I think we have some of the best cycling and climbs right in our back yard of the Upstate SC. No matter how you measure the difficulty of a climb, a strong climber in the Southeast is competitive anywhere in the world. I analyzed some local climbs and compared them to climbs known and revered elsewhere. The simple metric that best represents difficulty is grade and length.(Feet climbed per mile) Click the linked table below to open it in a larger window and see how the climbs rate.
Southeastern Climb data with Feits Index comparison