Grades of Difficulty

Difficulty rests on many different issues. A trip can be short but difficult, i.e. it involves bush bashing and lots of hill climbing, or longer and easier, if it has flat terrain and wide, well maintained tracks. The aspects that can make a trip easier or harder aren’t hard and fast definitions, they are general indicators.

Here are some general indicators of elements that can affect the difficulty of a trip:

Womble: Under two hours.

Easy: Short walk, 2-4 hours. Flat terrain. Wide tracks. Day walks(some).

Medium: Medium length tramps, 4-7 hours, tramping tracks, hill climbing, stream crossing, multi day trips, wind fall on tracks, crossing swamps.

Hard: Long tramps, tramping routes with just markers, multi-day trips, 7+ hours, bush bashing, stream bashing, alpine conditions, routes requiring navigation skills and a compass, tops travel, river crossing, a lot of hill climbing (areas like the Ruahines and Tararuas are good examples of this) sleeping in Bivvys.

Extreme: Technical mountaineering, sleeping in snow caves, 11+ hour days, bush bashing in ‘remote experience zones’.

Note: Trips don’t have to be ‘hard’ to be good though. ‘Easy’ trips can be great as well!!

Alpine Grading System

Standard grading system for alpine routes in normal conditions:

  1. Scramble. Use of rope generally only for glacier travel.
  2. Steeper trickier sections may need a rope.
  3. Longer steeper sections generally. Use of technical equipment necessary. Ice climbs may require two tools.
  4. Technical climbing. Knowledge of how to place ice and rock gear quickly and efficiently a must. Involves a long day.
  5. Sustained technical climbing. May have vertical sections on ice.
  6. Multiple crux sections. Vertical ice may not have adequate protection. Good mental attitude and solid technique necessary. May require a bivvy on route and be a long way from civilisation.