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Powell Drive

887.4 m · net rise 77.4 m · total ascent 87.2 m · overall 8.7% · evidence quality B (good) · Hanover · Pennsylvania ·

Shape: sustained — 36% of the climbing sits in a quarter of the distance; longest continuous stretch at 10%+ is 81 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 the state road inventory, OpenStreetMap and the point-cloud evidence for a graded road bed, 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)≈41%211–213 munder overhead cover terrain reads 67.1% at 226–228 m across a structure — excluded
3 m (diagnostic)≈31%211–214 munder overhead cover terrain reads 65.4% at 226–229 m across a structure — excluded
5 m≈24%616–621 munder overhead cover terrain reads 56.8% at 226–231 m across a structure — excluded
10 m≈21%616–626 munder overhead cover terrain reads 46.8% at 94–104 m across a structure — excluded
20 m≈19.5%616–636 munder overhead cover terrain reads 32.2% at 420–440 m across a structure — excluded
25 m≈18.0%616–641 munder overhead cover terrain reads 30.5% at 419–444 m across a structure — excluded
50 m≈14.3%616–666 munder overhead cover terrain reads 23.2% at 413–463 m across a structure — excluded
100 m≈12.4%539–639 munder overhead cover terrain reads 16.8% at 413–513 m across a structure — excluded

may start earlierdescends at 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.

Access: Listed 2026-09-11 (texture re-measure): with the step masked the steepest 25 m reads 18.0 %, below the ranking door — kept as a listed page.

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 USGS (public domain)

Powell Drive 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).

Powell Drive elevation profile
Powell Drive rolling gradient profile
 

Measurement card

ElevationUSGS 3DEP (The National Map) — USGS 3DEP 1 m DEM, PA_WesternPA_2019_D20 (collected 2020)
Resolution / CRS1.0 m grid, EPSG:26917; sampled every 1.0 m, bilinear interpolation
Tilesx55y449
Road centrelineOpenStreetMap (local PBF extract)
Quality statusevidence quality B; caveated windows: structure excluded, texture excluded
AnalysisOCL 0.1.0, analysis 0.1.0, run texture-us-pa-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:26917",
  "elevation_resolution_m": 1.0,
  "elevation_tiles": [
    "data/cache/usa/pa-west/USGS_1M_17_x55y449_PA_WesternPA_2019_D20.tif"
  ],
  "calculated_at": "2026-09-11T22:37:59+00:00",
  "road_source": "OpenStreetMap (local PBF extract)",
  "road_attribution": "\u00a9 OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL",
  "osm_pbf_path": "output/texture-us-pa/batch-usa-rchunk02.pbf",
  "osm_snapshot": "",
  "run_id": "texture-us-pa-260911",
  "elevation_provider": "USGS 3DEP (The National Map)",
  "elevation_licence": "Public domain \u2014 USGS 3DEP 1 m DEM, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey",
  "elevation_dataset": "USGS 3DEP 1 m DEM, PA_WesternPA_2019_D20 (collected 2020)",
  "elevation_tile_ids": [
    "x55y449"
  ],
  "climb_origin": "discovered",
  "canopy_check": "unavailable \u2014 EPT corridor failed: PA_WesternPA_2019_D20: HTTP Error 404: Not Found",
  "license": "ODbL-1.0",
  "license_url": "https://howsteep.org/licensing"
}