Steepest mile

[A-Train]

Couple that come to mind:

Agony Grind-just south of Rt 17 in NY before entering Harriman. The whole section from 17A-17 is a series of stiff ups and downs, but the ascent and descent over Agony can tire you out more than NY should.

The mile or so from the last Wildcat down to Carter Notch Hut was about as steep as it gets on the AT-my knees were screaming. As I recall, the climb outta the notch wasn't much easier (going up Carter Dome).

The descent into Pearisburg (northbound) was a knee-jarrer too. I've heard of a number of thru-hikers ironically injuring themselves coming into Pearisburg, its a bad luck spot of sorts. Maybe its just cause people are in a rush to reach town. It was at the end of a 25 mile mile, too-long day and I remember my feet throbbing.

[Kerosene]

If we're talkin' about the south, nobody has mentioned Three Ridges yet. That was a bear of a climb. Am I recalling correctly that the Tye River lies at the base of Three Ridges?

Yes, the Tye River separates The Priest and Three Ridges. Frankly, it looked like the Three Ridges climb might be harder than The Priest in that the trail seemed to be less manicured and steeper in some sections.

[squirrel bait]

Thanks Keorsene, that picture sure reminds me of a hard climb. I knew I was in trouble when after clearing the ascent that overlooks Four Pines Hostel and meeting a group of kids at the bottom. I said that climbing Dragoons Tooth was pretty hard and they looked around witha puzzled grin and asked which I had come from. I said from the north, they had seen me coming down the switchbacks, and of course they pointed southbound and said ya ain't done it yet. Man that was one long hard day that I wouldn't trade for anything. That was the day I discovered I could create rainbows with my socks by twirling them in the sunshine. Over Dragoons Tooth (southbound) in July.

[Kerosene]

That was the day I discovered I could create rainbows with my socks by twirling them in the sunshine.

It's amazing what the hiker brain can think about after hours of physical exertion alone in the woods.

[Repeat]

NoBo from Hughes Gap up the southern flank of Roan Mountain--1.3 miles/ 1300 ft in elevation to the top of Bear Town Mountain. I tried to distract myself by counting my deep breaths---stoped at 600-haha.

[Grimace]

The hike south from Kinkora I remember kicked my butt. Not sure if it was the hospitality of Bob or not.

I don't remember the hike south from Fontana being a picnic either

[MOWGLI]

Couple that come to mind:

Agony Grind-just south of Rt 17 in NY before entering Harriman. The whole section from 17A-17 is a series of stiff ups and downs, but the ascent and descent over Agony can tire you out more than NY should.

When I was employed by Verizon and living in New York, I led a hike for my co-workers from the Elk Pen (about .3 north of Agony Grind) to West Mombasha Road. The distance was perhaps 5 miles. We were not even halfway up Agony Grind when one of my co-workers started trembling uncontrolably. Physically, it was WAY too much for the poor guy. I had to have my sweeper take him and his wife back to their car.

At the end of the day, I think I had pretty well traumatized my co-workers, even though we hiked at about 1 MPH. A day hike of 5 miles might seem like nothing for you & me, but for these folks, it was all they could handle. BTW, they had all been warned repeatedly that this was a very strenuous hike, while in actuality - it was more like a moderate hike.

[bearbait2k4]

Although I still have a few hundred miles to go before completing the entire trail, and have not done some of these "steep" climbs that are being spoken of, I cannot imagine there being a steeper climb (or descent) than Mt. Moosilauke.

[Rain Man]

So far, I'd surely vote for the middle section of Katahdin for the steepest climb over one mile.

Rain Man

.

[Oteast]

Keroscene's Comment is a accurate one:

"I think a lot of the perceived difficulty depends on your nutrition level, fitness level, time

of day, pace, temperature, humidity, and all those hoo-ha biorhythms. Some stuff seems harder

than it should be, some stuff quite a bit easier. I do like the elevation profiles though,

because they always seem to make me think the ascent will be worse than it actually turns out to

be."

