Most elevation gain on a climb.

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ezabielski
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by ezabielski »

Telescope Peak from Shorty's Well, 11,200 feet in one climb. 34 mile/10.5 hour round trip. Really an incredible day out to spend all that time on one single climb (and descent!)

Big ol route picture: https://i.imgur.com/uvyOQFx.jpg
docinco
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by docinco »

Tuckerton7 wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 10:39 pm What's the most elevation gain you have done on a hike/climb? What mountain/peak was it?
what's the most elevation gain you have done from your basement?
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Trotter
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by Trotter »

Missouri Oxford Belford.

8200 feet if I remember correctly. Ugh. For me, anything over 6000 feet stops being enjoyable.
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Eli Watson
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by Eli Watson »

2019-10-05 Purgatory Flats TH > Chicago Basin 14ers and back (19.5 hr). 42 mi, 11k vert.
2020-09-03 Crestone Centennials (24:41:51). 32 mi, 19k vert.
2020-10-03 Molas Pass > Arrow + Vestal (Wham) + Trinities Traverse and back (26:40:29). 30 mi, 17k vert.

Of course most tracking devices inflate their numbers, notably Strava. For net gain on a single mountain it's probably Ellingwood or Little Bear both on separate occasions from 8000'.

I'm planning on running R2R2R over Thanksgiving and then I've got some plans for next spring of a significant net gain. If I make time to service the drivetrain on my bike I'd like to sneak a Longs Peak Duathlon in this season.
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by martinleroux »

Eli Watson wrote: Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:55 pmOf course most tracking devices inflate their numbers
Could you explain how you came to that conclusion? You'd somehow have to know the "correct" elevation gain, but I don't see how anyone can really know that, except in the special case of unbroken, continuous ascents. There are two sets of problems:

1. It's difficult to get accurate elevation readings with consumer-grade devices.
- Barometric altimeters almost always drift out of calibration as you gain altitude. In hot summer weather they can under-read by as much as 100' for every 1,000' of gain.
- GPS elevations are only accurate to within 50-100' or so, even under ideal conditions, and they bounce around a lot.
- In theory you can cross-reference GPS lat/lon coordinates to a digital elevation model (DEM), but that assumes you've got accurate GPS coordinates and an accurate DEM. In mountainous areas these aren't always good assumptions.

2. Trails often have lots of minor ups and downs. The more precisely you try to measure these, the greater the apparent elevation gain. It's like trying to measure the length of a coastline; it increases without limit as you try to be more precise. Most devices and apps filter out minor elevation changes below some threshold, but there's no standard way of doing so.

As an illustration of these problems, here are my reported elevation gains for the 2021 San Juan Solstice race, all based on the same GPX file recorded by a Garmin Fenix 5X:

Per the device itself: 11,457' (using barometric elevations). This is almost certainly an understatement, because the barometric elevation at the course highpoint understated the actual elevation by a couple of hundred feet.
Garmin Basecamp: 11,742' (using the same barometric elevations as recorded by the device)
Garmin Basecamp: 12,524' (using DEM elevations)
Strava: 12,111' (using DEM elevations)
CalTopo: 13,292' (using DEM elevations)

So, which of these is most accurate? You tell me!
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by SchralpTheGnar »

All the GPS tracking apps are accurate enough for the purpose of what they are made for, flexing on social media.
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by rijaca »

SchralpTheGnar wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 8:20 am All the GPS tracking apps are accurate enough for the purpose of what they are made for, flexing on social media.
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by adamsbrad47 »

I would say the most elevation gain from basecamp
to summit is Mt St Elias located in Alaska. Basecamp starts at sea level in Icy Bay then it climbs to 18,008 ft. I can't think of anything in the atmosphere above sea level that gains more from base to summit.
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by Scott P »

adamsbrad47 wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 11:25 pm I would say the most elevation gain from basecamp
to summit is Mt St Elias located in Alaska. Basecamp starts at sea level in Icy Bay then it climbs to 18,008 ft. I can't think of anything in the atmosphere above sea level that gains more from base to summit.
Base Camp on St Elias is usually at 8000-9500 feet rather than sea level, though the peak has been climbed from the sea.
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by bdloftin77 »

martinleroux wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 10:19 pm
Eli Watson wrote: Wed Aug 25, 2021 8:55 pmOf course most tracking devices inflate their numbers
Could you explain how you came to that conclusion? You'd somehow have to know the "correct" elevation gain, but I don't see how anyone can really know that, except in the special case of unbroken, continuous ascents. There are two sets of problems:

1. It's difficult to get accurate elevation readings with consumer-grade devices.
- Barometric altimeters almost always drift out of calibration as you gain altitude. In hot summer weather they can under-read by as much as 100' for every 1,000' of gain.
- GPS elevations are only accurate to within 50-100' or so, even under ideal conditions, and they bounce around a lot.
- In theory you can cross-reference GPS lat/lon coordinates to a digital elevation model (DEM), but that assumes you've got accurate GPS coordinates and an accurate DEM. In mountainous areas these aren't always good assumptions.

2. Trails often have lots of minor ups and downs. The more precisely you try to measure these, the greater the apparent elevation gain. It's like trying to measure the length of a coastline; it increases without limit as you try to be more precise. Most devices and apps filter out minor elevation changes below some threshold, but there's no standard way of doing so.

As an illustration of these problems, here are my reported elevation gains for the 2021 San Juan Solstice race, all based on the same GPX file recorded by a Garmin Fenix 5X:

Per the device itself: 11,457' (using barometric elevations). This is almost certainly an understatement, because the barometric elevation at the course highpoint understated the actual elevation by a couple of hundred feet.
Garmin Basecamp: 11,742' (using the same barometric elevations as recorded by the device)
Garmin Basecamp: 12,524' (using DEM elevations)
Strava: 12,111' (using DEM elevations)
CalTopo: 13,292' (using DEM elevations)

So, which of these is most accurate? You tell me!
You might find this interesting. Justiner linked to this page a while back. https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/tutorials ... _gain.html
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by gb »

I was just in Pakistan and got a good look at Rakaposhi, supposedly the biggest face in the world. 20K from base camp to summit. Impressive for sure.
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Re: Most elevation gain on a climb.

Post by Skimo95 »

We’ve got it easy here in Colorado.. Tyndall was 25mi 9,500’ @ 10:30. I think Jagged from HB Pass was similar, but more like 23 hours :lol: pushing for a 15k day trip this year.
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