Tree Geocache

How Hard is a 5 Terrain Geocache?

How hard should a 5 terrain geocache be? Should it be almost dangerous? Should it require gear?

By definition from Geocaching.com, a 5 terrain rating for a cache requires the use of specialized equipment such as climbing gear or a canoe.

Tree Geocache
It’s WAY up there. Yes. Geocaches are in trees too!

But what if a cache is very high in a tree and you can’t use specialized gear? The cache is so high that climbing gear would not be able to attach to anything. Yet the branches are getting so thin at that point they feel like they are going to snap off. Would that then constitute a rating of 4.5 instead of 5? As much as you would love to be able to use some climbing gear, there just isn’t anywhere to hook it. But the height has even the best of them trembling in their shoes.

When we place a cache and make it a 5 terrain rating, it is assumed that we need to have some sort of gear. When gear isn’t required but is very hard to retrieve, it then becomes a 4.5.

I have created 4.5 terrain caches in the past but possibly they should have been slightly lower. I keep doing my best to create more challenging caches but this is a block I think I have run into a few times. When rating caches of lower value I look at what the newbie cacher or muggle convert might find easy and somehow expect with their limited knowledge. This helps me to get geocache terrain ratings in the 2’s and 3’s. What I have found the hardest ratings to achieve though are the 4’s and 5’s.

So I ask you: If you are looking at a terrain rating of 4, 4.5 or 5, what would you expect to see?
Would an almost impossible cache to reach and not have the ability to use specialized gear be classified as a 5?

I would love to hear what you think in the comments below.