Reconsidering the basics of mountain trail categorisation: case study in Slovenia

Mountain trail categorisation remains an important piece of information for hikers when selecting a trail and preparing for a hike, despite new developments in trail difficulty assessment and trail recommendation systems and tools. National or regional trail categorisations should maintain a simple, mainly descriptive form to remain a useful guide for the majority of hikers. However, they are often still based on subjective expert assessments of trail difficulty. In this paper, we combine findings from our own empirical research and from the literature to support two arguments: available or obtainable geographical information and GIS -based methods can contribute to the objectivity of mountain trail categorisation, and improved categorisation contributes to increased hiking safety. An experimental GIS-based categorisation of mountain trails in two areas in Slovenia is conducted to support the above arguments. The comparison of the experimental categorisation with the existing official categorisation and the identification of potentially dangerous trail sections support perhaps the most important of the two arguments, namely the potential to improve hiking safety. However, it also stimulates further discussion on the establishment and implementation of an international standard-isation of trail categorisation.