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Via Plaun da Crusch

4882.7 m · net rise 606.4 m · total ascent 625.1 m · overall 12.4% · evidence quality B (good) · Sumvitg · Graubünden/Grischun/Grigioni ·

Shape: sustained — 36% of the climbing sits in a quarter of the distance; longest continuous stretch at 10%+ is 348 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)≈48%4752–4754 munder overhead cover terrain reads 60.7% at 4853–4855 m across a structure — excluded
3 m (diagnostic)≈44%4670–4673 munder overhead cover terrain reads 57.5% at 4852–4855 m across a structure — excluded
5 m≈41%2640–2645 munder overhead cover terrain reads 51.2% at 4850–4855 m across a structure — excluded
10 m≈39%2673–2683 munder overhead cover terrain reads 43.5% at 4845–4855 m across a structure — excluded
20 m≈37.0%2668–2688 munder overhead cover terrain reads 37.8% at 4837–4857 m across a structure — excluded
25 m36.3%2668–2693 m
50 m≈34.2%2633–2683 munder overhead cover terrain reads 34.8% at 4805–4855 m across a structure — excluded
100 m32.3%2611–2711 m

Measured on the mapped road line; moving the line 1 m either way reads 35.8–36.9% over 25 m.

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: mixed (77% unpaved), according to swisstopo's swissTLM3D road model: unpaved for the first 10 m; paved for the first 1,136 m; unpaved from 1,136 m to the top. The steepest 25 m lies on the unpaved part.

Access: Listed 2026-09-11 (record-class scrutiny, Peter): this page's steepest 25 m meets or exceeds the Baldwin Street mark (34.8 %). A figure that would beat the recognised records is treated with special scepticism: it stays out of the rankings until a person has passed it on the aerial, the road authority's line and the detector battery, as Ffordd Pen Llech and one Welsh lane were.

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

Via Plaun da Crusch 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).

Via Plaun da Crusch elevation profile
Via Plaun da Crusch 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
Tiles2712-1177, 2713-1176, 2713-1177, 2714-1176, 2714-1177
Road centrelineOpenStreetMap (local PBF extract)
Quality statusevidence quality B; caveated windows: structure excluded
AnalysisOCL 0.1.0, analysis 0.1.0, run ch-run6-260910, calculated 2026-09-10

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_2023_2712-1177_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2023_2713-1176_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2023_2713-1177_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2023_2714-1176_0.5_2056_5728.tif",
    "data/cache/ch/swissalti3d_2023_2714-1177_0.5_2056_5728.tif"
  ],
  "calculated_at": "2026-09-10T20:26:16+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-run6-260910",
  "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": [
    "2712-1177",
    "2713-1176",
    "2713-1177",
    "2714-1176",
    "2714-1177"
  ],
  "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"
}