June 11, 2026Provenance1 min read
What "unverified" means, and why we don't hide it
A route can be open for application before every detail on its page has been confirmed in the field. Here is how we handle that gap honestly.
Every route on this site carries a provenance status: unverified, in field review, or verified. This is not a legal disclaimer buried in a terms page — it is printed on the route itself, next to the content it describes.
"Unverified" means a route's itinerary and hazard notes have been assembled from published survey data, satellite imagery and operator or park-authority documentation, but our own field team has not yet walked the line and timed the numbers ourselves. "In field review" means a reconnaissance trip is scheduled or underway. "Verified" means our team has completed that trip and can name the source.
We publish routes at every stage of that process, rather than waiting for full verification, because waiting would mean either overstating our confidence in older data or refusing to open applications for genuinely well-documented terrain until we have the staff time to visit it ourselves. The alternative — publishing without saying which is which — is the one option we ruled out from the start.
If you are choosing between two routes, the provenance status is meant to be read alongside the price and the evacuation window, at the same size, with the same weight.