Humongous Halloween Uni climb in San Pedro this morning, 10.31.12. This one rivals Fargo for sheer steepness, but it’s a narrow walkway so there’s no way to zig zag, and must be ridden straight up! I measured the distance by gps at about 250 feet, with elevation gain at a whopping 102 feet! According to this calculator, that translates to a massive 41% grade!
I’m pretty sure the walkway is less than that, but it sure felt at least as steep as Fargo’s 33% grade, even though this walkway is half that distance. My garmin printout at the end of the video shows the max grade at 51%. I’m pretty sure that is wrong since the graph starts at 28% and gets progressively steeper. But the walkway is consistently steep from top to bottom. Whatever the actual number is, it’s a steep mutha, and a GREAT training hill!
The last time I was there and tried it on my MUni with the 3.0 duro, I failed less than halfway up as I lost momentum and stalled. This morning I went back but with the same light weight road tire used for my Fargo climb. I had just filmed my first attempt using my tripod, which couldn’t capture the whole climb. I was just about to leave when local came along and offered to film me, and followed me all the way up!
Another huge accomplishment for the Geezer! Also, unlike many other steep places, your new hill is conveniently next to lots of walls that are stepped on top, so we can actually perceive how steep it is!
Here’s another way I’ve calculated the length of the walkway climb:
(KH 24 w/kenda k-rad tire)
Inches traveled per revolution: (with my weight on the uni) 76"
Total revolutions to top of hill: 44
76" x 44 revs = 3,344"
Divided by 12" = 278.6 feet.
Is there a way to measure the rise/run of the one of the stepped wall sections (seen in the pic below) to calculate grade and/or elevation gain? My gps read it at 102 feet, but I just would like to cross check that by other, more reliable means. If I still get the same elevation gain of 102, +/- a foot or two, then the updated length of 278 would make it about 36% grade, which seems much more feasible than 41%. Even if the gain turned out to be 85-90 feet, it would still be well over 30%, which I certain it is.
My friend Casey Pappalardo flew out from Vermont to visit me for a couple weeks. We’re riding every day and having a blast! We went to San Pedro on 1/3/13 for the steepest walkway climb on earth!
And an intensely steep BAIL as my friend Casey goes flying after a bad landing at “Hairy Crack” trail. Somehow he managed to stay on his feet as he continued a two-footed slide for more than 50 feet!
