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Bwlch Sychnant

743.4 m · net rise 92.9 m · total ascent 95.5 m · overall 12.5% · evidence quality B (good) · Capelulo · Clwyd ·

Shape: sustained — 27% of the climbing sits in a quarter of the distance; longest continuous stretch at 10%+ is 339 m.

Matches: Wikipedia, Simon Warren 100 Climbs app (Wales collections) — Sychnant Pass — articles in English and Welsh; route-line 2 m from the pass point — Sychnant Pass — listed unnumbered; attribution to confirm in-app.

≈ Overhead cover (tree canopy or structures) spans 14% of this route — detected by comparing the surface model (DSM, treetops and rooftops) against the terrain model (DTM, bare ground). Under cover the bare-ground model is built from fewer laser returns, so metre-scale readings can wobble; maxima whose window sits in a covered zone are marked ≈ below — less certain — the flag does not say whether the true value is higher or lower. Longer windows average over more clean ground and are steadier.

Gradient ladder what do windows mean?

WindowMaximumLocated at
2 m (diagnostic)≈41%510–512 munder overhead cover terrain reads 76.3% at 8–10 m across a structure — excluded
3 m (diagnostic)≈25%510–513 munder overhead cover terrain reads 74.6% at 7–10 m across a structure — excluded
5 m≈21%510–515 munder overhead cover terrain reads 60.4% at 6–11 m across a structure — excluded
10 m≈17%510–520 munder overhead cover terrain reads 41.0% at 14–24 m across a structure — excluded
20 m≈15.2%563–583 munder overhead cover terrain reads 35.8% at 6–26 m across a structure — excluded
25 m≈15.0%559–584 munder overhead cover terrain reads 30.0% at 6–31 m across a structure — excluded
50 m≈14.6%537–587 munder overhead cover terrain reads 19.3% at 6–56 m across a structure — excluded
100 m≈13.9%510–610 munder overhead cover terrain reads 14.3% at 6–106 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

No aerial layer here: Britain has no open or government source of aerial photography at road scale — the pan-government APGB imagery is licensed to the public sector only, unlike the LiDAR this survey is measured from. Street View, where it exists, is the visual check.

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

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

Bwlch Sychnant LiDAR hillshade map with contours

Profile

The 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).

Bwlch Sychnant elevation profile
Bwlch Sychnant rolling gradient profile
 

Measurement card

ElevationWelsh Government — Welsh Government LiDAR 1m DTM (2020-2023)
Resolution / CRS1.0 m grid, EPSG:27700; sampled every 1.0 m, bilinear interpolation
Tileswg_del_19_274376_20211221dtm.tif, wg_del_19_275376_20211221dtm.tif, wg_del_19_275377_20211221dtm.tif, wg_del_27_274377_20220305dtm.tif
Road centrelineOpenStreetMap (local PBF extract), snapshot 2026-08-10T20:21:40Z
Quality statusevidence quality B; caveated windows: canopy or structure, structure excluded
AnalysisOCL 0.1.0, analysis 0.1.0, run mask-rebatch-mini-wales-260823, calculated 2026-08-23

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:27700",
  "elevation_resolution_m": 1.0,
  "elevation_tiles": [
    "data/cache/wales/dtm_1m/wg_del_19_274376_20211221dtm.tif",
    "data/cache/wales/dtm_1m/wg_del_19_275376_20211221dtm.tif",
    "data/cache/wales/dtm_1m/wg_del_19_275377_20211221dtm.tif",
    "data/cache/wales/dtm_1m/wg_del_27_274377_20220305dtm.tif"
  ],
  "calculated_at": "2026-08-23T15:00:29+00:00",
  "road_source": "OpenStreetMap (local PBF extract)",
  "road_attribution": "\u00a9 OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL",
  "osm_pbf_path": "data/cache/pbf/wales-2026-08-11.osm.pbf",
  "osm_snapshot": "2026-08-10T20:21:40Z",
  "run_id": "mask-rebatch-mini-wales-260823",
  "elevation_provider": "Welsh Government",
  "elevation_dataset": "Welsh Government LiDAR 1m DTM (2020-2023)",
  "elevation_licence": "Open Government Licence v3 \u2014 \u00a9 Crown copyright Welsh Government",
  "elevation_catalogue_layer": "geonode:welsh_government_lidar_tile_catalogue_2020_2023",
  "elevation_tile_ids": [
    "wg_del_19_274376_20211221dtm.tif",
    "wg_del_19_275376_20211221dtm.tif",
    "wg_del_19_275377_20211221dtm.tif",
    "wg_del_27_274377_20220305dtm.tif"
  ],
  "elevation_capture_dates": [
    "05-03-2022",
    "22-12-2021"
  ],
  "climb_origin": "discovered",
  "mask_ranges_m": [
    [
      -2.0,
      28.0
    ]
  ],
  "license": "ODbL-1.0",
  "license_url": "https://howsteep.org/licensing"
}