Toughest climb in all Yorkshire? The Glaisdale horror!

Anonymous

Just back from my annual trip to Flamingoland with the family in the NY Moors...took my bike as per the norm for a few days escapism....

I always try and source new areas and new roads...I love having a pop at the toughest of climbs (even though I'm a pretty crud climber)...but this year I decided wasn't going to do the famous brutes down there...so I devised a few routes to do some 'not as well known' climbs...

Even though Im a scotsman I thought I had ridden all of the toughest brutes in Yorkshire....In the Dales Ive did:- Fleetmoss (both ways), Coal Road (both ways), Park Rash, Lams Moss from Nateby, Buttertubs both ways, Oxnop from Askrigg, Fleak Moss etc...

In the NY Moors I had ridden Rosedale Chimney, Blakey Bank, Boltby Bank, White Horse Bank, Sleights Moor from Grosmont, The huge climb out of Delves, Fryupdale etc.....

Now all of the above are serious efforts.....with Park Rash, Boltby Bank, Sleights Moor & the Chimney being the most testing IMO...none rival the likes of Hardknott West / Bwlch Y Groes or Wrynose East but I reckon I found a beast that comes close...an unspoken road at the very head of Glaisdale....the road doesnt even appear on many maps...and when I saw it on my Memory Map I thought 'yeah I'll go up that, it only has one small chevron arrow'.....ignorant bliss!......I'm fairly astute with mapping and should have looked how the road cut right through the OS contour lines at a dead 90 degree angle....I didnt even bother to work out the stats...well to cut a story I near bloody died....it was all misty when I did it and I couldn't see the road 50 yards in front of me....just aswell....this road IMO is the most unrelenting piece of steep climbing Ive ever did anywhere....there was not one yard of flat section to catch your breath....the stats of the climb are :-...1.3Kms long at 14.3% average gradient, with a middle 1/2km section averaging 19%.....many parts of at least 25%-30%...my wheel slipping all over the place when 'honking' and sitting down the front wheel lifting....it did not stop at all until the Junction with the road at the top....and by that time I was starting to feel dizzy.....my morale was hammered....I thought I had been destroyed by a fairly standard climb....I went back in good weather and checked it out....and I was pleased for what I saw...its was insane....and disgustingly steep...my morale was lifted again.

Apart from Hardknott Pass on the FWC, The Blwch Y Groes in Wales and my 1st attempt at Wrynose East this was the hardest Id pushed myself on the bike....I was nearly being sick with the effort...It goes straight into my Top 5 toughest climbs in the UK....not as bad as Hardknott West or Bwlch Y groes, But due to the unrelenting nature of the beast its defo up there with Wrynose East and Great Dunfell.

Anyone else experienced this horror?



I

ledburyloafer

knackered just reading that!

ColinJ

(Fires up Memory Map...)

Blimey, it's 'Chevron Alley' up there isn't it! Do you mean the road from Yew Grange to High Moor?

As you say, the road looks innocent enough from the solitary chevron, but it does go straight up the hillside and there is no let-up.

I've done a lot of those Dales climbs because they are within range of a (normal human being's) day ride of Hebden Bridge but I've never visited the North Yorkshire Moors because they are just too far away for a day trip.

Perhaps I'll take my bike over to York or Scarborough on the train and do an epic ride from there.

Anonymous

ColinJ wrote:

(Fires up Memory Map...)

Blimey, it's 'Chevron Alley' up there isn't it! Do you mean the road from Yew Grange to High Moor?

As you say, the road looks innocent enough from the solitary chevron, but it does go straight up the hillside and there is no let-up.

I've done a lot of those Dales climbs because they are within range of a (normal human being's) day ride of Hebden Bridge but I've never visited the North Yorkshire Moors because they are just too far away for a day trip.

Perhaps I'll take my bike over to York or Scarborough on the train and do an epic ride from there.

Yes Colin, Indeed that is the road.....Yew Grange to High Moor.....oh dear lord its a horror...Ive tons of photos from all over the area....and I'll be putting them up on our website over the next few days with route suggestions...see the link in my signature...

The NY Moors are IMO the steepest climbs Ive ever seen...there is so much 25-33%ers it staggers beleif...theres even more steep climbs here than there is in the mighty Lakes............but I honestly fear the NY Moors far more than the Dales....about the same kinda fear/respect I have for the Lakes....

But that Glaisdale climb is by far the most awful encounter Ive had in Yorkshire...

John C.

