Rating system for bushwhacks ?

[Tom_Murphy]

A recent TR called Big Bickford a Class 1 bushwhack. I had never seen that term used before for a BW.

I am a novice at bushwhacking and so only have a few points of reference for difficulty. Also, among the VFTT posters with obvious BW experience, there seems to be a disposition towards understating the difficulty.

So what adjectives would you use to described increasing difficulty.

something like this?

herd path
mostly open
scrappy
swimming
walking on matchsticks

thanks

 

[SpencerVT]

As far as I know, there is no universally accepted formal rating system for Bushwhacks. I have read in various places about an informal scale of 1-5. (1 easiest, up to 5 hardest)
A Class 1, for example, would be open woods, hardly anything to push out of the way, mild terrain, not much different than a maintained trail.
A Class 5 would be as hard as it gets - nearly impossible and impenetrable. Thick conifers where you can only see several feet around you, if that, and can't see your hiking partner or your feet because the woods are so dense. Class 5 is when it takes a herculean effort just to advance one foot and you are going at a crawling pace of a quarter mile an hour or so. Steep terrain, ledges, blowdown swamp, briars, dense conifers, etc.... all can create a Class 5. I have only ever encountered Class 5 conditions a couple times, and never for a long stretch of distance. The Sawtooths in the Adirondacks is a notorious Class 5 area. The whack I did up to Kancamagus was close to a class 5 in places. If you read my trip report when I climbed to the summit of Eagle Cliff in January, that was most certainly a class 5. Hardest bushwhack I've ever done. I had to crawl in a lot of places beneath the thick branches. Snow kept pummeling down on me with even the slightest branch disturbance. It was as close to impossible as I've encountered and the most solidly Class 5 bushwhack I've ever done - but only because of the density combined with the significant snow on the ground and in the conifer branches and I took a route that was too steep.

The bushwhack from Halcott to North Halcott on the ridge in the Catskills in the summer borders on Class 5. Briars of apocalyptic proportions. If you're not well covered, you will bleed badly!

 

[iAmKrzys]

Also, among the VFTT posters with obvious BW experience, there seems to be a disposition towards understating the difficulty.

I guess no one here wants to be perceived as a weakling!

 

[Stan]

Most of the "trailess" peaks on the NE 100 have paths formed by either years of hikers or shared in part with wildlife. I can't think of any as impenetrable, such as krumholz, but get away from the popular peaks and, though lower in elevation, there can be denser growth making progress slow and less casual. I don't think the experienced understate the difficulty; experience leads to skill in finding the easier route, be it a path, drainage or luck. Miss that route by a few feet and a a "1" can be a "5" so I don't think a rating system is much use except for vicariously enjoying someone else's trek. Besides, I suspect most bushwhackers revel in both the metaphoric and literal aspect of going off the beaten path and achieving the difficult lends a joy that obscures the physical challenge.

 

[peakbagger]

I think the recent popularity and availability of GPS tracks for "popular" bushwhacks has really downgraded difficulty. In general pre GPS a big part of the difficulty was land navigation when there was no view. I remember past bushwhacks in Northern NH where we basically got out of the car hiked through hardwoods and then went under the cover of spruce and fir for 4 or 5 hours. Unless there was unusual topography, it was difficult to really know where one was. The Hitchcocks are a good example and many of the NH100 highest in Nash Stream definitely qualify. Gene Daniell was somewhat infamous on leading AMC group hikes on occasion that would end up miles from the cars or on the wrong side of the mountain. I expect with GPS that is no longer an issue.

Luckily the terrain is ever changing and what once might have been an easy bushwhack can be changed with natural events like ice storms and blowdown.

 

[Mike]

I believe Gene Daniell once mentioned that the degree of difficulty of a bushwhack is determined by counting the number of pine needle removed from your belly button. Gene has a great sense of humor.

 

[AMF]

A somewhat tongue in cheek rating sytem from the PNW:
http://www.alpenglow.org/themes/subalpine/brush-ratings.html

 

[jniehof]

I believe Gene Daniell once mentioned that the degree of difficulty of a bushwhack is determined by counting the number of pine needle removed from your belly button.

That's...not the place I count from.

 

[peakbagger]

Gene has a great sense of humor His humorous commentary's in the summit logs were always a nice chuckle after a long bushwhack.

 

[nartreb]

I've always liked this system:

http://www.alpenglow.org/themes/subalpine/brush-ratings.html

Simple and clear. Doesn't explicitly mention poison ivy or giant hogweed, but we can consider them equivalent to something extremely thorny.

 

[John H Swanson]

I believe Gene Daniell once mentioned that the degree of difficulty of a bushwhack is determined by counting the number of pine needle removed from your belly button. Gene has a great sense of humor.

I prefer to count the number of showers a pine needle can withstand on your body. I don't know how new pine needles can appear in the bottom of the shower 3 shower after the hike. Where do they hide?

 

[Tom Rankin]

North Halcott! Ah yes! There's a peak I have no desire to return to! LOL

The Catskills have some class 4 whacks, but as has been mentioned, usually not for very long, and sometimes there are other ways that are easier. Heck, sometimes just shuffling 50 feet left or right can make a huge difference!

The 1-5 scale used in the NE is sometimes attributed to John Swanson, an infrequent poster here. Having done all of the NE 770, he is qualified to create his own scale!

 

[Sherby]

North Halcott! Ah yes! There's a peak I have no desire to return to! LOL

Is North Halcott the same as Sleeping Lion ? We were there last week, it was a walk in the park, well a walk with a 1700' ascent .

Our High Falls peak -> Mongaup traverse would have also been a lot more difficult later in the season I guess.

All my Catkills bushwack experience is from easter to memorial day, I don't plan to try anything else, except winter months .

 

[SpencerVT]

Yes, Sleeping Lion and North Halcott are the same peak. However, the hellish nightmare of briars is if you take the ridge from Halcott to North Halcott. If you can find worse briars, I'll mail you $100! The whack straight up to North Halcott (Sleeping Lion) from the road isn't as bad, - rather, it's the ridge traverse during the summer that looks like someone deliberately planted an amazon of briars for the set of a movie about a biblical plague.

 

[SpencerVT]

ps - Sherby, did you see the random number 12 carved into the tree at the summit of North Halcott?

 

[Sherby]

Nope , it was the 4th flat, and mostly featureless peak of the day, so we didn't linger on.

 

[Sherby]

On some peak I won't name because of private property issues, the woods were so open that we buttslided on the fallen leaves. That's probably a 0 on the scale !

 

[SpencerVT]

I really enjoyed Little Rocky in terms of interesting features and diversity of the CAT67, if you haven't climbed it yet.

 

[John H Swanson]

Yes, Sleeping Lion and North Halcott are the same peak. However, the hellish nightmare of briars is if you take the ridge from Halcott to North Halcott. If you can find worse briars, I'll mail you $100! The whack straight up to North Halcott (Sleeping Lion) from the road isn't as bad, - rather, it's the ridge traverse during the summer that looks like someone deliberately planted an amazon of briars for the set of a movie about a biblical plague.

Who that might be worth checking my records. I seem to recall some other peaks that were really quite bad with briers.