Steepest trail in Scotland?

Going by Strava segments, what do you think’s the steepest trail in Scotland? I mean full trail, with flow, a beginning and an end, and generally accepted as the ‘full trail’ (i.e. not a snippet of the steepest bits of a trail).

I know 4-5 in the 30-35% range. Is there anything closer to 40? Glencoe black is 24.

the top and bottom of Glencoe are flat.

Yes there are trails steeper than 40

Great!

trails steeper than 40 can generally be found on similar hills to the ones you’ll have found but for the average gradient to be that high they’ll straight line top to bottom instead of traversing.. not all that interesting. and I’ve no idea if any I know have names or are on Strava.

Ok, daft q, but how do you know their gradient? Do you have them logged/mapped on other software?

I don’t know the exact gradient. I just ride enough steep trails to know.

What about the path off the Aonach Eagach ridge heading towards the Clachaig Inn. That’s insanely steep, i’ve never ridden down it, i struggled walking down that path. Actually any trail on a Munro are probably the steepest well used trails. Lots of data online for them.

The steepest bit of our local trails is riding down the 5 steps to the pub, 45%. The question makes no sense without understanding the length criteria for the question.

Scottish skiers asked the same question and got to: http://www.winterhighland.info/forum/read.php?2,46205,46205,quote=1

Callum rather than try and put a number on length, I’m fishing for the use of common sense, where locals accept that “X” is a trail and ride the full length and stop at the end afterwards to regroup. Not sure there’s any known trails as steep as 40… very interested to know if there are though.

PS Those steps aren’t 45%! 😉

Lots of people can’t even tell 45 degrees on a protractor never mind on a hill. And of course people are prone to talking it up.

I expect that Clachaig descent fails the criteria of “I mean full trail, with flow, a beginning and an end, and generally accepted as the ‘full trail'” on pretty much all counts.

Look up “Angle of Repose” and “slope stability”, basically a slope can only be as steep as its constituent material can rest at. Typically for soils and scree this is somewhere between 30 & 45 degrees, find some old mine workings and look at the waste heaps and you’ll see that the slopes are somewhere in the 40 – 45 degree range.

The values on winterhighlands are for compacted snow, this depends on the temperatures and wind direction at the time the snow fell – warmer, wetter snow will tend to form steeper slopes especially if the snow is being driven in to the slope, at it’s most extreme you get overhanging cornices. Dry powder snow will not form especially steep slopes.

IME skiers tend to exaggerate the steepness of the slopes by quite a bit – I’ve been on one of the recognised steepest slopes in the world (supposedly the 2nd steepest) and it’s 42 degrees over a length of about 300 metres – so when you get someone saying they skied piste X and it was 60 degrees then it’s a load of tosh.

So unless you are on a trail that consists mainly of bedrock for its entire length then you aren’t going to get anything above 40 degrees. The only area I know of that is bedrock and that angle are the Etive Slabs and if you want to ride a bike down those then you are welcome 😯

Like someone else has said the trail will snake from side to side thus reducing the effective angle so while a trail may descend a slope of 40deg it may have an effective overall angle of just 20deg.

Look up “Angle of Repose” and “slope stability”, basically a slope can only be as steep as its constituent material can rest at. Typically for soils and scree this is somewhere between 30 & 45 degrees, find some old mine workings and look at the waste heaps and you’ll see that the slopes are somewhere in the 40 – 45 degree range.

Most trails i’ve ridden on have vegetation roots holding the soil in place so slopes can hold up steeper than the angle of repose would suggest.

Oops, did i fail, oh dear. Well, what about the Craigvinean downhill at Dunkeld. Top section is very steep and bottom sections steep. It has a beginning, an end and if you’re awesome, flow.

Not Scotland but we have this trail which is 43% average incline. It is single track and has lots of turns as well. Its nice 🙂

My steepest local segment is 26% and that’s in a wood on the rolling chalk South Downs. Some of the natural stuff cut through the conifer plantations in Wales looks much steeper and I presume there’s similar in Scotland.

Ralexd dunkelds nowhere near 40 degrees 🙂 maybe it doesn’t exist? Although it should do given that sections of trails I know are steeper. Top 100m of a trail I’ve built is 36 so not far off that short sectio, but the full line is only 28% so fail.

Not Scotland but we have this trail which is 43 degrees average incline

43% is 23 degrees.

Not Scotland but we have this trail which is 43 degrees average incline.

That’s percent not degrees. 100% = 45 degrees, i.e. 1 in 1

43% = 43 in 100 or roughly 1 in 2.5 which is just a little steeper than Rosedale Chimney Bank at 1 in 3 and that’s a road.

Quarries are good for 40+ chutes but if you want to ride slopes of 45+ head to the coast. I grew up on a cliff and rode plenty short but mega steep trails from my door.
it’s why I’m not phased riding steep stuff on ropey bikes.

Is Dunkeld top section only 28%?

Well, i have failed. To steep at the top for me, i’m out.

I grew up on a cliff

The mtbel family at home

the two chutes at the top of Dunkeld are well over, but the short blast through the trees from the start, wee pedal across the felled bit, the long rock gardeny traverse and the rest of the singletrack to the fireroad are all pretty flat.
Bottom half of Dunkeld is flat as ****.

ha ha… That pic is ace! luckily someone thought to build a nice big house at the top of mine 😆

Caderg (Glen Isla)? Have only ever heard of a couple of people riding down that.
Bottom of Gold and Cresta Run at Inners are pretty steep.
Always eye up the path below Cat’s Nick on Salisbury Crags…Finlay Mickel skied it in 2010 (was on Youtube).
Some bits of the Golfie are about 38deg (staircase angle).

Mdk is pretty consistantly steep with steeper technical chutes Good fun though .

As is crack cleaner , longer more traverse though but the steeper bits are steeper…

Bottom of Gold and Cresta Run at Inners are pretty steep.

They aren’t really, no where near Golfie steep as you also mention

Mdk and crack cleaner? Some chutes at golfie may be steep but the steepest full trail isn’t mega steep, steepest I can see is 24%

CS is about 35

if we’re all using acronyms here 😉

Oh aye forgot that was one of the 30-35 ones. Doesn’t feel as steep as shirleys though but there’s a bit of traversing top and bottom there

Acronyms or trail names….but then if yer no local yell no ken.

Its cool, Banchory, looked it up!

At least you have the power of free thought unlike mr obvious troll 😉

I think strava is pretty useless for comparing gradients by value, especially any trails that aren’t pretty long. Strava uses pretty coarse grid digital elevation data in the UK, in combination with other factors like error in the data and fluctuation in gradients over the trail I wouldn’t put too much trust in it. It would be a lot better for road descents. I keep meaning to compare strava elevation values against a higher res OS dataset but never get round to it.

https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/20965883-Elevation-for-Your-Activity

“the power of free thought”?

😆

NS at walkerburn is pretty steep if you discount the traverse to the top of the descent..

double post

I haven’t done it but strava says pumphouse at the golfie is 39.2%? Sorry, PH.

Chickenman – caderg in glen Isla? I can see it on a map, but what else can you tell me? Is it ant good, and any recommended loops taking it in?

Cheers

PH is the STRAVA name for “pumper” NW