My favourite so far, thus another try at camera ready documentation:
Highway=Mountaineering
Mountaineering combines hiking and climbing into an activity, where the goal is to reach points of interest in mountainous regions, be that summits, or viewpoints on ridges and saddles. Typically, the terrain is neither welcoming to hiking without first becoming knowledgeable of both the route and the area, nor are the climbs so spectacular as to merit mapping them as a climbing route. Mountaineering calls for a diverse set of skills and can require extensive preparations. Mountaineering is exercised in leisure time by a number of people, it can grow into a sport in its own right even.
The basic on-the-ground feature that supports mountaineering is the route. It can be mapped with the tag “highway=mountaineering
”. A route is similar to a “highway=path”, but it is lacking in some ways. Most eminently, the trail is not continuously visible on the ground, especially when it passes over bare rock or blocky scree for example. Yet, people commonly manage to follow along, by looking at markers, cairns, spotting the continuation a bit further, and so on. It takes a bit of training. Second most eminently, in contrast to a “highway=path” a “highway=mountaineering” may comprise non-walkable sections, where using ones hands is required to get along.
Useful combinations are: sac_scale=*alpine*, trail_visibility=*, assisted_trail=*, trail_blazed=*, climbing:grade:uiaa=*
, and so on.
When attributing difficulties, the most demanding section is to be used for the whole of the trail. Mountaineering trails shall not get split, where the difficulty changes, but only at places, where there is a goal to be reached.
I came to Openstreetmap for the richness of data for hiking. I am very certain, the smartphone app, that I use, when on the way, will support this tag.
I’d really like to make the tag applicable too, when the goal taken is not a high altitude point of interest, but the route chosen requires mountaineering skills, e.g. to the mid-route hut through a gorge. Will ponder a formulation… any help welcome.