neal@druny.UUCP (11/12/84)
Ok, I've always wanted to start the following discussion, and this quote from one of the "clincher pressure" articles has set me off. WHERE is the STEEPEST EXTENDED ROAD GRADE you know of? The grade alluded to in my title is probably an upper bound. I seriously doubt that such a grade exists in the USA, although I recall someone claiming that the "slope" between Dhaulagiri (28180') and the town of Pokhara in Nepal was one of the steepest in the world: 20000' over 21 miles ~= 20% grade! Of course, the terrain is by no means smooth between them: in fact I think there is a mountain range in the middle, so shorter segments of the slope would be much steeper. At any rate, in Colorado the steepest extended grade I know of is a gain of 1300' over a 3 mile stretch going up Sunshine Canyon out of Boulder (8% grade). Of course there is a whole range of answers, depending on what "extended" is taken to mean. I know of a 17% grade for a few hundred feet along a bike path from Vail Pass to Vail in Colorado. For more extended distances I don't know the details on the Mt Evans road (14258' summit, highest paved road in the US). The ride up to Pikes Peak, (14110') climbs 7309' in 18 miles, which is just under 8% (so I would assume that there might be a stretch which is steeper than Sunshine Canyon). So the question is, what other steep grades are there? What nasty climbs do the European races go over? How steep is the Mt Hamilton ride near San Jose? Mt Polomar? How about Alaska? -Neal McBurnett, ihnp4!druny!neal, 303-538-4852