Given that some memorable slogs that were tough at the time as a Northbounder were, diverging

off a comment below, I think the Southern Mountains hit me harder as I was used to the rock

strewn trails of the Whites where I had backpacked as a teenager and college student. The

Southern mountains have long continous uphills with no "stairs" provided by rocks, the mud in

the steep footpath can cause a Northerner to loose energy in trying to grip, the Nanatahals were

probably more of challange to me from Bly Gap to Fontana Dam than any other stretch, especially

the Stecoah range from the Nanatahala river to Fontana Dam. On the other hand Pennsylvannia for

a New Englander just flys by underfoot as it like the Whites just, laid flat...:

Frosty Mtn (on the approach trail)
Just after Bly Gap
Snowbird Mtn.
Waylah Bald
Wesser Bald
Stecoah Bald (Cheoh Bald)
Thunderhead
Pond Mountain (the trail went over this in '93 right before Watuga Dam)
The mountain right after Moreland Gap on 19E (forget the name now)
Catawaba Mtn. (Macafee Knob)
Tinker Cliffs
Three Ridges
Mt. Blue and Cove Mountain (to either side of the Cumberland Valley, the 106 F heat wave might

have contributed to these.
Southtwin Mtn.
Moody Mtn.
South and North Crocker Mtns.
Barren/Chairback Mtn.
Mt. Liberty (Franconia Ridge)

Some sections don't climb, much but man the ups and downs get you:

1) the 20 miles proceeding the Blackburn Center in Northern Virginia
2) the Nanatahala's; gaps are deep, peaks are high almost as high as the Smokies and the Whites
the Moohoosucs; not high peeks nore deep gaps but rugged, rooty and steep and wet; very pretty

stretch though.
3) The Georgia section fromHawk Mountain to Blood Mtn. where the GATC seems to route the path

over every possible mountain peak on the ridgeline, I remember the second evening out looking

400' up the kno called Sassafras Mtn. One look at the Trail winding its way right up the cone on

it after done what seemed to be 50 before it and it was Tent-Out-in-the-Gap-Time
My guess is views and terrain/vegitation/landscape "eye candy" often can do wonder to distract the climber on the slog up maybe making some acents "easier" in mind than others. Some that didn't seem so bad at all, but should have been worse going by elevation gain on the maps were:

Blood Mtn.
Tray Mtn.
Siler Bald
Albert Mtn.
Standing Indian
Shuckstack Mtn.
Clingman's Dome
Max Patch
Big Bald
Big Butt
Roan Mountain (High Knob)
Whitetop Mtn. (and Mt. Rodgers)
Hawksbill Mtn.
Stoney Man
Mt. Greylock.
Stratten Mtn.
Moosilauke
The Bigelows
Pinkham Notch (gaining the Southern Presidentials)
Wildcat
Carter Notch Rainbow Dome, Mt. Height and the Carters
Mt. Gooseeye/Carlo Col
Mahoosic Arm
Baldpate Mtn.
Saddleback Mtn.
The Bigelow Range
Katahdin

There's many more memorable for difficulty or ease but it seems very subjective to me based on exhuastion, weather, availability of views, companions, etc.

[Bolivershagnasty]

My steepest mile is ALWAYS from the truck back up my porch to the front door.

[TOW]

the one that is embedded in my minds eye is going south in the wilderness and after coming upon a road, going darn near straight up for what i believe was a mile to crescent pond. the start of the ascent was approximately 2 1/2 miles south of rainbow streams lean-to.....

[The Hog]

After summiting Katahdin, we came down on the Abol Trail. I know, it's not on the A.T., but I would wager that it's steeper than anything on the entire Appalachian Trail.

[Jeff]

Although most folks are going downhill, SOBO from Sages Ravine up Bear Mtn in CT is steep, steep, steep.

[Kerosene]

Although most folks are going downhill, SOBO from Sages Ravine up Bear Mtn in CT is steep, steep, steep.

