What difficulty rating means on different activities?
What kind is moderate hiking trail? Is moderate mountain biking trail same as in hiking? Get to know the difficulty ratings in Ylläs
On maps difficulty ratings are often shown with color:
- Very easy/access/road: Green
- Easy: Blue
- Moderate: Red
- Demanding: Black
Hiking difficulty ratings
Easy: Flat or gently rolling terrain, firm, even surface and duckboards where necessary. Clearly signed and marked on the terrain.
Moderate: Some differences in elevation and challenging sections. Clearly signed and marked on the terrain.
Demanding: There are steep and challenging sections on the route, and you may be required to walk over wetlands, and to ford streams. The route may be poorly marked. You may need strong orienteering skills.
Source: Reila-project, 2018
Mountain biking difficulty ratings
Mountain biking trails are rated when going downhill.
Easy: Wide trail or track, large roots or rocks to go around, wide bridges. Mostly firm surface and few changes in elevation. The route can be handled with basic biking skills.
Moderate: Clearly defined trail or track. There may be duckboards, soft sections, long shallow and short steep descents on the route. Biking requires constant alertness and basic mountain biking skills.
Demanding: Trail is often narrow or challenging. There may be a lot of roots, loose rock, steep hills, soft sections and duckboards in poor condition. Biking requires good mountain bike skills.
Very demanding: There may be extremely steep hills and curves, jumps, challenging obstacles and sections requiring you to carry the bike. Biking requires exceptionally good mountain bike skills.
Source: Reila-project, 2018
Cross-country skiing difficulty ratings
Easy: Flat or gently rolling terrain and low-grade hills. Gentle, predictable curves. An easy trail may be long.
Moderate: The trail may have long climbs and descents as well as fast curves. Skiers must be able to brake on hills and have good ski control.
Demanding: There are steep hills and curves on the trail. The route may pass over fells and the trail can be easily covered by wind drift snow. Skiers must have excellent ski control and balance.
Source: Reila-project, 2018
Winter trail aka winter biking difficulty ratings
Weather and snow condition affects snowshoeing difficulty so much that it does not help to have the difficulty ratings for those. On soft snow you will go much slower, while if the route is hard going can be fast and easy.
Snowshoeing trail difficulty ratings
Sama as with winter biking: Weather and snow condition affects snowshoeing difficulty so much that it does not help to have the difficulty ratings for those. On soft snow you will go much slower, while if the route is hard going can be fast and easy.
There may be steep hills.
Snowmobile trail difficulty ratings
Steep hills are marked with warnings, such places are for example going to Yllästunturi Fell and Kuertunturi Fell.