On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 10:27 AM, Tod Fitch <[email protected]> wrote:
> In the areas I cross country ski at in the California mountains many > trails are used by both nordic skiers and snowshoers. Since I am ski > centric I've tended to tag them as piste:type=nordic. Could one simply tag > them as piste:type=nordic;snowshoe? A bit ugly and the difficulty is an > issue as the skill level required for snowshoeing a trail can be quite > different from skiing it. > This is a case where one type of use degrades the other. 'nordic;snowshoe' says both uses are allowed. But a nordic skier may in fact seek out that more rare breed 'nordic; showshow-prohibited', just as an equestrian may seek out fire roads on which mountain bikes are prohibited. Who wants to glide ski in someone else's snowshoe tracks? ---- Thus, I think that marking a snow trail by intended use may be the wrong approach. - It's a marked route where the markings are visible about the snow line (e.g. on trees or poles). Map that characteristic. This is the key physicall mappable quality of a snow trail. - It may have access restrictions (e.g. no snowmobiles). Map that. - It may have a certain width or slope. Map that. But listing all the types of devices that may be used on the snow, or rating the difficulty? That seems too fragile and too prone to interpretation and change over time. Are sleds allowed? Snow bikes? The yet-to-be-invented rolling insulated snow bubble? Map what's there -- the snow route markings -- and perhaps let the use conventions be documented elsewhere. Note that many snow routes follow a summer route or road exactly. But on occasion the snow markings deviate, perhaps taking a shortcut, or smoothing out a slope, compared to the summer route. Both cases should be considered.
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