It's been a while - Mt Ainslie Climb

Time travelling aside, my last little post on this little blog seems to be about a year and a half ago. A few things have happened in that time, and, well, long story short, I'm now living in Canberra, which I've been told is actually the capital of Australia. Fancy that.

Another rumor I've been told about Canberra is that there's a couple of hills around the place. So I took my deadly out and tried out some of these hills. Coming from Perth, my first reaction was "pffttt.. hills", but soon found out, that the hills here are real hills, and those in Perth are bumps in the ground.

My first little foray was up Mt Ainslie, only a couple of kms from the centre of Canberra. It's only a 3km climb, but it gets steeper the closer you get to the top. The average gradient is around 7% and maxes out at 13% according to this website. It definitely got the old heart pumping.

Mount Ainslie Map and Profile. Check out the bump in the speed toward the end (green line)! 80km/h!

I managed to get to the top in 10:37; the fastest climb on hillclimbr is 8:17, so I need to find an extra 2:20 somewhere on the climb. Hopefully I crack 10 minutes on my next try.

The other beastie of a climb close in Canberra is Black Mountain (even sounds ominous). This one is a little steeper with an average gradient of 9% that tops out at 13%. That will be next on the list of things to conquer.

Profiles of Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain. Yeah, I'm going to die going up Black Mountain.

I think I'm going to need some more gears.

Update: Topo map of the two mountains and Canberra