A few minutes' drive from Vancouver are two such climbs. If you start at the bases, rather than sea level one is 2500' vertical mostly in 10km, and the other is 3000' vertical in 12km. These are my favorite rides, since they provide a lot of exercise for the time required, and the traffic is very light. When I was younger, I'd do them in an hour, but they take me 65 to 80 minutes now. That's on a hybrid bike that, equipped as it is and with the gear I take with me (fenders, rack, saddlebag, patch kit, lock, water, phone, extra clothing), weighs over 30lb.
Once a year each I get back to the bottom and turn around and go up a second time. So that makes 5000' or 6000' of climbing. The second half of the second time up is "unpleasant". Coming down is sort of fun, but I worry about mechanical failure or a deer jumping onto the road. Early in the spring or late in the fall, coming down is a bit of an ordeal since you're freezing due to being soaked with sweat from the ride up, and despite carrying extra clothing up. Sometimes at the top I lock up the bike and go for an alpine hike for an hour or two.
30 years ago it was unusual to see anyone else riding up these roads. Now, it's odd to see less than a dozen other riders each time out. Some nice summer weekend days see perhaps 200 people doing each of them, and there are various organized rides up them.
It's funny how one's attitudes toward these rides changes. During the climbs, as the effort goes from ok to grueling, I question why I'm doing this. If it's hot, I never have enough water, and if it's cold, coming down is quite unpleasant. If it's really hot (85F or higher), you start feeling ill and have to rest to cool off, or even give up. Yet, within a few days of one of these rides, I find myself NEEDING to go ride up one of them. Good to hear someone else here has been bitten by the bug of doing Cat 1 bike climbs, whatever the equipment or the time needed.
