a cache much differently than another person. There are also regional differences. What is highly rated in the flat lands of Indiana (where I live) would not get many stars in state with more mountains.

 

While I agree with most of that, I tend to disagree that "special equipment" doesn't automatically necessitate a 5 star terrain. A specific example I'm thinking of are needing a flashlight for a night cache. I wouldn't think that would immediately rate a 5 terrain.

[+Lasagna]

Going by the rating system that is available when you publish new caches. ....

 

Terrain 1 star is "handicapped accessible". In my opinion even if the cache is in very easy terrain if you can't push a wheelchair to the cache then it should not be 1-star; make it a 1.5 star instead.

 

Terrain 5 star is "special equipment needed" and/or "extremely difficult." It doesn't matter how easy the cache would normally be without the special equipment, if the cache requires the equipment then it is automatically 5-star. I once found a 5-star terrain cache in the middle of an island. The walk from my car to the non-island shore was easy. The walk from the island's shore to the cache was easy. The normal rating of the cache should have been 1.5 stars but since it "required" a boat it automatically became a 5-star cache. Unfortunately really difficult and really easy caches get lumped together in the 5-star category. Thus I tend to give the really difficult ones a 4.5 star rating. This keeps them from being confused with easy but equipment required caches.

 

Of course one can argue about when special equipment is truly needed. In the above example the water was narrow enough, shallow enough and calm enough that I could get to the island by wading/dog-paddling. It wasn't much of a challenge at all; I didn't even get my hair wet. But then for non-swimmers they would need a boat.

 

I find terrain ratings vary a lot -- one person will rate a cache much differently than another person. There are also regional differences. What is highly rated in the flat lands of Indiana (where I live) would not get many stars in state with more mountains.

 

While I agree with most of that, I tend to disagree that "special equipment" doesn't automatically necessitate a 5 star terrain. A specific example I'm thinking of are needing a flashlight for a night cache. I wouldn't think that would immediately rate a 5 terrain.

 

I agree with ThePropers ... I think if it's specialized equipment that's not readily available or typically available to the average cacher, then you flag it. Otherwise, you just need to note it in the write up.

[+Criminal]

Now that I know how to use pocket queries I also don’t like the idea that any special equipment requirement gives a cache automatically a five star rating, it screws up my search. I would like to see the site require a suffix after the cache name, like SE (Special Equipment Required).

 

Example: Island Easy SE

 

In the notes you would find a boat is required.

Edited May 10, 2006 by Criminal

[+RPW]

Well naturally what is considered "special equipment" is up to the cache hider. The geocaching site's rating system uses the following as examples for a 5-star terrain:

 

"... Requires specialized equipment and knowledge or experience, (boat, 4WD, rock climbing, SCUBA, etc) ..."

 

I would expect most cachers to carry flashlights, first-aid kits, GPSes, compasses, emergency whistle, walking stick, etc.. Those small items are not "speciallized" at least not to our sport. Carrying around a boat ... or having SCUBA gear handy ... well, all of that is specialized. Perhaps the best way to think of this is if the required item is large and not-portable then it falls into the "specialized" category.

 

And I'll agree with Criminal and probably everyone else that it is too bad that there is not a check box or some other indication that specialized equipment is needed without having to use the 5-star category. But until geocaching.com changes their listing standards then we are stuck with 5-star for a catch-all category.