Ski trail ratings are easy to take for granted. However, I still remember finishing my third day of ski lessons at Brighton when the instructor turned me loose to practice my new skills. For the first run, I picked a mellow green, Mary Back to Lower Mary. Next, I looked for blue runs because I knew I was ready for the challenge. With a quick review of the trail maps, I hopped lifts that offered approachable blues and greens, while avoiding lifts with few ways down for someone just graduating from pizza turns.
Imagine how difficult it would be to navigate a new mountain as a new skier without trail ratings! You’d have to ask around for suggestions on where to ski within your abilities. However, thanks to Walt Disney, that changed.
Whoa….what?! Yes, you read correctly, Walt Disney created the modern North American trail rating system.
Prior to our current system, trails were either unrated, or resorts used their own unstandardized systems. A more uniform system was adopted briefly in 1964, but it confused skiers with green squares indicating the “easiest” runs, yellow triangles for “more difficult,” blue circles for “most difficult,” and red diamonds for “extreme caution.”
In 1965, Walt Disney was in the process of developing a ski resort in the Mineral King area of Sequoia National Forest in California and had already started work on signage for the trails. He recognized that psychology plays a role in how well rating symbols communicate difficulty to skiers and decided to study various options.
According to skinghistory.org, “The company … tested skier’s reactions to different geometrical figures, concluding, for example, that a symbol for easy terrain should be a circle, perceived as soft; its color should be green, perceived as mellow. More difficult terrain would be indicated by a blue square, and most difficult by a black diamond.”
While the resort Disney envisioned never came to pass, the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) adopted the Disney system in 1968, and it is still in use today.
Ski Trail Ratings
Green Circle: Easier
Blue Square: More Difficult
Black Diamond: Most Difficult
Double-Black Diamond: Most Difficult; use extra caution
Orange Oval: Freestyle Terrain
Two important reminders:
First, all of the ratings are relative to the mountain, so a Blue run at Snowbird may not equal a Blue run at Powder Mountain. If you’re visiting a new mountain, warm up on trails easier than you typically ski. If you normally ski Blacks at your home mountain, warm up on a Green or Blue to feel things out.
Second, before riding a lift, make sure there are runs within your ability to get down.
Now that you know the history of how North American ski trail ratings came to be, you have a fun bit of trivia to share on the lift!
Happy skiing!
