RFC: hiking_technique key (or a better name!) to describe movement on paths by hikers

[erutan]

@osmuser63783

It’s unfortunate that the climbing page in the Wiki says that the YDS scale is to be tagged using climbing:grade:yds=*, if the YDS scale also covers walking and scrambling. But that’s from a proposal from 2008 and it has been barely used since.

My assumption is that it’s only for YDS => 5 and using the climbing tag for YDS 1-4 wouldn’t be appropriate. It’s been done here by people to indicate scrambling, but I feel like renderers are expecting climbing to be for technical climbing.

@osmuser63783

As a solution, instead of inventing scrambling:grade:yds=* for the scrambling values of the same scale, why not put everything into yds_scale? […]

Paths in the Alps can additionally get sac_scale especially if one wants to make the distinction between T4-T6. Paths in the Sierra Nevada can get yds_scale etc. No need to invent more complicated names

That was an option I proposed on the foot scale thread yesterday.

@erutan

Another option would be to just have top level yds_scale and bmc_scale keys etc to live alongside sac_scale and be used regionally as appropriate.

I don’t see any problem having yds/bmc/sac_scale exist alongside a foot_scale or even a climbing tag (as SAC overlaps into both along with YDS). If climbing:grade:* isn’t used much then that’d be a good reason to just simplify things by adding more high level scales. Renderers could then do some simple if/then logic to prioritize whatever one they wanted and then have fallbacks.