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Inconsistent piste
colour grading debate, do you see red? - what's
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The piste colour grading system
Green, blue or black? Does the lack of a standardised system for rating slopes across the globe make you see red…
There you are happily cruising down a blue when all of a sudden the pitch gets steeper – maybe to red run steepness, maybe to black – or maybe there’s a patch of monster moguls. You stand there petrified, or your early intermediate or timid friend does. In the end there’s no option but to head down.
The reason for this is that there are no rules or accepted standards about piste grading and that leads to all sorts of problems and confusion. For a start, different countries have different systems of colour grading. In Europe nearly all countries have only blue, red and black pistes, but France has green runs too. These are the easiest pistes whereas elsewhere blues are easiest. Someone who learns in Austria, for example, moves up from blue to red. But reds in France are two grades up from green - and most are substantially steeper than Austrian reds.
In North America, there aren’t any red runs. Their scale goes green, blue, single black diamond, double black diamond. Some resorts also triple black diamonds. In general, double and triple black diamonds are extremely steep, ungroomed runs that would be classed as off piste in Europe. You also find double blues or blue-black runs in some resorts. These are more or less equivalent to French reds. On the plus side North American run gradings are much more consistent than European.
Adding to the overall confusion is that resorts like to advertise a mixture of runs of differing difficulty in order to appeal to as many people as possible. So they tinker with their piste gradings accordingly. Val d’Isere, in France, has what is probably the most difficult green run in the world. Verte goes down to the valley at La Daille and, in addition to having steep patches, in places it is narrow and has an awkward sideways camber. By late afternoon there are usually moguls. In other resorts it would probably be a red. The boss of one of Val’s ski schools has been quoted “ It is graded green because the resort needs to be able to say that it has a green run to the valley”
St Anton in Austria grades the only piste back to town from the main Galzig mountain blue (equivalent to the French green). However as well as being horrendously crowded, it is often mogulled too. It should probably be a red at least.
In Italy, you often get the opposite problem. Italians like to feel mancho. That’s the only reason for most of their runs near the top of La Thuile being graded red – they are in fact as flat as many French greens. This type of over grading is common practice in the Italian resorts.
What is needed is a set of rules and standards drawn up and agreed by all the main wintersports countries. We need one common system for the colour coding of pistes, in Europe at least. It is nonsense for Austria, Switzerland and Italy to use a differing system from the French. We need these countries to agree which of piste should fit into each colour category – taking into account; average steepness, maximum steepness, and the width of the run. There are mountain planners that design runs and plan lifts for resorts using computer techniques that measure all the relevant data- so it’s not rocket science.
Consistency of piste grading would help to make holidays more enjoyable, both for the beginners and intermediates who currently find themselves shaking with fear on slopes beyond their comfort level, and for the more advanced who may be disappointed by a shortage of challenges.
Article courtesy Dave Watts at metrosnow.co.uk