dunningrb

Okay, I must be confused. It looks like your first climb (starting at 12.5 miles) gains about 950 feet over 4.5 miles. 4.5 miles is 23,760 feet. So the grade is

950 / 23,760 = 0.04 = 4%. But you called it 7% to 10%. I must be making a mistake in the way I calculate (and estimate) the grade. What am I doing wrong?

caloso

Get a freewheel for that flip-flop. You've earned it!

urbanknight

+1 What makes a hill tough is who I am climbing it with

Plow13

hahah do one of the rides that i've done...called the dirt dozen...i have a compact crank(50-34) with a 12-25....i was hurting bad on this ride....

Brandy

I'm going to sit in the "it's all relative" camp. You can make any hill "tough" if you want to. Just ride up it faster.

Okay, in all seriousness, here's my ride from Saturday.



Most of it was tough. While the section from up to the ski lifts is steeper and you gain 2100 ft in 4.6 miles, the 8.0 mile 2500 ascent from the bottom takes more out of me because it's long, hot and very exposed.
I haven't done the whole climb at once, I did the ski lifts after two other climbs that weren't as steep, then I descended and climbed the first part (8 mile section) of Baldy Rd. twice. I'd like to do the whole thing next time. I'm sure I'll be saying it's tough!

Top section...


Whole Baldy Rd. climb

mollusk

First of all a tough hill is not necessarily a climb. They are different things.

To me a tough hill is one that REQUIRES that I get into my smallest gear and get out of the saddle. There are no tough hills where I live, but I have ridden plenty of them in the Smokies. (Now that I think about it I'd say those were climbs and not hills.) Blue Mound in Wisconsin is a tough hill. Buffalo Street in Ithaca, NY is a tough hill. There is only one near where I live that makes me shift to the small ring as it rises 150 ft in about 1/3 of a mile with the last bit considerably steeper than the first part. Maybe I just need to HTFU on that one.

Not surprisingly, most of the local riders don't know it. You have to go a long way around a big lake to get to it and that route is pretty flat. Those riders seeking what meager hills we have wouldn't think of riding 30 flattish miles to get to one short but steep hill.

Over twenty years ago my wife told me that she hated me after we rode up it. (She eventually forgave me. We are still married.)

WHOOOSSHHH...

One that makes YOU, work harder than YOU, are accustomed to... That's a tough hill...simple..if it's a tough hill for you, it's a tough hill..Some of these country bumpkins live in the mountains and ride em everyday..so for them climbing is easy...some of them are put together like stick figures, so pulling their skinny asses up the incline is a picnic...The average Joe..if the grade is upward, it's tough..period.

bbattle

I like climbing when the road is twisty and I cannot see what is ahead. Hytop mt. has a very long straight stretch that turns a corner and becomes another long straight stretch that just makes it depressing. Keel mt. starts off 16%, eases slightly for a couple of s-curves, then eases enough for my heart rate to drop back in the yellow zone so I can then clear the 19% right turn of death and the final quarter mile that thankfully isn't in the double digits.

Green mt. from the Eastern side has a depressing straight climb then a couple of nasty turns before you hit this short wall. After that, is feels almost flat for a short bit. I do some circles to get my heartrate down for the next section and then when I can see the top I shift up a gear and stomp the rest of the way up. I was told the wall exceeded 20% but haven't had verification.

In town there are quite a few short very steep climbs that I like to use to practice on. Half-mile or two-thirds at 15-16% gets my heartrate way up there so I have to chug along in 34-27 or 34-24.

One very short climb is 25-27% but it's just a block long. I once did it on my 42-15 fixed gear; weaving back and forth at maybe 1mph. Thought it possible to bend my handlebars and I had pedalstrike at almost every revolution.

Link to some local climbs https://www.springcity.org/local_road_climbs.html


The only way to get better at climbing is to go climbing. Get into a comfortable gear and pace. Stay back on the saddle. Remember to breathe. Practice on shorter or gentler slopes until you can handle those easily enough, then move to bigger challenges. I don't claim to be some super mountain goat; I'm slooooow. But I get there.

Rode Saturday with a man who did 3 different climbs of Mt. Ventoux in one day this summer. 14,700 ft. of climbing in 80km. Damn. And he's in his 60's. Damn. I can climb faster than he does but he's got endurance like crazy.

ShadowGray

Any hill on which you roll backwards on.

UGASkiDawg

Nothing you are correct it averages ~4% and may have sections that are much steeper than that but it still only climbs ~1000ft.

Around here we have many climbs that run from 3K to 7K and most average around 3-5% gradient as an average.

SKYLAB

"Am I weak?"
Yes.

JoelS

And some sections that weren't as steep, and a few short downs/flats. Most of the ups were in the 5-6% range. But it was the 2nd one that was a killer. I was ok on the first one. The 2nd was a disaster.

CAAD5AL

All we have around here all hills and mountains, and for me it's not always just the grade or distance that make it hard, it's the setting. There are two relatively short climbs that come to mind that I just hate - both maybe only a mile (I have no idea the grade of anything around here) but no matter what when or how you ride them, they're long, hot, and miserable and I can't wait to finish. At the same time we have canyon climbs that go on for 15 miles or much more that just don't seem as nasty because your head is in climbing mode the whole time.

How do you guys calculate the percent grade where you are - I mean, I know how to calculate it, but where you do get your data for the vertical? I find things like mapmyride aren't very consistent so I've kind of resigned myself to just categorizing them with highfalutin' terms like "pretty steep, really steep, and ballbuster"

nachomc

I see what you're doing - the overall grade is about 4% but if you look at the chart you can see that a lot of time is spend in that 7%-ish range. I think the confusion in how you guys were stating grade (I was looking at individual points as opposed to the overall climb) is mine

dunningrb

Okay, this makes a lot more sense.

--
Rodney Dunning

logdrum

You guys have some hilly rides. After looking at the https://nmts.org/rides.htm site, looks like New Mexico is not that mountainous if you look at total elevagtion gained, compared to LA it is flat. Heck, Austin could be hillier than Albuquerque. No chance our Richard can win any billy goat contest. However I like the air here. I rode the back of San Pablo to Martinez in the East Bay CA and even that was countryside, I still felt an itch on my throat. I can only imagine having TB ascending any of the mountains around LA.

Surferbruce

Brandy is gnarly.

MrCrassic 

anything above 6.5% is tough for me right now.

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luker

a man of few words, you have the pure essence of Brandy, right there.

merlinextraligh

Dude, we call that an overpass down here. Honestly, our Saturday group ride goes over worse 25+mph.

KiddSisko

Here's a nice link to all things climby.
Leaving out the many stellar climbs where I live in SoCal, the one that kicks my butt nearly every day is the .2 mile 20% hill that starts and finishes every ride from my front door. Every day after a ride I do mental battle with myself over whether or not I'm going to ride up, or walk. "Walking makes sense," I tell myself, "because it would be a recovery walk." Ultimately, I convince myself the pain will do me good. I've only walked up once after a particularly heinous long ride.

KiddSisko

Brandy, yous 2 are out of your minds! And I can only hope I'm as crazy as you one day.

waterrockets 

I'd like to take you on Smokey Valley loops here until you tell me "No more hills!" It's only 1/4 mile, so it's not a hill. Never mind the 21% grade.

Fixitman

85 miles 8000' of climbing on today’s ride 6 decent hills. The last hill was the toughest

Booger

A tough hill is one that I'm unable to reasonably maintain >80 rpm cadence without standing while in my lowest gear. It varies with equipment and current fitness level, but anything with 8%-10% or more grade longer than 1/2 mile is tough for me.