Ski Trail Ratings

With all my friends home for the holiday, my Facebook news feed was riddled with statuses bragging about the snowfall in my hometown and the amazing ski days that ensued. Jerks. Needless to say, skiing has been on my mind and has inspired this week's symbol: ski trail ratings.

The above are the basic ski trail symbols that are used in the US and Australia/New Zealand. They're created to give tourists and developing skiers guidance as to the safest and most ability appropriate way down the mountain.

In Europe and Asia, similar colors are used but shapes and rarely used. Always, easy is represented by green. I think this is because green is most commonly known as a "cool" color. I think the same goes for blue. As for the shape, I think a circle was used because it has no harsh angles or corners and is just smooth. I think black diamonds represent more challenging trails because diamonds are a lesser-used shape and black is the least friendly of the colors.

These symbols become erroneous to locals after some time, but they undoubtedly keep beginner and intermediate skiers safe.