Welcome to Dartmoor Geocaching › Forums › General Geocaching Topics › Arbitrary Terrain Ratings?
- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 8 months ago by
dartymoor.
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January 10, 2012 at 4:00 pm #534
Dartmoor Dave
KeymasterI notice that we have a new challenge cache “Full House”. This is a great idea unless it attracts caches to be placed with inflated terrain ratings, just so they get visited. This is a particular sore point with me and I try to make a note in my log if I think the rating is wildly wrong (either up or down). I think the cache that is most guilty in this respect is ‘Take Moor Care’ #2 which has a terrain rating of 4.5 and not surprisingly is right near the top of my Popular Caches list. I was FTF on this cache and my GPS track recorded a total time of 12 mins (there, find & back), 513 feet walked and I found it at night in the dark! It has a rating of 2.5/4.5! Surely this should be no more than 1.5/2 or at the most 2/2.5? Please reply with your views on this subject.
January 10, 2012 at 4:40 pm #537Harry the furry squid
ParticipantWill bear “Full House” in mind as I already qualify for it. ::o)
And yes, there are some odd difficulty/terrain scores around . . . I do sometimes wonder whether there’s an element of “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, so it must be T5” going on, or whether people are thinking “People might get hurt trying, I’d better up the T rating as a warning”.
Trouble is, if you do that, you end up running out of space at the top of the scale for caches that are harder still to get to (eg need climbing kit, a boat or both).
And that’s just for terrain, which is (imho) far easier than difficulty to get right-ish.
(As regards challenge caches prompting over-inflated terrain scores, my experience in trying to complete the grid was that it wasn’t the T5’s in themselves that were the problem, more the just plain rare DT combinations. )
Don’t think I’ve done Take Moor Care 2, so can’t comment.
January 11, 2012 at 7:16 am #567dartymoor
ParticipantOf course, doing it in the dark might mean you just didn’t notice the 200′ drop either side….
But yeah, that cache was easy. No more than a 2. Just a few big rocks. I did it as an extra while my missis sat in the car and dried her socks after doing the charity walk nearby. Less than ten minutes away from the car. I must admit I don’t look at the ratings at all most of the time.
BY the way, hello Harry. I was following your signature around West Dart on saturday!
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This reply was modified 12 years, 8 months ago by
dartymoor.
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