RMNP Hiking Difficulty Index

The Difficulty Index is a rating of the approximate difficulty for hikes in RMNP.  The higher the number, the more difficult the hike.  A hike with a rating of 10 will be roughly twice as difficult as a hike with a rating of 5 for example.  The rating is for the entire hike, from the trailhead to the featured destination and back to the original trailhead, or to a second trailhead if a one way hike.

How difficult a hike is depends on many factors; distance, altitude, altitude gain, terrain, weather, hikers age and physical conditioning etc.  These ratings are only a rough guide to relative difficulty with ideal conditions.  Each hiker needs to try one of these hikes to get an idea of what rating is easy or moderate or difficult for them.

13.0 Black Lake
17.6 Bluebird Lake
14.3 Chasm Lake
3.7 The Crater
9.2 Deer Mountain
3.2 Dream Lake
6.1 Emerald Lake
10.9 Estes Cone (Thanks AliceH)
4.0 Eugenia Mine (Thanks AliceH)
14.6 Flattop Mountain
6.4 Gem Lake
16.6 Hallett Peak
21.8 Mt Lady Washington
5.8 Lily Mountain
7.7 The Loch
26.5 Longs Peak
6.9 Mills Lake
1.5 Nymph Lake
14.0 Odessa Loop (Fern Lake to Bear Lake TH)
12.7 Odessa Loop (Bear Lake to Fern Lake TH)
8.0 Ouzel Falls (Thanks AliceH)
13.5 Ouzel Lake
13.3 Sky Pond
16.2 Solitude Lake
18.5 Thunder Lake
11.5 Timberline Falls
14 Twin Sisters
4.9 Ute Trail (Alpine Visitors Center to Milner Pass)
5.9 Ute Trail (Milner Pass to Alpine Visitors Center)

The Difficulty Index formulas are:

(One way hike) Difficulty Index = (C * 0.0015) + (D * 0.0005) + M
(Two way hike) Difficulty Index = ((C + D) * 0.001 + M) * 2

Where:
C = Climbing elevation in feet (one way)
D = Descending elevation in feet (one way)
M = Distance in miles (one way)

This is a variation on a formula that I found in the Rocky Mountain National Park Dayhiker's Guide.  The original formula only considered elevation gain as the difference between the trailhead elevation and the destination elevation.  I tried to improve on that because we all know that trails go both up and down on their way "up".

If you would like something added to the list, post your request here.

Tom