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New Hampshire - Top Bike Climbs

Mt. Washington Auto Road

USA, NH

Kearsarge Mt. Road

USA, NH

Hurricane Mt. Road East

USA, NH

Switchback Way

USA, NH

Hurricane Mt. Road West

USA, NH

Route 118 North

USA, NH

Kancamagus Pass West

USA, NH

Kancamagus Pass East

USA, NH

#10

Route 118 South

USA, NH

#11

Pack Monadnock

USA, NH

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New Hampshire is a spectacular place to cycle, so much so that we've visited it 3 times to document its magnificent climbs. This page provides a summary for cycling and climbing by bike the top climbs in New Hampshire, the top 10 of which are 1. Mt. Washington Auto Road, 2. Kearsarge Mt. Road, 3. Hurricane Mt. Road East, 4. Switchback Way, 5. Hurricane Mt. Road West, 6. Route 118 North, 7. Winter Brook Rd to Taylor Drive, 8. Kancamagus Pass West, 9. Kancamagus Pass East, and 10. Route 118 South

The best, hardest, most scenic and epic road bike climbs of New Hampshire can be viewed on this page via the map (zoom in to view climbs in particular areas), by Climb Cards (photo and stats) or by a detailed list of the climbs that can be arranged in metric or imperial units by difficulty, distance (longest climbs in the area), altitude gained, highest elevation (highest summit), average grade (sort the grades by varying distances), lowest start point, etc. Click on "Climb Page" to jump to the detail page for that particular bike climb. This page provides an excellent and comprehensive summary of the top, hardest and best bicycling climbs in New Hampshire.

Climb List: New Hampshire
(sort by distance, difficulty, elevation and more)

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Total Climbs: 27

Top 100 USA: 27

Avg. PDI (Top 5): 16.4

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Showing All 27 Climbs

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Also see our White Mountains Fall Colors page.

Below are the top 3 bike climbs in New Hampshire. By far and away, Mt. Washington is the hardest of them all - but, hey, it’d also be the hardest in all but 2 other states. New Hampshire is a great place to climb by bike, particularly in during peak fall color season. Our favorite bike climb after Mt. Washington also happens to be the second hardest - Hurricane Mountain Road (both sides). Hurricane Mountain Road is a very quiet climb that is quite challenging and exceptionally beautiful during the fall.

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S #1 / US #5 / WORLD #55

MT. WASHINGTON AUTO ROAD

Cycling Mt. Washington Auto Road - start of race - cyclists with bikes

US Top 10 Most Epic Bike Climb

Note: The Mt Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb benefitting Tin Mountain Conservation Center is held the second Saturday in August. Fastest times up Mt. Washington: Tom Danielson USA 2002 (0:49:24) and Jeannie Longo CAN 2000 (0:58:14).

2017 Jersey featured PJAMM Cycling.

Mt. Washington is part of the US Hillclimb Series which includes races on Mt. Evans (7-27-19), Mt. Penn (8-4-19), Mt. Mansfield (8-25-19), Mt. Baker (9-8-19) and Gibraltar Road (9-21-19).

Mt. Washington, according to The Climbing Bible -- John Summerson’s The Complete Guide to Climbing (by Bike) -- is “the most difficult hill climb race in the U.S. and perhaps the world,” and “the annual hill climb race up its slopes is perhaps the most brutal on earth” (Summerson 249, 62).

Biking Mt. Washington Auto Road starting station

Start

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S #2 BIKE CLIMB

KEARSARGE MOUNTAIN ROAD

Cycling Kearsarge Mountain Road

Ride 3.5 miles gaining 1,470’ at 8% average grade.

This is the third hardest bike climb in New Hampshire and may be the most scenic - particularly during leaf peeping season. 👍👍. It is said that on a clear day the skyscrapers of Boston can be seen 80 miles away. While we could see Boston from Wachusetts Mountain on our trip there, we could not spot Boston from Mt. Kearsarge on the day in October we rode this beauty.

There are some brief extremely steep sections (22% is the highest grade I encountered)

The steepest ¼ mile (13.6%) and ½ mile (12.8%) begin about a quarter mile from the start.

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S #3 BIKE CLIMB

HURRICANE MOUNTAIN ROAD EAST

Cycling Hurricane Mountain Road East

Ride 2.3 miles gaining 1,195’ at 10% average grade.

This is the harder of the two routes up to the top of Hurricane Mountain Road, although the western approach is also very challenging. Both climbs are exceptional - we rank them as nearly epic, actually. While short, these are brutal bike climbs up very steep grades. The steepest ¼ mile is 16% and steepest ½ mile 13.6%.