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Northeastern US and Hawaii Hill Climbs — road gradients measured by LiDAR

Regions: Northeast · Hawaii — each with its own map and rankings; the tables below are national.

Road climbs across the six New England states and New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Hawaii, measured on the public-domain USGS 3DEP 1 m laser surveys and ranked by the steepest 25 m — part of the HowSteep survey. What the survey is, and how to read a gradient ladder →

Surveyed here: the famous gap roads and hillclimb courses alongside the steep lanes only the locals knew, found by the same systematic search that produced the UK catalogue.

Every climb here carries a surface chip from its state's own road inventory cross-checked with OSM, and pages say plainly where a check is still pending: canopy corridor checks (the US answer to the missing national surface model) roll out in ranked order, steepest and most contested first. Where LiDAR coverage has gaps, the page says so.

3905 climbs published · 404.0 km of total ascent (a rough total — it adds every small rise in the unsmoothed 1 m profile, noise included) · Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont · share

All the measured roads on one map →

Surface: Paved roads All surfaces · Caveated rows: Show Hide (ranks stay the true ranks) · paved is preselected and the toggle drives every ranking table below; gravel, mixed and surface-unverified roads appear under all surfaces. Ranked by one steepest window, a row may be a brief sharp pitch or a sustained traditional climb — the Length and Overall columns tell you which.

On this page: steepest 10 m · 25 m · 50 m · 100 m · largest net rise · provisional (67) · all climbs (3905) · under review (710) · toll & park roads — the rankings are the evidence-quality A/B subset; all climbs is every page, review-status and annex entries included.

Steepest 10 m

Steepest 25 m

Steepest 50 m

Steepest 100 m

≈ measured under tree canopy or near a structure at that window — the value stands but is less certain — the flag does not say whether the true value is higher or lower. Rankings include evidence quality A and B only; every row carries its surface chip, and restricted-access roads (toll/park) carry a controlled-access note — a real road lists, with its restriction stated.

Largest net rise

Net rise is the endpoint elevation difference; total ascent counts every metre climbed, including dips regained — and, since it adds the small rises of an unsmoothed 1 m profile without ever subtracting, read it as indicative rather than surveyed (why).

Provisional measurements

Measured by exactly the same method, but the evidence quality sits below B — usually short-window maxima steep enough to trigger the plausibility review, awaiting a closer look. The numbers stand as measured; treat them as provisional until reviewed. What the evidence-quality letters mean →

…and 17 more provisional measurements — see them all in the catalogue.

Browse every climb

Real pages, not a hidden table: each link below is a page of its own with 200 climbs on it, and every one of the 3,905 published climbs appears on exactly one of them.

By State: Connecticut 141 · Hawaii 90 · Maine 129 · Massachusetts 241 · New Hampshire 181 · New Jersey 176 · New York 711 · Pennsylvania 1758 · Rhode Island 37 · Vermont 441

Steepest first: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20   A–Z: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

All climbs (3,905)

The complete published US set — ranked rows plus the review-status and annex climbs, labelled. Click a column heading to sort; every filter mirrors into the URL so a view can be shared.

All statesConnecticutHawaiiMaineMassachusettsNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkPennsylvaniaRhode IslandVermont All surfacesPavedMixedGravelSurface unverified All statusesRankedRoad status under reviewAnnex (toll/park) Any evidence qualityHigh (A)Good — minor caveats (B)Needs confirmation (U) 50 rows100 rows250 rowsAll rows ←→ Download the dataset (CSV) ODbL 1.0 OCL format Share this view

Road status under review

Measured like everything else, but these roads are absent from (or barely touched by) their state's own public-road inventory — there that usually means a forest or camp lane, a private drive, or a map phantom. Three of the first three we hand-checked failed exactly that way, so the whole class sits out of the rankings until verified — each one returns as evidence clears it. Pages stay live and honest.

…and 660 more roads under review — see them all in the catalogue.

Toll and park roads rank too — with their restriction stated

6 toll roads and state-park summit roads (Mount Washington among them) are fully measured and rank in the tables above — a real road lists, with its restriction noted rather than silently ranked away. Their rows carry a controlled-access note (fees, gates, seasons) and each page has the details.

Sources & credit

Elevation: USGS 3DEP 1 m LiDAR (public domain, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey), with point-cloud canopy checks from the USGS 3DEP lidar point cloud and, in Vermont, cross-checks against VCGI's statewide DSM. Road geometry: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Summit and gap positions verified against GNIS, the federal gazetteer. Surface classifications cross-checked against state road inventories (VTrans E911 in Vermont). Race-venue recognition verified against each race's own public materials. Updated 27 September 2026 — what changed. Full terms: licensing & reuse.