How much climbing in a 'proper' mountain ride?

Bike Forum

[closed]

How much climbing in a 'proper' mountain ride?

51 posts & 30 voices | Started 1 year ago by 13thfloormonk | Latest reply from RHSno2

Tags:

isn't Peaty already a "proper" qualified

Pages: « Previous 12

Sanny - Member

Too many variables for a definitive answer. My ride of Skiddaw on Saturday saw us do the best part of 5 to 6 thousand feet of climbing in the day in a fairly short distance. Lots of riding up and not so much carrying. I guess that would qualify as a proper mountain ride in my book.

So where is your route? It sounds intriguing.

Messiah made a good point that made me laugh re my Ben MacDhui round - 24 miles in over 9 hours. Walking would have indeed been quicker but where's the fun in that?

Next big ride I have planned is to link Lochnagar and the surrounding munro peaks with the Loch Muick circuit. It should make for a good day.

Also planning a loop of Loch Lomond to include the Cobbler, the Coire Grogain circuit and the Three Lochs Way as a day ride. Biggish with the added bonus of having to catch the ferry at Tarbet. No idea of height gain but I do enjoy the Cobbler as a ride in itself.

Cheers

Sanny

Posted 1 year ago #
DavidM - Member

One of the hardest rides I have done was about 2500m ascent over 70 km. The first third was 'flat' with the second third taking in Helvelyn and the final one Highstreet, so a lot of the ascent was in the final 2/3rds. It was ace but one of us resorted to using crutches to get around the next day. 4 passes in the Lakes is I think about 1600m ascent over only 20kms and that is a full day ride though.

Interested to know where this route goes also. There is only one way to find out if it is doable though right?

Posted 1 year ago #
messiah - Member

One of the guys I ride with sometimes carries one of those gizmo things which tells us all that information

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Posted 1 year ago #
samuri - Member

I'd say the OP's post will be a reasonably tough ride. Perfectly doable, but hard work.

Posted 1 year ago #
samuri - Member

This is the most similar I can find on record of mine.

Bit tired at the end but not terribly so. That was mostly offroad and singlespeed mind.

Posted 1 year ago #
Colin-T - Member

Nice ride Samuri but it doesn't look like more than 1500m climbing to me

Initial climb 350m
another just over half way of 150m
4 of approx 100m
4 of approx 50m
Thats about 1100m
Adjusting for under-estimation give 1200 to 1300m

Other bits an pieces aren't going to add up to another 1000m

To the OP - It does sound tough, there's probably a reason its a little known route Let us know how you ger on.

Posted 1 year ago #
samuri - Member

Never really counted manually but you might have a point, it's what memory map said.

Posted 1 year ago #
13thfloormonk - Member

Actually... memory map also reports that a circuit of mull on the road bike is 3300m ascent, which surprised me, but I put it down to the endless tiny little climbs. However, pretty sure 85 miles on Mull shouldn't exceed the ascent of 100 miles round the cairngorms, past two ski centres...

My mystery circuit (I'm not telling where it is till I ride it!) goes: 0 to 500m, descend to 0, 0 to 500, descend to 200, stay at 200 for a while then re-ascend to approx 600, descend to 0, 0 to 500, descend back to start at 0, I make that 1900? 800m is a pretty big discrepancy...

Posted 1 year ago #
Stu_N - Member

MM, Google Maps, Tracklogs all work fine when you're going uphill or downhill, but not when you are crossing slopes.

They work by holding a matrix of altitude data (typically a 100m grid of spot heights) and then they interpolate between them to get the height at a specific point. So on the flat it should return the right heights, and if you're pretty much going straight up a steep slope it's good too. Problem is, if you're crossing a slope then MM puts you as crossing a flat surface between its spots - a real track will pretty much be level in real life (or steadily up or steadily down on a 100m scale), but because horizontal position is "true" and vertical is "approx" it will look to the software like there are loads of little ups and downs as it wiggles about on the surface of it's elevation model.

If you want to see an extreme version of the problem, have a look in 3D at the road that runs round Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh when it's on the south side of the hill (in Tracklogs at least this is all over the shop). Or look at pretty much any view of sea cliffs - the sea will run up and down the cliffs quite a lot when you know the sea is really (for this purpose!) level in real life.

Posted 1 year ago #
13thfloormonk - Member

Stu_N, that makes sense actually, I manually counted the climbing on a hill walking route and it matched MM pretty accurately, but of course my hillwalking route tended to climb stuff perpendicularly.

Manually my 'monster' route (with loads of rising traverses) should only really be 1500m max, but no matter how carefully I plot MM comes back with way over 2500m.

Massively geeky way to spend the afternoon, hope the payback is a blissful rewarding loop of ancient singletrack in stunning surroundings

Posted 1 year ago #
epicyclo - Member

I generally don't worry about how much climbing is involved.

What kills me is the wind we get up here.

Posted 1 year ago #
Pauly - Member

Did 31.3 miles round Peaslake today, and Garmin Connect with elevation correction enabled reckons it was 1095m elevation gain.
3h 54mins of riding time.

Posted 1 year ago #
allmountainventure - Member

The OP - Its a big ride, make sure you have a descent bail out option(s).

There is an enduro here called the Cortes 60.

65KM with 2,500m.

Its tough going, the average punter does it in 6 hours. 1 quarter of the starters dont finish.

Posted 1 year ago #
allmountainventure - Member

P.S

Most people find 30ishKM with 1,000m to 1,500m a good day in the hills.

Posted 1 year ago #
seosamh77 - Member

ben nevis is 1344m, so i'd take that as a shit load of climbing! rather you than me anyhow!

mind you i was gubbed after 38 miles and 350m of assent so what do i know!

Posted 1 year ago #
RHSno2 - Member

I think 1000m is a minimum to be classed as hilly. 1500m is a good day with upto 2000m being quite a lot.

Guess it depends what you ride (xc bike versus AM) these on too.

Posted 1 year ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Pages: « Previous 12

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.

Singletrack Mountain Bike Magazine

Bike Forum

How much climbing in a 'proper' mountain ride?

Topic Closed

Don't miss…

Singletrack

Website & Forums

Exits