Where Where Where

Rich can you stick a memory map link for this beast, I've got to have a go . Tried to find it but not succeeded yet

Anonymous

John C. wrote:

Where Where Where

Rich can you stick a memory map link for this beast, I've got to have a go . Tried to find it but not succeeded yet

here ye go Johnboy:-

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=glaisd ... p=-300,300

Dont look much?....try it!...beleive me fellow painseeker you will not be dissappointed!

John C.

I know where Glaisdale is. Which road out of there do you mean Common lane over Capper Hill ?

Anonymous

John C. wrote:

I know where Glaisdale is. Which road out of there do you mean Common lane over Capper Hill ?

Really don't know but I suppose Colins appraisal suits fine...from Yew Grange upto High Moor or (shooting Box)

Diogenes

I think you mean this place, its called caper hill.


http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/149483


Looks quite innocuous until you try to get up the pig, in the mist you may not see the 25% sign!!!


D

Anonymous

Diogenes wrote:

I think you mean this place, its called caper hill.


http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/149483


Looks quite innocuous until you try to get up the pig, in the mist you may not see the 25% sign!!!


D

Caper Hill it is....dreadful....by far the most unrelenting piece of insanity so far Ive came across....maybe not as steep as Chimney or Hardknott but the sheer continious horrid gradient makes it legendary.....if this was in a sportive it would destroy the field....and to think I had the audacity to try and take photos of the climb on the way up!!!....just shows the ignorance I displayed.....it will never happen again....

John C.

Eek :shock: Yes I know where you mean now, I'll try and get over there before I see you on the 5 Dales ride.

Steve GT

If you say it's worse than Park Rash then it must be a monster!
I did Park Rash 2 weeks ago and I thought I was going to die. I got into trouble at the little hairpin bend and had to unclip and it was impossible to get going again. I went back down to the flatter section and got up on the 2nd attempt, but I was absolutely shattered.
That was only after doing an easy 30 miles beforehand,. I am dreading doing Park Rash after 70 odd miles on the 5 Dales sportive!
The climb up from Egton Bridge to Egton is tough one as well. Many thanks to Diogenes for introducing me to it by MISTAKE on the last ride I did with him!

nasahapley

Well John C was good enough to introduce me to Boltby, Blakey and Chimney Banks yesterday (thanks John!), and I have to say they were plenty tough enough thanks v. much. The Chimney is an absolute joke; who thought it would be a good idea to build a road like that?! I'll have to get myself over to the eastern side of the moors sometime this year, I keep hearing of these silly climbs and want to have a bash at them, this Glaisdale one is now top of the list!

Anonymous

Yes, I firmly beleive my appraisal of the brute was not based on a 'bad form' day...I did show such disrespect to start of with but there's no way even a very tough climb would put me under such pressure even on a bad day....on average it's the steepest climb Ive stated out in the NY Moors....narrowly beating the Chimney and Blakey Bank...but I cannot stress enough the unrelenting nature of this thing...it was IMO not a little bit tougher than Park Rash / Botlby etc...it was a whole different ballgame....any climb which goes straight up like that at that horrid gradient will test the soul...

Ive did a write up about my experience....it has all the photo's of this brute from bottom to top....you'll find them after the write up if you scroll down...even the photo's make it look horrid...and you know how a camera flattens it out....

http://www.sportivecentral.com/index.ph ... 335&page=1

genki

Looks fun 8)

I've just come back from a week's cycling the hills in the Peak, Dales and North York Moors but missed this particular climb. Next time...

But I still think for sheer consistency and abundance of double chevrons the nastiest hills are to be found in North Devon around the coast. So many brutes of 150-200m ascent with no respite - and the lanes are narrow so there's less scope for zig-zagging your way up.

Hunters Inn, Coombe Martin, Challacombe and the hill out of Lynmouth to name a few

Anonymous

I think the hills where there is totally no where to stop are the best, it's bad to stop on climbs.

underthesun

What gear ratios were you using?? I wouldn't mind a crack at this.

Diogenes

Steve GT wrote:

The climb up from Egton Bridge to Egton is tough one as well. Many thanks to Diogenes for introducing me to it by MISTAKE on the last ride I did with him!

Oops, thought you had would have forgotten about that little detour by now :oops:

D

t4tomo

Unashamed digging out of old thread alert.
(I was searching for something else and came across it)

I was born and raised 1 mile down the road from said "Glaisdale Horror". I think Caper hill is how it appears on some maps, but locally known as Common Lane. It was 2 strips of tarmac will grass up the middle when I was a kid, even now its fully sealed, the grass pokes through in places.

