How do you make use of the D/T ratings & grid?

[+Oxford Stone]

I'm curious to hear how much store people set by the famous Ds and Ts.

 

Of my 743 caches, I've only got 1 T above 3.5 (and "delegated" retrieval, long story!). A couple of months ago I gazed at the grid and noticed a couple of gaps below 3/3 so I did some pocket queries and made sure I filled them in. The D1.5T3 was a minor tree climb in a lovely spot. The D3T1 was inside the cap of a fencepost, no way a 3. I got a 3/3 just now, 120m from the car under a log; one of my D5s was a plastic ivy leaf in a wall of ivy, which was just annoying not difficult! I've also scrambled 15 feet up a muddy bank off a hilly path for a T1. After a trail of 50 2.5/2.5s (which as you may guess is just a cacher who's too lazy to appraise his caches individually), I suppose it was nice to see those average Ds & Ts go up .05. They're now in the 1.7, 1.8s (but aren't everyone's?)

 

I have no hope and as a realist no ambition to fill that grid in. However <3/3 out of the way, what I AM finding useful is querying 3.5 and over in either D or T, as (and again I'm sure this won't be just me) after 9 months of 35mm film pot 1.5/1.5s I am ready to just pick and choose and, with company for safety's sake, start shimmying under some bridges etc.

 

I own 7 caches, all slighly higher D than T, giving it thought and using the GC advice as I go along. I'd definitely amend any of them if a cacher commented. But even then, I feel it's not an exact science.

 

Any other tips / reflections?

[+redsox_mark]

For me - one of these days I will make a focussed effort to try and fill in my grid. Up to now I've kept an eye out for interesting D/T combinations, but haven't made a focussed effort.

I have 67 of the 81 filled in. Of the 14 remaining, all are T4 or greater except D5 T2.5. Interestingly, that is the only D5 combination I am missing.

 

You are right it is not an exact science, and there is wide variation.

[+L0ne.R]

I've also scrambled 15 feet up a muddy bank off a hilly path for a T1.

Any other tips / reflections?

 

This is my biggest gripe with D/Ts. Some cachers have mobility issues: wheelchair/scooter users, cane/crutch users, recovering from surgery, recovering from a broken hip/leg/foot, arthritis etc. When we filter for terrain ratings it's because we can't do T3 or higher. Scrambling up and down a muddy/weedy/rocky/steep bank or bushwack over logs and boulders can't be done. There are so few T1 and T2s so we may drive quite a distance to get to them. It wastes time and gas money and is oh so frustrating when you walk a kilometer along a flat rail-to-trail to get within 15 meters of the cache only to find yourself looking down a 45 degree rocky slope with a 1 foot wide stream at the bottom that you need to leap over. Perhaps GS could force people to use the D/T rating page when posting a cache. It might cut down on the number of poorly rated DT caches. Then again there would still be people that think if it's a T1 90% of the way to the cache but a T4 the last 25 meters then it's a T2.

[+briansnat]

I don't think I've looked that grid more than two or three times since it was introduced. So you can put me down in the ignore column.

[+L0ne.R]

I don't think I've looked that grid more than two or three times since it was introduced. So you can put me down in the ignore column.

 

Same here.

[+Isonzo Karst]

When they added stats to the site, I immediately hid them. This so I wouldn't look at 'em and think about it.

 

Before stats were part of the Geocaching.com profile, I'd cached with people who were terribly interested in filling in map grids that they'd uploaded to their profile pages. I knew that if I had one on my profile, I'd be thinking about it too, and it would distort trip planning.

 

And that ultimately, thinking about stats, instead of thinking about each cache individually for its own sake, would damage my interest in caching.

 

That's clearly not true for many people ---> lots of people enjoy caching while actively caching for stats.

 

That said, I did make the effort to get a complete D/T grid. I make a conscious effort to get the last 4.5 Difficulty caches I needed. I've lost a full grid a couple of times, as cache owners change ratings, and no longer care.

 

I have quite a few 5/5 cache finds, none of which are really 5/5. Ratings are so off in many cases that it seems kinda silly to chase 'em.

[+niraD]

I use the D/T ratings to get information about how challenging it might be to get to the cache location, or to find the cache once I'm there. Although sometimes that fails, like the 1.5/4.5 event I attended at a local shopping center.

 

I don't use the D/T grid at all.

[+Walts Hunting]

It is unimportant to me. I ignore it. I find that all those challenges detract from the experience.

[+6NoisyHikers]

We've got just over half the grid filled. I think if I looked one day and saw we only had ten combinations left to do, I'd make a point of organizing a way to do them.

 

Yes, the D/T rating system on an individual cache basis can be unreliable, but the averages on your stats page probably give a reasonable picture of your personal caching "style" after a few hundred finds.

[+GeoTrekker26]

Adding my name to someone's list or playing blackout bingo on a grid adds nothing to the game for me, so I ignore all the challenges unless the cache itself has merit, in which case I may look for the cache and forgo the online smiley.

[+Shmitty]

I know it's there and enjoy looking at it from time to time, but I don't go out of my way to fill it in.