awesome / painful climbs in your area

[krthornton]

Laguna Beach, CA:

Temple Hills Drive
Park Avenue
Skyline Drive
Summit Drive
Alta Vista
Nyes Place

these are real brutes

[WanderingWheel]

Far, far too many within easy riding distance to list. Mt. Diablo will always be special to me, 10 miles and 3,000 ft of pure bliss. At the other end of the spectrum is the infamous Sierra Road, 3 miles and 1,800 ft.

[pelicaninflight]

Living in Miami... well, you know... the tallest hill is the South Dade Landfill. The highest point that you can ride is the Rickenbacker Causeway bridge. The ride there is more dangerous that difficult, because of the speeding cars. My brothers and I used to ride it 3 times on the same ride, to get a little extra effort in...

[54ny77]

yep i know every one of 'em, all too well...

as kids we'd all have cheapo sneakers and go down most of them on skateboards...ahh, youth....

forgot about pacific park, yep that's a good one. especially for hitting high speeds on the descent (when going towards crown valley).

this past summer i went up temple hills dr. in something like 19 min., and felt like i was gonna hurl at the top. then a buddy of mine made me feel great by telling me that he went up it in a tick under 12...after having done a long training ride followed by all 5 or 6 of those other climbs...while getting motorpaced on a scooter...

Ever try the Seven Sisters ride? It has other names, but those come later in the ride. From Aliso Viejo climb Highlands, Pacific Island Drive (from Alicia), Pacific Island Drive (from Crown Valley), Nyes Place / Balboa, Blue Bird, Thalia / Temple Hills, and Park.

[962]

The local favorites, "Cat 2" says strava

http://www.strava.com/segments/142219

http://www.strava.com/segments/226705

these are the only segments I could find on strava out of the myriad rides and climbs.

For my favorite I would have to pick the backside of Mt Hamilton, because of how far out there you are, the rugged terrain out in that mining country, that it is one of the higher mountains in the south Bay Area, and for the fun descent down the front (at least 7-8 miles downhill on a gentle grade). The climb is about 2600 ft in 6 miles (800 m in 10 kilometers). Nice switchbacks, scenery, etc.

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=109900

[Disturbed]

Pretty much road in VT going east west arcoss the Green Mountains.

Smugglers Notch, App Gap, Lincoln Gap, Brandon Gap, etc.

That's the reason no throughways go east west in VT. The closest being I 89 running SE to NW through the middle part of the state.

Profile from stage 3 of the Green Mt. Stage Race showing profile of two of those climbs.



The two east/west roads within the race loop are a couple like shown/seen on the race profile. Doing all four in one training ride.......Yeah, have at it.

[kgreene]

Unless you drive to the Hill Country, Austin doesn't have any long climbs, but it has an endless number of really steep climbs. On last year's Tour das Hugel (http://www.tourdashugel.com/) I got 13,500 feet of climbing over 112 miles. The nastiest was Beauford Drive. The avg grade is either 24% or 26% (can't remember) and the road is graded all the way up. As a result, bike tires get less traction and you can sort of catch a wheel in the little ridges. I didn't see anyone go straight up, but then again, the strong men were "just" out of my sight in front.

[Shinomaster]

The hardest climb I've done recently is Logie trail in Portland. 1500 feet in 2.6 miles made me hurt, especially since I raced up the bottom part as fast as I could go.

[EddieBirdsell]

Pretty much road in VT going east west arcoss the Green Mountains.

Smugglers Notch, App Gap, Lincoln Gap, Brandon Gap, etc.

That's the reason no throughways go east west in VT. The closest being I 89 running SE to NW through the middle part of the state.

Yo, I'll meet you at Cubber's in Bristol.

Long Trail on me.

Lincoln is of course silly steep with shitty road surface. The dirt sections in a downpour are, uh, "exciting."

Middlebury west-to-east is demoralizing. It's about 13 miles to the summit, and the rise only slacks twice.

[csbmo]

Platte Clove Rd (Devil's Kitchen) catskills:

http://velocitynation.com/node/2011

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...26tbs%3Disch:1

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...26tbs%3Disch:1

[suspectdevice]

Mickey - That looks nasty! I'm planning on doing a NOHO group ride over the summer out of Northampton. Might convince my group to try it. What's the nicest approach coming from Northampton by bike?

