How do you calculate how far you've climbed?

[hilldweller]

Just looking at topo maps, as you point out, is probably reasonably close for long steady climbs and descents, but in rolling terrain, most of the climbing won't even register on a topo map that's laid out in 200 foot contour lines. Surely yours must be narrower than 100 meters!? In areas where the climbs are short but very steep, like Ohio, climbs of 150 foot (50 m) gain at over 10% grade surely do count in your legs. So it depends on where you are I suppose.

Thanks for that detailed reply Oakleaf. I think I'm starting to get an idea how they work now. The NZ topo maps have contour bands at 20m (60-something ft) intervals, which is pretty detailed really. I'll have to see if I know anyone with a Garmin or something similar and see how much difference all the little ups and downs makes. Could be quite a lot on rolling terrain. As you say, depends what sort of roads you're riding.

[msincredible]

I use:

Bikely, which does calculate total climbing. It works well on some routes and not so well on other routes (according to my estimates and to friends with Garmins).

My VDO cyclocomputer which just uses barometric pressure. If the weather is nice all day, it does pretty well, but it gets easily confused in all our microclimates. Climbing in the rain the other day, I suddenly saw myself on a 54% grade!