Assessing the Mountain

Part of preparation needed in mountain climbing is assessing the mountain. As we never underestimate mountain, we should be informed of what are the obstacles, the challenges, the trails and difficulty that we should expect in the forth coming climb, thus gathering data is required.

I adopted the difficulty scale system of the Pinoymountaineer in this blog, the GRADE 9 SYSTEM Although, MAJOR/MINOR CLIMB CLASSIFICATION has been used by local mountaineers, I still added the system to have exact distinctions. The grade 9 system is RELATIVE scale which compares a mountain to another. This system considers the length of hike, preparations required, the extremes of environment and even the travel time from the nearest major city of the place(i.e. Manila, Baguio, Davao, Cebu). For every particular trail, there is a different classification despite they are in the same mountain. Although mountains are subject to re-evaluation since mountain changes, following can be used as criteria of classifying each:

1/9-VERY EASY Treks less than 30 minutes with trail class 1
2/9-EASY Single trail lasting less than 2 hours in length
3/9-MILD Trail lasting 2-5 hours but with exceeding class 2 OR not exceeding 2 hours with class 3
4/9-AVERAGE Trail requiring 2-5 hours with class 3 or higher OR 5-9 hours with class 2 or lower
5/9-MODERATE Trail lasting 5-9 hours with class 3 OR long treks with class 2 or lower
6/9-CHALLENGING Mountains that falls for 5/9 but with specific circumstances not accounted for trail class
7/9-DIFFICULT Trek lasting 5-9 hours with class 4 or higher OR trek requiring 3 or more days
8/9-STRENOUS Trek requiring more than 3 days average with varied, potentially hazardous environments or class 5-6 for 2 hours
9/9 trek lasting 8 hours or long treks requiring 4 days average with class 5-6 OR less than 3 days but exploratory in nature and summitability non-assured.

*The PULAG factors add+1 to the difficulty to the trek:
P Precipitation >50% of trek time
U Unestablished trail/flooded trails requiring water crossing
L Low temperature <> 35 degrees C
A Animals or wildlife that interfere with trek (i.e limatiks)
G Gusts of wind reaching >50kph

TRAIL CLASS. It is an internationally-recognizbale, ABSOLUTE scale:

1 Walking (easy stroll)
2 Hiking along a path/rugged terain
3 Scrambling (using hands for balance)
4 climbing easy cliffs but with enough drop-off 9beginners should be roped)
5 Using free hands as climbing method
6 very difficult and need to use artificial method