-Hansen

If you head down rt 5 from the center of Northampton it will be about 9 miles on your right. The ride over from 'hamp is flat along the river with decent shoulders and some nice views. The sign for the Mtn will probably be gone by then, but you will turn right at the first light as you head up into Holyoke. Head up the access road and duck the closed gate to your right that goes up to the gravel pit/abandoned ski area. After you gain about 400 feet of elevation from the gate you will see some transformers, and a wicked steep road on your left. That's the beginning of the climb.
The descent down is horrible, make sure you bring wheels that can withstand some serious heat from braking and withstand some slams into water bars on the way down. I hit 57mph down the road on my DH bike with 26x1.5's and full body armor. It was pretty scary. It wouldn't really be feasible to incorporate the climb into a decent loop, unless you want to ride through a bit of suburbia to get out to where the riding is oh so sweet. Give yourself a few hours to ride out from town and ride back. You might not feel like doing more than that.

[Vlad Luskin]

Berkeley Hills Death Ride: http://www.inl.org/bicycle/deathride.html

[Peter B]

Hey Vlad,

Ever join Paul on his NiftyTenFifty ride? Covers many of those you listed. 10,050' in 54 miles on the 1st Sunday in April.

[AntLockyer]

Wow some breathtaking climbs and pictures thanks for sharing everyone.

We don't have climbs but we've got some hills. This takes in most of the nice ones

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...ll-route398519
click on show for the elevation profile.

This is what we chose for the KOM in the TDF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlc-s7eI5Cg

[ty-ro]

Hurricane Ridge in Port Angeles, WA is about 1 mile downhill from my house. It's one of my favorite rides.

They just resurfaced the upper part of the road last year and it is smooth as a baby's bottom. Very fast descent.

[Vlad Luskin]

Hey Vlad,

Ever join Paul on his NiftyTenFifty ride? Covers many of those you listed. 10,050' in 54 miles on the 1st Sunday in April.

Peter, thank you for the reminder. No, I have not, though this year I may have the legs for it... he said with much dread.

[halbritt]

Far, far too many within easy riding distance to list. Mt. Diablo will always be special to me, 10 miles and 3,000 ft of pure bliss. At the other end of the spectrum is the infamous Sierra Road, 3 miles and 1,800 ft.

This. Diablo isn't really painful, but it's definitely the best climb in the bay area. 3200ft of elevation gain, all at 6-8%. Very little traffic, amazing views.

As for painful, there's Mix Canyon. I've never ridden it, though:

[Paradise]

Looks like about 85 degrees going just about straight up! LOL

This is our highest point. I even go out of my way to avoid it somedays. Somedays, I'll do it twice depending on how frisky I am feeling.



The landing is the hard part

Fcuk Fort Lauderdale

[Steevo]

give some details/pictures on an awesome climb near you. elevation/distance/picture/how many times you puked on the way up/etc

i'll start

the catskills (about 1hr from me)

1. south gully road - it's about 3.5miles starting from route 52. you climb about 1700 with the average grade around 8% and steep sections that are 16%. mike from the bike depot in np, and another cat did this yesterday. good times

Not to split hairs or anything, but this climb is actually up the Shawangunks (the Cats are off in the distance in the photo). Starts in my childhood' hometown of Ellenville. Its very cool to see the old place referenced here.

The Bike Hudson website descibes this ride as the climb with the greatest vertical gain on paved roads in the Husdon Valley south of Albany. Here's the link...

http://www.roberts-1.com/bikehudson/...Cragsmoor_West

Although the town has seen better days, the hiking is pretty spectacular there as well.

[DarrenCT]

Not to split hairs or anything, but this climb is actually up the Shawangunks (the Cats are off in the distance in the photo). Starts in my childhood' hometown of Ellenville. Its very cool to see the old place referenced here.

The Bike Hudson website descibes this ride as the climb with the greatest vertical gain on paved roads in the Husdon Valley south of Albany. Here's the link...

http://www.roberts-1.com/bikehudson/...Cragsmoor_West

Although the town has seen better days, the hiking is pretty spectacular there as well.

cool, ya i always get that mixed up. smellenville was pretty bad bro. it needs an upgrade. as you said though, cycling and hiking is awesome.

btw- u know mike from bike depot? he was the human gps for this ride