# How steep are slopes?



## Flick Montana (Jul 9, 2007)

It is a little brutal that there isn't a standard algorithm for taking the grade, terrain population (trees, rocks, etc), path of the run and other considerations and turn them into some kind of ranking out of an overall score.

Someone should come up with that.


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2009)

Flick Montana said:


> Someone should come up with that.


you should do it!

the reason things like this never get done is that people are always waiting for _someone_ else to do it 

alasdair


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## stoepstyle (Sep 15, 2008)

Hahah we would have to then make up a bunch of new trail markers for easier than green runs, for all the resorts in the midwest, or start introducing triple black diamonds ahah


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## Zee (Feb 21, 2008)

I was on the gondola at Kicking Horse with a guy saying he can do a double blacks because he did the one at Nakiska, then shit his pants at the top when he realized that Kicking Horse was a whole different animal...


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## stoepstyle (Sep 15, 2008)

Ahahahahahhaahah thats amazing


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## kri$han (Feb 24, 2007)

meh. Sure, a black diamond run at my local hill is nothing, but a black diamond trail in the West wasn't THAT much different than here in the East.

Places I'm comparing here would be Tremblant, Jay Peak and Holiday Valley, to what I found in Whistler (Blackcomb) and Park City, Powder Mountain and a few others in SLC I rode out west.

I guess the only real difficulty difference was that at a small hill in the east, a black run is much, much shorter. In the west, that black run is only really harder cuz it's longer.

Double blacks in the west are insane (almost willing to say "skiier only")


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## Suburban Blend (Feb 23, 2008)

A Jackson Hole Guide once answered this question like this:
If your standing vertical and you outstretch your arm and touch the slope; That's Steep. (45*)
If your standing vertical and your elbow is at your side and you can touch the slope; That's Really Fucking Steep. (65*)


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## stoepstyle (Sep 15, 2008)

kri$han said:


> Double blacks in the west are insane (almost willing to say "skiier only")


Nooo ahahah not skier only


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2009)

kri$han said:


> meh. Sure, a black diamond run at my local hill is nothing, but a black diamond trail in the West wasn't THAT much different than here in the East.
> 
> Places I'm comparing here would be Tremblant, Jay Peak and Holiday Valley, to what I found in Whistler (Blackcomb) and Park City, Powder Mountain and a few others in SLC I rode out west.
> 
> ...


try a Black Diamond in Jackson Hole. that place scares the daylights out of me, and i'm comfortable running Double Blacks in resorts all over California, like Tahoe and Mammoth, and Mammoth is pretty huge in my book.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

stoepstyle said:


> Nooo ahahah not skier only


Yeah, not even close to skier only.


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## roremc (Oct 25, 2009)

The resorts overall mixture of terrain has a bit to do with it as well. 
Sunshine which is not super steep will overate their runs to get the black percentage up while kicking horse will grade some of their runs as blue to get their intermediate/beginner numbers up. 
Bowl over and Show off at kicking horse would be black at just about any other resort. I think they do it so people will be be scared off by a hill that is 60% black or d black. 
In Europe they have red runs as well which i think are between green and blue?


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2009)

i find, generally speaking, people are way too focused on those ratings (over, for example, technique). i overhear "_i can get down a black diamond_". a sack of potatoes on a sled can get down a black diamond...

alasdair


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## stoepstyle (Sep 15, 2008)

alasdairm said:


> i find, generally speaking, people are way too focused on those ratings (over, for example, technique). i overhear "_i can get down a black diamond_". a sack of potatoes on a sled can get down a black diamond...
> 
> alasdair


I can go down on a black diamond :laugh:

bow chicka bow wow


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## Kingscare (Aug 13, 2009)

If someone came up with a "universal formula" for attributing slope difficulty, a lot of resorts would lose their blacks and blues.

The main reason I turn down runs is lack of coverage...which I guess you could qualify as part of the difficulty, but IMO a single run is not worth getting a rock scar under my board.

