Go Score fuses seven independent condition dimensions into one number — 0 to 100 — so you can answer the first question of any trip: Is it worth going?
Go Score is a daily trail conditions fusion score — a single number from 0 to 100 that tells you how favorable the current conditions are for hiking, backpacking, or peak-bagging on a specific trail. It is not a safety rating, a difficulty grade, or a prediction of your experience. It is a conditions readout, nothing more.
Think of it like a weather forecast for the trail: it tells you what the environment is doing right now, translated into a simple scale. On a clear day with good trail conditions, a popular trailhead scores in the high 70s or 80s. After a storm, during wildfire season, or when an avalanche warning is in effect, the same trail can drop to 20 or lower — or to 0 if a hard stop is triggered.
Go Score covers 300+ trails across all 8 Mountain West states. Colorado has the deepest coverage (58 fourteeners plus popular 13ers and trailheads). Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona are all in the system. The scoring inputs are consistent across states; the data sources and regional hazard rules vary by state.
Go Score does not account for your personal fitness, navigation ability, time available, group size, or gear readiness. It does not replace trip planning, emergency communication, or Leave No Trace ethics. It does not predict snow stability or river crossing safety — those require human judgment and, in some cases, professional avalanche or river safety training.
Go Score evaluates seven independent dimensions of trail conditions. No weights are published — not because the algorithm is secret, but because context matters more than the number. A 15-point weather penalty means something different in January than in July.
| # | Input | What it evaluates |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weather Forecast Open-Meteo · NWS grid points | Temperature range, precipitation probability, wind speed, visibility, and storm timing for the trailhead elevation. Elevation bands (trailhead, treeline, summit) are assessed independently. Open-Meteo provides hourly resolution; NWS WFO grid data gives authoritative point-source forecasts for each trail. |
| 2 | Avalanche Danger CAIC · GNFAC · WCMAC · FAC | Current avalanche danger level for the trail's CAIC/GNFAC/WCMAC zone. Colorado uses CAIC zone forecasts; Montana uses GNFAC (Glacier area) and WCMAC (West Central). Danger levels 1–5 map directly to score impact. Danger 3 (Considerable) reduces the score; Danger 4–5 triggers a hard stop. |
| 3 | Trail Community Reports PeakScout trail report submissions | User-submitted trail condition reports from the past 7 days. Reports include snow depth, mud level, stream crossing status, and ice conditions. Reports older than 72 hours decay in influence. Reports below treeline (trailhead to 10,500 ft) and above treeline are assessed separately. Auto-hidden reports (3+ flags) are excluded. |
| 4 | Road Access Status CDOT · USFS ArcGIS · BLM · NPS | Current status of the access road to the trailhead, sourced from CDOT for Colorado, USFS ArcGIS for national forest roads, BLM, NPS, and MT DNRC for Montana. An officially closed road sets a hard stop (score = 0). A snow-closure advisory reduces the score based on seasonal context. |
| 5 | Wildlife & Seasonal Closures USFS · NPS · BLM · ArcGIS | Active wildlife habitat closures (bighorn sheep lambing, raptor nesting, grizzly core areas in MT/WY/ID), seasonal closures (mud season, avalanche terrain), and fire restrictions that affect the trail or surrounding area. A verified official seasonal closure triggers a hard stop. |
| 6 | Wildfire Smoke Quality AirNow EPA · Open-Meteo AQI fallback | Current air quality index (AQI) at the trail location, sourced from AirNow EPA as primary (requires API key) with Open-Meteo as fallback. Elevation factor: trails above 8,000 ft receive a +10% penalty amplification per 1,000 ft above that threshold. AQI above 150 at elevation triggers a hard stop. AQI above 100 reduces the score proportionally. Source attribution: "Wildfire smoke sourced from AirNow/EPA." |
| 7 | Crowding & Parking Pressure Day-of-week · Trail popularity tier · US federal holidays | A signed modifier (−8 to +3 pts) reflecting expected trailhead congestion. High-traffic trails on holiday weekends (Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas) receive the steepest penalty. Standard weekend visits to popular trails carry a moderate penalty — trailhead parking fills by 8am and the experience degrades accordingly. Midweek visits to lower-traffic trails earn a small bonus. This signal captures a real-world trip outcome factor: a trail with perfect weather but an overflowing parking lot at 7am is not a "Go" in the same way as an uncrowded midweek visit. |
Use this guide to translate the score into a practical decision frame. Remember: the score describes conditions, not your plan. A trail at 65 might be a perfect hike — or it might be the wrong trail for today's weather window.
Hard stops are conditions so hazardous that no other favorable signal can compensate. When a hard stop is active, the Go Score reads 0 and displays "Don't Go" with the specific reason. These are not advisory — they reflect verified official closures or dangerous environment states.
When a hard stop is triggered, the trail card shows the reason in red type beneath the score. The trail remains in the system — checking back after conditions change will show an updated score. Hard stops are cleared automatically when the underlying data (road closure lifted, fire contained, avy danger reduced) is reflected in our data sources.
Transparency about the score's limitations is part of how we build trust. Here is what Go Score does and does not account for.