It's even steeper in late March when the northern slopes are still covered in ice and slippery as all get-out!

[LIhikers]

After having lunch and a couple of beers at the Doyle Hotel, in Duncannon, PA, I'd swear that the steepest climb was southbound out of town.......lol

[TOW]

After having lunch and a couple of beers at the Doyle Hotel, in Duncannon, PA, I'd swear that the steepest climb was southbound out of town.......lol

that's what beer does for ya....i remember that climb too, but it wasn't that bad...i left out of there on a cold rainy/snowy late afternoon in december 2001. it got dark around 5 pm and i hadn't even made it to the top...

right before i left town, the barefoot sisters had emailed me and told me to keep an eye out for patches that was hiking to harpers ferry from kathadin and that they would try and meet him there.

anyway as i am going up the trail, the snow had become so thick and it was slushy and i lose the trail. so i stp and get my bearings and tried to backtrack, but that didn't work, so i start looking for a place to pitch my enormous kiva teepee or at least bed down and pull it over me...the rocks are too numerous and too small.

i get to thinking the trail has to be up there and up there is the top and i start climbing...after about an half hour, the snow had quit and i come out to the top and a clearing and a bunch of dear that scared the crap right out of me...all those eyes lighting up in my headlamp...they were more scared though and scooted to points beyond.

so i'm looking for the trail and i notice another headlamp coming my way, so i wait till it gets near and i hollared (that's what we do down south here, in case some of you northerners are a little slow, we hollar while you guys bellow....) and it's patches!

he gets me back on the trail, i didn't let him know i got lost being the super duper hiking legend in my own mind i am thing, and i give him his message. his parents are waiting for him in duncannon, so we didn't talk long...

then he tells me the turn off for the shelter is only about a half of a mile and it had began snowing again and i hiked right past it and after a mile or so, i backtrack to find it...

i didn't get in there till 10 pm and the place was full of hunters and weekend warriors, but they made room for me and since i'm a story teller and they like stories, we stay up till one or so and they even fed me...

the next day, after all that exertion, i decided to lay around and not do a thing, i use to do that alot when i hiked, but now i usually stay on a routine...those hunters fixed me breakfast because they liked to hear stories and i awoke before all of them and had one going when their eyes popped open...("i know, some of you guys call that BS and had there been any of you there, you would have told me to shut up and probably had not been too polite about, but i like to call it story telling")....in fact, some of them before they pulled out, left me with some extra goodies and i'll be darned if they all didn't give me their phone numbers and emails and said to give them a call if i ever need a care package...i thought that was pretty cool....

i emailed some of them, never did need anything from them, but have lost contact with them since then...some of them had even got onto "hobocentral" and was rubbing elbows with a few old blue blazers.....

then after that........

[Kerosene]

We started on a NOBO section from Duncannon in early April 1974 with 50-pound packs as high school juniors, so it was a pretty tough climb up. The old bridge across the Susquehanna was really narrow, with the traffic whizzing close by.

[TOW]

We started on a NOBO section from Duncannon in early April 1974 with 50-pound packs as high school juniors, so it was a pretty tough climb up. The old bridge across the Susquehanna was really narrow, with the traffic whizzing close by.

what, were you like 16 or 17 at the time???

[fiddlehead]

In Pennsylvania, at least , it's the northbound climb out of Lehigh Gap.

I think the southbound climb out of Port Clinton is steeper although much shorter of course.
The steepest I ever saw (fortunately it was a downhill for me) was in the Pyrenees where our maps confirmed that it was 1000 metre descent in 1.5 kms. (aprox 3000' per mile) This thing seemed almost straight up and down with some excellent trailbuilding with many very short switchbacks making it doable.
But for the AT, i have to say it's either Wildcat or Katahdin.
PCT: Forrester Pass?
CDT: Hope pass southbound or northbound. although i felt like i was going straight up one time in NM when Slo Ryd and i were bushwhacking and getting caught in those Ravines. (remember that day Nean? you stayed with Lori and took the mapped route. wise)