Then you have runs like corbet's at Jackson hole which...I just couldn't mount the courage to do, although everyone around it couldn't either.

Whistler had a few crazy couloirs as well that I didn't venture up to.


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

it's only steep if glen plake refuses to ski it


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## Suburban Blend (Feb 23, 2008)

legallyillegal said:


> it's only steep if glen plake refuses to ski it


Last season he came to our bar and showed some films where he mountain goat-ted around cheese grater lines in France. He was talking down on "Heli Skiers" in Valdez. As if... that's not steep enough for his extreme radness. His quote was, "You can fall in AK, but you can't fall where he was in France"

I say F-that to cheese grater lines. No fall zones... meeehhh I say find some pow and let er' run!


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Also have to factor in weather and season conditions...whiteout 10ft vis...flatlight/fog...pow vs glazed concrete...and early season with 36" base is different than mid/late with 100"+ base


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2009)

wrathfuldeity said:


> Also have to factor in weather and season conditions...whiteout 10ft vis...flatlight/fog...pow vs glazed concrete...and early season with 36" base is different than mid/late with 100"+ base


it's sad that 36" here in SoCal is considered mid season


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## Phenix_Rider (Dec 24, 2008)

kyouness said:


> it's sad that 36" here in SoCal is considered mid season


100"? 100"?? Some places get 100" snowfall?!? I don't think any slope I've seen could manage 100" if they blew snow every day from November to March. :thumbsdown:


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

Phenix_Rider said:


> 100"? 100"?? Some places get 100" snowfall?!? I don't think any slope I've seen could manage 100" if they blew snow every day from November to March. :thumbsdown:


aaah no there....that would be 600-1000" of snow fall and 100-200" base...it does happen and without machine blower/maker thangies...pure mother nature, dude....and I'm not telling where!


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2009)

Phenix_Rider said:


> 100"? 100"?? Some places get 100" snowfall?!? I don't think any slope I've seen could manage 100" if they blew snow every day from November to March. :thumbsdown:


some places average 300+ inches. makes me sad, really.


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2009)

Phenix_Rider said:


> 100"? 100"?? Some places get 100" snowfall?!? I don't think any slope I've seen could manage 100" if they blew snow every day from November to March. :thumbsdown:


snowshoe west va gets 200 inches of snowfall. or atleast they did last year.......that doesn't mean their base is gonna be anywhere near that much. Lots of places get more snow than that


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## stoepstyle (Sep 15, 2008)

kyouness said:


> it's sad that 36" here in SoCal is considered mid season


Thats because your practically in the middle of a fucking desert


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

Freakin' out on 100"? Most Colorado resorts average 300-400" a year. Wolf Creek and Silverton get close to 500". Little Cottonwood Canyon in Utah averages 600" a year. The PNW has the record. Something like 80 ft of snow at Baker in a season. Well over 1,000" for the year. 

Really though, 100" is a fantastic storm, but for a season, no thanks...


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## Flick Montana (Jul 9, 2007)

alasdairm said:


> you should do it!
> 
> the reason things like this never get done is that people are always waiting for _someone_ else to do it
> 
> alasdair


You're right. I'm going to come up with a QB rating for resort hills. :thumbsup:


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2009)

killclimbz said:


> Freakin' out on 100"? Most Colorado resorts average 300-400" a year. Wolf Creek and Silverton get close to 500". Little Cottonwood Canyon in Utah averages 600" a year. The PNW has the record. Something like 80 ft of snow at Baker in a season. Well over 1,000" for the year.
> 
> Really though, 100" is a fantastic storm, but for a season, no thanks...


Lulz, BC get some epic snow too. I think every resort in BC has 100 + base already :laugh:


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2009)

stoepstyle said:


> Thats because your practically in the middle of a fucking desert


Arizona's even further in the desert and they get more snow than we do!


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