aJohnson said:
Are you sure it goes up to 25%?
I'm not
sure because I've never measured it but it has most people straight out of the saddle and grunting. I have a 30/28 bottom gear and I usually have to stand to get up it whereas I can usually get up 18-20% sitting down.
The good thing is that the first really steep section doesn't go on for that long so you do get respite. As I said above, if it went straight into the second section it would be a bit of a legbreaker.
Okay, I've had a good look at the climb on the 1:25,000 OS map and these are the statistics:
The first steep section
averages 22% for 140m. It's not a consistent gradient so I'm sure that it maxes out at over 25%.
The second steep section
averages 16% for 360m. Again - it's not a consistent gradient and I'm sure that it maxes out at about 20%.
The entire climb from the dip that Noodley mentioned, up over the cattlegrid, tight left, up the steep bit, levelling off, short descent, up the second steep bit, levelling off, short descent, final short steep section
averages 9.2% for 1.3 km. (121m of ascent).
It's not Hardknott or Wrynose, but if you climb it into a headwind when you are tired you'd have to be a pretty good climber not to suffer!