HikeArizona.COM

Anyone have an idea of the steepest hike in Arizona? My vote goes to 'The Slabs' of Mount Elden in Flagstaff. About 2000' of elevation gain in 1 mile. Post some steep hikes!

picacho, icehouse, and the cost of living.

Pusch Peak is steep.

Lava Falls, 2500' in 1.3 mi on a gnarly south-facing slope

The actual ascent on Flatiron (from the slickrock and up) is 1500 feet in 6/10th of a mile. That's pretty steep.

Even Joe gave it the "Straight UP" moniker!

Anything over 2000 feet in a mile is steep, and there are a few over 2500 feet.

For the spirit of this discussion though, I think Flatiron should be excluded since the steep climb is less than a mile.

Another short one I've done is Squaw Butte out on the Verde. That's 800 feet in 3/10ths ... putting it over the 2500/mi grade.

South Canyon Route

With nerves of steel:
Eagletail, Baboquivari, Weavers Needle

How do you get to the slabs on Elden? I can't find a gpx file.

If it is for training, hard to beat Finger Rock trail... steep, yet runnable... and long enough to do a reasonable workout. If you just want to score some nice height, the Pinnacles up Mt Lemmon Highway get you nicely lofted.

@chumley
we exited the Verde at Squaw Butte....definitely have to go back to bag Squaw

You can use listofjohn (pay $ite) to calculate the steepest actual peaks themselves. I think Spider Rock is ranked #1, LOL.

However, to me, there is a distinction between steepest 'hike' and steepest climb. I'd be interested in what people's thoughts are on the steepest hike with an actual walkable trail that they didn't need their hands for scrambling would be, i.e. only Class 1 or 2.

Flatiron to me is a quasi hike/climb. It's not really a hike but not totally a climb either.

I would guess the steepest hikes in Arizona are probably hikes out of canyons-- not hikes up peaks.

Tough_Boots wrote:I would guess the steepest hikes in Arizona are probably hikes out of canyons-- not hikes up peaks.

So what I meant was and I'm sure that there are WAY steeper hikes but say comparing Black Mtn in Cave Creek to say Piestewa. I thought Black Mountain was pretty darn steep for an urban 'trail' etc. that I never had to scramble on. It's not steep compared to Class 3/4 scrambling ANYWHERE but I was just referring to actual trails without scrambling.

I think Joe put a calculator for average steepness and that of all the listed hikes on the website, pusch peak won. That said there are many hikes where a short segment will be steeper than the average of pusch peak. It is difficult to come up with a good way to measure it, as it really depends on how close the trailhead is to where the steep segment begins. I suspect with pusch it basically starts right at the base of the mountain without a long approach.