Car has a new clutch, pads, and rotors. I modded the rad fan to run the whole time. Stayed at thermostat temp. 192k miles. I got 42 MPG on the tank that included the climb!
FWIW the automatic version of the s-series is banned from the road because it only goes down to manual 2nd gear. I had a stick shift. I spent 70% of my uphill time in 2nd, 30% in 1st. Downhill was the opposite; 70% in 1st.
There are also tons of videos on youtube that are pretty accurate if you don't want to pay the $29.
These aren't optical illusions.... the road really is this steep!
And yeah there aren't guardrails, so you can look out your passenger window and see down, down, down.
All right, we're here!
Chain me up!
Let's be tourists for a bit.
I brought a 500mm (750 effective) telephoto lens but the haze was too much for it to be of much use:
The snow proof door looks like something out of a ship or something...
Maybe if the buildings are round the wind won't slam 'em as hard...
These tanks held kerosene for WMTW-TV's transmitter generators. They make all electricity on site. WMTW (get the call letters?) broadcast from the mountain from the 1950's until they moved tower opererations in the early 2000's and the tanks are abandoned AFAIK.
Let's start the drive down. Oooh, clouds!
I got in behind some jerks who were going down too slow, about 10 MPH, and my compression braking wasn't enough at that low speed. So I pulled off and let them go on ahead. I resumed my descent, hitting 4300 RPM in 1st gear! Started using the brakes then so I wouldn't throw a rod. My rims were cool to the touch at the bottom-- I checked.
Incidentally engine braking on a FWD car leads to understeer. Prepare for it on the dirt part.
The literature warned us of this delicate tundra brush stuff and to not pick any flowers as it takes 20 years to get plants mature enough for that point.
PS the bottom mile or two of the road just goes through some woods... kinda goes against your preconceptions.
FWIW the automatic version of the s-series is banned from the road because it only goes down to manual 2nd gear. I had a stick shift. I spent 70% of my uphill time in 2nd, 30% in 1st. Downhill was the opposite; 70% in 1st.
There are also tons of videos on youtube that are pretty accurate if you don't want to pay the $29.
These aren't optical illusions.... the road really is this steep!
And yeah there aren't guardrails, so you can look out your passenger window and see down, down, down.
All right, we're here!
Chain me up!
Let's be tourists for a bit.
I brought a 500mm (750 effective) telephoto lens but the haze was too much for it to be of much use:
The snow proof door looks like something out of a ship or something...
Maybe if the buildings are round the wind won't slam 'em as hard...
These tanks held kerosene for WMTW-TV's transmitter generators. They make all electricity on site. WMTW (get the call letters?) broadcast from the mountain from the 1950's until they moved tower opererations in the early 2000's and the tanks are abandoned AFAIK.
Let's start the drive down. Oooh, clouds!
I got in behind some jerks who were going down too slow, about 10 MPH, and my compression braking wasn't enough at that low speed. So I pulled off and let them go on ahead. I resumed my descent, hitting 4300 RPM in 1st gear! Started using the brakes then so I wouldn't throw a rod. My rims were cool to the touch at the bottom-- I checked.
The literature warned us of this delicate tundra brush stuff and to not pick any flowers as it takes 20 years to get plants mature enough for that point.
PS the bottom mile or two of the road just goes through some woods... kinda goes against your preconceptions.