AAC Cautions About Hiking Apps

[Hiker Mike]

Good point, but I probably like the ego massage when someone says a route that I can do is "hard". On 14ers.com I struggle with the routes that most here call "easy". The YDS class system is confusing to me because the definitions change depending on who you ask or what source you read. For example, it says "hiking on trail" for Class 1 here --> https://www.14ers.com/difficultyratings.php . What's constitutes a trail ? Is hiking limited to walking here ? Why isn't Long's class 1 by this definition ? Isn't there a trail all the way up ? The definitions are different in my hard copy of Freedom of the Hills. That is a whole different thread.

Who was it that said "All 14ers are hard, some are just harder than others."

Longs is basically a Class 1 trail all the the way to the Keyhole. From the Keyhole to the summit, it is Class 3. With the exception of the Narrows.

Mike

[colingoodman]

I think that most people assume quite reasonably that any route that's published on AllTrails is actually a trail, at least for the most part, not an unmarked mountaineering route or a sustained 4th- or 5th-class climb up steep rock. But AllTrails doesn't seem to provide any guidance as to what type of route belongs on their site, or for flagging routes that are technical rock climbs and not hiking trails.

As an extension of the above, here's the "curated" AllTrails page for the Tour de Abyss route on Bierstadt/Bluesky: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... o-sawtooth
The description states "Dogs are welcome, but must be on a leash."

And another "curated" route up Bierstadt listed: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... trail-loop
With seemingly confused reviews like "Out of 100+ hikes in Colorado, this is my least favorite. Felt like most of the time I spent bouldering & rock climbing. Most of the trail is poorly marked." and "USE THE GUANALA PASS DO NOT USE ALLTRAILS DIRECTIONS"

The app is made for casual users, and it's these casual users who are getting in trouble.

I agree with Justin here, I don't think AllTrails does a great job communicating to its users. The app is designed to be a means of trail discovery for the casual user and including random and poorly marked class 3 routes seems like it will inevitably confuse people who don't know what they're doing. Potentially annoying at best, potentially dangerous at worst, a failure of the app regardless.

That would be an enormous leap to assume that means there is a maintained trail. The "trail" is created by the GPX track. I think we need to define what a trail is and isn't. Thanks.

I've always understood "trail" to mean an obvious, marked, and often maintained trail, whereas a "route" is a way to ascend a peak whether there's a trail or not. The latter obviously requires some sense of navigation or a GPX track, the former does not.