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Route du Col des Mosses

4650.3 m · net rise 353.6 m · total ascent 360.9 m · overall 7.6% · evidence quality B (good) · Ormont-Dessous · Vaud ·

Shape: sustained — 29% of the climbing sits in a quarter of the distance; longest continuous stretch at 10%+ is 74 m.

Found purely from mapping and LiDAR data, and not yet matched against books, race records or lists — it may be well known to locals under a name we've never heard. It was cross-checked against swisstopo’s swissTLM3D road model, OpenStreetMap and a second terrain model, but a discovery can still be an artifact of the terrain model or the map. Treat it as a well-evidenced hypothesis until someone has ridden it. If you know this road, tell us what you found — photographs, corrections and local knowledge all welcome; the map links below let you scout it first.

Gradient ladder what do windows mean?

WindowMaximumLocated at
2 m (diagnostic)≈45%0–2 munder overhead cover terrain reads 223.4% at 3828–3830 m across a structure — excluded
3 m (diagnostic)≈41%0–3 munder overhead cover terrain reads 190.1% at 3828–3831 m across a structure — excluded
5 m≈24%4605–4610 munder overhead cover terrain reads 120.2% at 3827–3832 m across a structure — excluded
10 m≈23%4605–4615 munder overhead cover terrain reads 70.7% at 1–11 m across a structure — excluded
20 m≈21.3%4598–4618 munder overhead cover terrain reads 40.9% at 0–20 m across a structure — excluded
25 m≈21.0%4590–4615 munder overhead cover terrain reads 34.4% at 0–25 m across a structure — excluded
50 m≈18.4%4585–4635 munder overhead cover terrain reads 21.3% at 0–50 m across a structure — excluded
100 m≈13.8%4550–4650 munder overhead cover terrain reads 14.6% at 0–100 m across a structure — excluded

may start earliermay continue beyond end Extent detection suggests reviewing where this climb starts/ends.

Map

Check this route yourself: Google Maps route via their router · Street View at the base where coverage exists · geojson.io our exact measured line · OpenTopoMap

This climb's data: OCL JSON — the full gradient ladder, quality flags and provenance in the OpenClimb Ladder format.

Surface: paved throughout, according to swisstopo's swissTLM3D road model.

Access: Listed 2026-09-11 (Switzerland run 7): road audit — way 271750802: unnamed service way; way 271750802: service way, surface untagged. Never silently ranked or dropped (Peter, 2026-08-27).

Measured, not vetted. This page records what the laser record shows about the road's shape — nothing more. Nobody has necessarily ridden or inspected this road for the survey, and a page here is not a recommendation and no guarantee that the road is open, surfaced, rideable or safe. Gates, private sections, missing rights of way and hazards do not show up in elevation data. Check access and conditions on the ground and make your own judgment.

Ridden it, or know better? Submit data for this climb no account needed ·

Route colour = gradient over a 25 m window: <10% 10–20% 20–25% ≥25%

  © OpenStreetMap contributors · topo tiles © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA) · vector tiles OpenFreeMap · aerial imagery © swisstopo

Route du Col des Mosses LiDAR hillshade map with contours

Profile

The map, profile and gradient chart share one position — move your pointer over them and the marker follows. Colors are the gradient bands; the shaded span is the steepest 25 m. Any 25 m figure is good to about a point either way (why).

Route du Col des Mosses elevation profile
Route du Col des Mosses rolling gradient profile
 

Measurement card

Elevationswisstopo swissALTI3D — swissALTI3D 0.5 m DTM (Federal Office of Topography swisstopo)
Resolution / CRS0.5 m grid, EPSG:2056; sampled every 1.0 m, bilinear interpolation
Tiles2570-1134, 2571-1134, 2571-1135, 2571-1136, 2572-1134, 2572-1135, 2572-1136
Road centrelineOpenStreetMap (local PBF extract)
Quality statusevidence quality B; caveated windows: structure excluded
AnalysisOCL 0.1.0, analysis 0.1.0, run ch-run7-260911, calculated 2026-09-11

Provenance

{
  "analysis_version": "0.1.0",
  "sample_interval_m": 1.0,
  "interpolation": "bilinear",
  "smoothing": "none",
  "gradient_windows_m": [
    5.0,
    10.0,
    20.0,
    25.0,
    50.0,
    100.0
  ],
  "diagnostic_windows_m": [
    2.0,
    3.0
  ],
  "elevation_crs": "EPSG:2056",
  "elevation_resolution_m": 0.5,
  "elevation_tiles": [
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2021_2570-1134_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2021_2571-1134_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2021_2571-1135_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2021_2571-1136_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2021_2572-1134_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2021_2572-1135_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2021_2572-1136_0.5_2056_5728.tif"
  ],
  "calculated_at": "2026-09-11T02:16:47+00:00",
  "road_source": "OpenStreetMap (local PBF extract)",
  "road_attribution": "\u00a9 OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL",
  "osm_pbf_path": "data/cache/pbf/switzerland-2026-09-10-batch.osm.pbf",
  "osm_snapshot": "",
  "run_id": "ch-run7-260911",
  "elevation_provider": "swisstopo swissALTI3D",
  "elevation_licence": "swisstopo open government data (OGD): free use, attribution '\u00a9 swisstopo' \u2014 https://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/en/terms-and-conditions",
  "elevation_dataset": "swissALTI3D 0.5 m DTM (Federal Office of Topography swisstopo)",
  "elevation_tile_ids": [
    "2570-1134",
    "2571-1134",
    "2571-1135",
    "2571-1136",
    "2572-1134",
    "2572-1135",
    "2572-1136"
  ],
  "climb_origin": "discovered",
  "canopy_check": "unavailable \u2014 no surface model (DSM or point cloud) registered for this coverage",
  "license": "ODbL-1.0",
  "license_url": "https://howsteep.org/licensing"
}