Bowland Badass Climbs #22 – Birdy Brow

The Stats

Starts at mile 134.39

Length 0.74m

Feet of height gain 445

Average gradient 11.4%

What a pretty name for a hill! But isn’t there something Hitchcockian about it? Can you imagine the frantic beating of wings inside your ribs, the rising panic of feathered breathlessness culminating in a long, drawn out and agonized rictus sob as you grind to a halt with your calf muscles contorted into molten knots? It was with a finely honed and grisly sense of the macabre that the Prof insisted that this Frankenstein of a climb was included at 134 miles, and he is confident that you’ll thank him for it…..one day. The average gradient is 11.4%, but this little darling has pitches at 1 in 5 and seems like it goes on forever and ever and ever and bloody ever. Once you get to the top you’ve still got to contend with a series of rollers over Longridge Fell before you get to the other side. Birdy Brow still haunts the dreams of those poor unfortunates who have submitted to the agonizing torment of the Badass previously. It won’t be the steepest or hardest hill you’ll ever do in your life, but that won’t be a consolation when you’re dragging your cracked and sorry carcass up its unforgiving inclines (and it may well be the last hill you’ll do in your life….).

Stravasaddoinfopoint: Birdy Brow (http://app.strava.com/segments/773857) is currently owned by a physiological marvel from Lytham, and an implacable Strava enemy of the Prof. We won’t mention his name as it causes our academic friend both spiritual and physical distress every time he hears it.