Fat Bear Road Climb
- long (2.1 km)
- 1.3 mi
- long (2.1 km)
- of climbing (197 m)
- 646 ft
- of climbing (197 m)
- average grade
- 9.2%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 13.7%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 1,831 ft at the bottom to 2,477 ft at the top. Grades are averaged over each half kilometre, from USGS elevation data, so short ramps can be steeper than they show.
Weather at the top of Fat Bear Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Fat Bear Road?
We don't rate roads as safe or unsafe: crash counts can't say how risky a ride is, and roads people like to ride draw more riders, so they see more crashes. What the records show: no bike crashes were reported along the climb from 2021–2025.
Common questions about Fat Bear Road
- How long and steep is the Fat Bear Road climb?
- 1.3 miles (2.1 km) at 9.2% on average, climbing 646 ft (197 m) from 1,831 ft to 2,477 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 13.7%. That makes it a Category 3 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 41.0735, -122.36048, where Fat Bear Road leaves Mears Ridge Road, and ends where the road ends at 41.08405, -122.37908.
- Is Fat Bear Road paved?
- Yes, by its OpenStreetMap tags.
- How is the category worked out?
- From the climb's shape only: length in metres × average grade (%) of 16,000 or more for Cat 3, 32,000 for Cat 2, 64,000 for Cat 1 and 80,000 for HC. It describes how hard the climb is, not traffic or crashes.
- Where does this data come from?
- The climb is found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation (every climb, not a list of famous ones). Access is from OpenStreetMap tags; gates and closures change, so obey posted signs. Crash counts are police reports in the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS) on data.ca.gov, counted where their map location is within 100 ft of the climb. The forecast is from the National Weather Service.
Other climbs nearby
- Mears Creek RoadCat 3 · 1.4 mi at 8.6% · 633 ft · starts 0.5 mi away
- Mears Ridge RoadCat 2 · 3.4 mi at 6.9% · 1,234 ft · starts 0.5 mi away
- Girard Ridge Road from Hazel Creek RoadHC · 8.7 mi at 7% · 3,241 ft · starts 0.7 mi away
- Hazel Creek Road near DunsmuirCat 2 · 6.9 mi at 3.9% · 1,417 ft · starts 0.9 mi away
- Upper Shotgun Road from Shotgun RoadCat 2 · 3.8 mi at 7.2% · 1,440 ft · starts 0.9 mi away
- Upper Shotgun Road from Mears Creek RoadCat 3 · 2.1 mi at 5.9% · 666 ft · starts 1.0 mi away
- Flume Creek Road near DunsmuirCat 2 · 3.7 mi at 7.1% · 1,398 ft · starts 1.7 mi away
- Flume RoadHC · dirt · 11 mi at 6.3% · 3,547 ft · starts 2.4 mi away
Found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation; ranked on shape only. Category 3: length in metres × average grade (%) of 16,000 or more for Cat 3, 32,000 for Cat 2, 64,000 for Cat 1 and 80,000 for HC. It describes how hard the climb is, not traffic or crashes. Crashes: bike crashes reported within 100 ft of the climb, 2021–2025, from the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS), counted only where the report has map coordinates. Weather: National Weather Service. Access from OpenStreetMap tags; obey posted signs. How the data works.