Cache difficulty/terrain ratings

[Philipp]

I can't see how a difficulty 1/terrain 5 cache could exist as terrain 5 immediately makes it tricky.

A big bright orange box on a 5m pole / tree / ...

[Laighside Legends]

What does difficulty actually refer to...
How hard the puzzle is to solve?
How hard it is to get to GZ?
How hard it is to find once your at GZ?
How hard it is to retrieve? (without anyone noticing)

[caughtatwork]

Yes
No
Yes
Yes

[Laighside Legends]

Does that mean if I place a large traditional at ground level, at the end of a trail that you have to walk along for a week (with a tent and supplies) and you had to drive for three days without seeing another vehicle just to get to the start of the walk...
Is that a difficulty 1?

[caughtatwork]

Yes.
Difficulty is how hard it is to find.
Terrain is how hard it is to get there.

[Philipp]

Ratings for Difficulty and Terrain

Did somebody already post this link? Sorry if I missed that ....

[noikmeister]

Might be simpler if the half ratings weren't there at all but that's not going to happen.
How many 4.5/4.5 caches would there be? You could get a lot of visitors (relatively speaking) to your cache by having a weird combination. I can't see how a difficulty 1/terrain 5 cache could exist as terrain 5 immediately makes it tricky. Or is it for caches that you can see but can't get to without ropes etc?

There are four 4.5 x 4.5 caches in the ACT and I have done 2 of them. I think 4.5 and 1.5 are perhaps the most useful of the half star rating. I see the 4.5 as "Could it be harder?" If yes, then 4.5.... Obviously there is always something harder, but that is how I think of it.

[Zytheran]

Might be simpler if the half ratings weren't there at all but that's not going to happen.
How many 4.5/4.5 caches would there be? You could get a lot of visitors (relatively speaking) to your cache by having a weird combination. I can't see how a difficulty 1/terrain 5 cache could exist as terrain 5 immediately makes it tricky. Or is it for caches that you can see but can't get to without ropes etc?

Removing the 4.5 terrain rating wouldn't be a good idea. The gap between 4 and 5 would be too great. On my rating scale 4 to 5 is the difference between an injury you can walk away from with minor sprains and death. There really needs to be that 4.5 in the middle.
1/5 is exactly that, you know exactly what it is, where it is and can most likely see it. It's just that you need equipment to get to it.

[Yurt]

I guess there's a system but it's up to the author of the description to decide. It would explain why there's a 5/2 cache that everyone says is dead easy ('W' if anyone is wondering) and there was a link to a 5/5 archived cache in a post today which involved some serious abseiling but was a simple find apparently so probably should have been 1.5 or 2.

Anyway this is a good place to discuss it.

I will really have to think hard about this when (if) I get it together for the 5/5 or 4.5/4.5 I'm planning.

[Browngang]

I have found one a little while ago that was a 5/5. But, I could see it in plain view 15 meters down the cliff face perched on a rock, before I made the descent. We all left thinking that it was way over rated in difficulty and should have been a 1/5, as it wasn't really even hidden. http://coord.info/GCX204

[ving]

I have found one a little while ago that was a 5/5. But, I could see it in plain view 15 meters down the cliff face perched on a rock, before I made the descent. We all left thinking that it was way over rated in difficulty and should have been a 1/5, as it wasn't really even hidden. http://coord.info/GCX204

agreed. if its withing plain sight a 1 is more appropriate

[Philipp]

It comes back to this one:

... and if you stick to clarjar D1 to D4.5 / T5 shouldn't exist at all. Don't break your head over this. It's not worth it.