Whitney Portal Road Climb
- long (18.9 km)
- 12 mi
- long (18.9 km)
- of climbing (1,409 m)
- 4,623 ft
- of climbing (1,409 m)
- average grade
- 7.5%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 12.1%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 3,743 ft at the bottom to 8,366 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 Whitney Portal Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Whitney Portal 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 Whitney Portal Road
- How long and steep is the Whitney Portal Road climb?
- 12 miles (18.9 km) at 7.5% on average, climbing 4,623 ft (1,409 m) from 3,743 ft to 8,366 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 12.1%. That makes it a Hors catégorie climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 36.60383, -118.06639, where Whitney Portal Road leaves South Brewery Street, and tops out on the road at 36.58597, -118.24181.
- Is Whitney Portal 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
- Tuttle Creek RoadCat 2 · 5.5 mi at 4% · 1,161 ft · starts 1.2 mi away
- Horseshoe Meadows Road from Whitney Portal RoadHC · 16 mi at 5.8% · 5,046 ft · starts 2.8 mi away
- Granite View DriveCat 3 · 2.9 mi at 6.4% · 981 ft · starts 3.2 mi away
- Lubken Canyon RoadCat 3 · 3.4 mi at 5.9% · 1,043 ft · starts 4.3 mi away
- Hogback Road from Moffat Ranch RoadCat 1 · dirt · 6.6 mi at 6.1% · 2,142 ft · starts 5.5 mi away
- Swansea GradeHC · dirt · 9.0 mi at 8.3% · 3,944 ft · starts 9.9 mi away
- Horseshoe Meadows RoadCat 3 · 1.9 mi at 5.9% · 594 ft · starts 11 mi away
- Cottonwood Road from Grand Army of the Republic HighwayCat 2 · 4.2 mi at 7.6% · 1,677 ft · starts 11 mi away
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.