Van Tassel Motorway Climb
- long (7.4 km)
- 4.6 mi
- long (7.4 km)
- of climbing (892 m)
- 2,927 ft
- of climbing (892 m)
- average grade
- 12.1%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 18.4%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 673 ft at the bottom to 3,599 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 Van Tassel Motorway this week
Loading forecast…
Is it safe to bike up Van Tassel Motorway?
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. The records here are also incomplete: most reports along it are filed under Azusa, where only 62% of reported bike crashes have a map location, so the numbers here are too low. What the records show: no bike crashes were reported along the climb from 2021–2025.
Common questions about Van Tassel Motorway
- How long and steep is the Van Tassel Motorway climb?
- 4.6 miles (7.4 km) at 12.1% on average, climbing 2,927 ft (892 m) from 673 ft to 3,599 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 18.4%. That makes it a Hors catégorie climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 34.15211, -117.929, where Van Tassel Motorway leaves Fish Canyon Road, and tops out at Mount Bliss at 34.18487, -117.95196.
- Is Van Tassel Motorway paved?
- Mostly: OpenStreetMap tags 60% of the climb as paved, and the rest as dirt or gravel.
- 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
- San Gabriel Canyon Road from Ranch RoadCat 3 · 3.3 mi at 3.4% · 591 ft · starts 1.2 mi away
- Monrovia Canyon Truck TrailHC · dirt · 6.6 mi at 8.2% · 2,851 ft · starts 3.2 mi away
- Glendora Mountain Road from Elmgrove DriveCat 1 · 9.7 mi at 4.9% · 2,520 ft · starts 5.2 mi away
- Santa Anita Canyon RoadCat 2 · 3.3 mi at 6.9% · 1,207 ft · starts 6.0 mi away
- Rincon Red Box Truck TrailHC · dirt · 12 mi at 5.3% · 3,232 ft · starts 7.0 mi away
- San Gabriel Canyon Road from West Fork TrailHC · 11 mi at 6.1% · 3,648 ft · starts 7.1 mi away
- Hastings Ranch DriveCat 3 · 1.8 mi at 6.4% · 591 ft · starts 8.3 mi away
- Upper Monroe Truck TrailCat 1 · dirt · 7.2 mi at 5.5% · 2,110 ft · starts 8.6 mi away
Places to ride to nearby
Bike crash hotspots nearby
Found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation; ranked on shape only. Hors catégorie: 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.