Total Ascents / Descent

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   I'm wondering how best to use the information provided in the profile of a route for Total Ascents and Total Descents. I know how they are calculated, but I'm not really sure how best to interpret the data.
For example a route I'm planning has a total ascent of 878 feet and a total ascent distance of 1.62 miles - what does this tell me?

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Gibbo10 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Location: Swindon Online Status: Offline Posts: 15	Quote Reply Topic: Total Ascents / Descent Posted: 05 Feb 2010 at 11:24pm
	I'm wondering how best to use the information provided in the profile of a route for Total Ascents and Total Descents. I know how they are calculated, but I'm not really sure how best to interpret the data. For example a route I'm planning has a total ascent of 878 feet and a total ascent distance of 1.62 miles - what does this tell me?

dusan Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 29 Sep 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 21	Quote Reply Posted: 06 Feb 2010 at 10:59am
	It is very much like using elevator. Total Ascent Imagine using elevator. Each time it goes up it ascends. When you measure and sum all the distances going up you get Total ascent. Total Ascent Distance Imagine that above mentioned elevator is loaded in a big truck and the truct is driving. Each time elevator goes up you measure the distance of a truck. When you sum all of the distances of a truck you get Total Ascent distance. It is very much like decomposing your movements in vertical and horizontal direction. Movement along Y axis represents Ascent / Descent respectively. Moving along X asis represents Distance Ascent / Distance Descent respectively. Hope this helps .

Gibbo10 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Location: Swindon Online Status: Offline Posts: 15	Quote Reply Posted: 06 Feb 2010 at 5:30pm
	Thanks, I understand how it is calculated but not sure how to use the data to best effect. I understand from my example that I'll be ascending for 1.62 miles of the walk and the total ascents will we 878 feet. but is there a guide or rule of thumb anywhere that helps interpret this. say for example total ascents were still 878 feet but total ascent distance was 5.0 miles this would in theory be an easier climb as the accent is spread over a longer distances, or if total ascent was 878 feet and distances was 0.5mile then this would be a hard climb as the ascent is over a shorter distances. so I was wondering if there was a rule of thumb for example that helps translate the total ascent in relation to total ascent distance?

BRG Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 28 Aug 2009 Online Status: Online Posts: 20	Quote Reply Posted: 08 Feb 2010 at 9:15am
	You may find this request for additional functionality relevant to your question: http://forum.mapyx.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=377 The total ascent and ascent distance information only gives an average for a route: it doesn't alert you to any 'killer' steep bits that may ruin your enjoyment of the outing!

Gibbo10 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 02 Feb 2010 Location: Swindon Online Status: Offline Posts: 15	Quote Reply Posted: 08 Feb 2010 at 7:48pm
	BRG, I think that you understand where I'm coming from