Elevation and climbs
Last verified
Tap 'Scrub it' on the route screen for the full elevation view. Drag across the profile to read the distance, height and gradient at that point, while a dot on the map above shows where it is. Pinch or use +/− to zoom. Below it are the climbs on the route with their length and average gradient, your totals — climb, descent, steepest sustained gradient and ride time — and the route's surface: how much is paved, unpaved, or has no surface recorded in the map data.
Reading the profile
- The bars are coloured by day, matching the colours on the map.
- Drag anywhere on the chart to move the marker; the three figures below and the dot on the map above follow it.
- A negative gradient means you're going down.
- Zoom in with the + button or a pinch, and Full route takes you back out.
Climbs
Bikepackia picks out the climbs worth knowing about and grades them, the way cycling does, from Cat 4 up to Hors Catégorie. Each climb card shows where it starts, how long it is, its average gradient and how much you'll climb. Tapping one jumps the profile to it. A route with no long sustained ascents shows no climbs even when the total climbing is high — that means the height comes in short lumps rather than a proper climb.
Totals and surfaces
| Figure | What it means |
|---|---|
| Total climb / descent | Metres up and down across the whole route. Both are worked out the same way, with rises and dips under 3 m treated as noise in the elevation data and left out. |
| Max gradient | The steepest sustained gradient, with one-off spikes in the data filtered out. |
| Ride time | A range for the whole trip from the same estimate as the route screen's Time: your bike type, e-bike setting and pace, over the riding distance and the climbing. |
| Surface breakdown | A one-line split such as '22% unpaved · 43% paved · 35% unknown surface', a bar, and each surface material with its share, tagged unpaved, paved or unknown. |
The surface figures come from the surface recorded on each road and track in the map data. Asphalt, concrete and paving stones count as paved; gravel, dirt, grass, cobblestones and the like count as unpaved. A stretch with no surface recorded is 'Unknown surface': it is never counted as unpaved or off-road, and it never quietly becomes paved either. When the route carries no surface data at all, the section says 'Surface unknown' instead of guessing from the kind of road.
The climb and descent shown here match the route screen and the summary band above the chat. Climbing figures can differ from another app, or from an older version of the same route, because every app filters elevation noise its own way.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my route say 0 climbs when it has 2,000 m of climbing?
Because the climbing is spread over lots of short rises rather than long sustained ascents. Only climbs long and steep enough to be worth naming are listed.
Why is the max gradient lower than a spike I can see in the chart?
Elevation data carries occasional bad readings that would report absurd gradients, so Bikepackia smooths them out and reports the steepest sustained grade instead.
What does 'unknown surface' mean?
The map data has no surface recorded for that stretch. It could be tarmac or a track, so Bikepackia shows it as its own share rather than counting it as paved or unpaved. A gravel route with a large unknown share is worth checking on satellite imagery before you ride.