I have ridden up it on a 3 speed Raleigh Commando before I got my "racing bike", and sledged down it in winter. For what its worth we used to think Rosedale Chimney was harder (but maybe because we had to do Common Lane plus Hamer climbs before we got to the Chimney)- its definitely steeper although Common Lane is unrelenting, I'll give the OP that, plus the cattle grid is steep and on a corner which doesn't help.

Fryup New Way is another similar climb in the next valley over that goes straight up the contours and meets the "other" hill out of Rosedale at Blakey Ridge.

gsk82

Caper hill used to be on the ryedale rumble sportive, along with chimney bank, boltby bank and blakey bank. I thought it was the worst of the lot because the grass up the middle meant you only had one line, through potholes in places.

I rode the route of the ronde van calderdale yesterday. There were some disgusting cobbled climbs. Trooper lane in Halifax is beyond belief, 18% for 600m of mostly cobbles according to strava.

del1962

This hill the second time I rode it defeated me, it was my third tough hill of the day and as I started a tractor was coming down and there is no where to go but on the grass, so I turned round back to the bottom and started again, and I just could not make it that day, I had to walk, I also had a problem on Limber Hill on the way back which wasn't helped by the fact that at the end of a hard ride I wasn't expecting

Anonymous

RICHYBOYcp wrote:

Just back from my annual trip to Flamingoland with the family in the NY Moors...took my bike as per the norm for a few days escapism....

I always try and source new areas and new roads...I love having a pop at the toughest of climbs (even though I'm a pretty crud climber)...but this year I decided wasn't going to do the famous brutes down there...so I devised a few routes to do some 'not as well known' climbs...

Even though Im a scotsman I thought I had ridden all of the toughest brutes in Yorkshire....In the Dales Ive did:- Fleetmoss (both ways), Coal Road (both ways), Park Rash, Lams Moss from Nateby, Buttertubs both ways, Oxnop from Askrigg, Fleak Moss etc...

In the NY Moors I had ridden Rosedale Chimney, Blakey Bank, Boltby Bank, White Horse Bank, Sleights Moor from Grosmont, The huge climb out of Delves, Fryupdale etc.....

Now all of the above are serious efforts.....with Park Rash, Boltby Bank, Sleights Moor & the Chimney being the most testing IMO...none rival the likes of Hardknott West / Bwlch Y Groes or Wrynose East but I reckon I found a beast that comes close...an unspoken road at the very head of Glaisdale....the road doesnt even appear on many maps...and when I saw it on my Memory Map I thought 'yeah I'll go up that, it only has one small chevron arrow'.....ignorant bliss!......I'm fairly astute with mapping and should have looked how the road cut right through the OS contour lines at a dead 90 degree angle....I didnt even bother to work out the stats...well to cut a story I near bloody died....it was all misty when I did it and I couldn't see the road 50 yards in front of me....just aswell....this road IMO is the most unrelenting piece of steep climbing Ive ever did anywhere....there was not one yard of flat section to catch your breath....the stats of the climb are :-...1.3Kms long at 14.3% average gradient, with a middle 1/2km section averaging 19%.....many parts of at least 25%-30%...my wheel slipping all over the place when 'honking' and sitting down the front wheel lifting....it did not stop at all until the Junction with the road at the top....and by that time I was starting to feel dizzy.....my morale was hammered....I thought I had been destroyed by a fairly standard climb....I went back in good weather and checked it out....and I was pleased for what I saw...its was insane....and disgustingly steep...my morale was lifted again.

Apart from Hardknott Pass on the FWC, The Blwch Y Groes in Wales and my 1st attempt at Wrynose East this was the hardest Id pushed myself on the bike....I was nearly being sick with the effort...It goes straight into my Top 5 toughest climbs in the UK....not as bad as Hardknott West or Bwlch Y groes, But due to the unrelenting nature of the beast its defo up there with Wrynose East and Great Dunfell.

Anyone else experienced this horror?



I

I need to sit down....feeling ferked just reading this..... :shock:

svetty

Apologies for the grave dig: Normally I cycle from York so am familiar with the NY moors climbs and did the Ryedale Rumble back in the day but last weekend had a trip out to Halifax and climbed Trooper Lane and Gibb Lane. They are significantly tougher than anything in the Dales or NY Moors - and harder than Hardknott IMO. What fantastic climbs!