Cliff Classification

This is the best publicly available tool for finding and exploring cliffs in the US.

Other maps are lower resolution (~30m) and only use slope data to classify cliffs. This map uses ~10m resolution data and image processing with statistical data from 12,000 know rock climbing cliffs, yielding a more accurate, higher resolution classification.

A short demo.

Layers

1. Slope: Pure slope visualized with colors to highlight dramatic terrain. Yellow and above is pretty seriously steep.

2. Fuzzy Cliff Classification (Zoom: 14-16): The best cliff map at zoom levels 14-16. "Fuzzy" just means there is a range of color for how confident the map is that the feature is a cliff.

3. Fuzzy Cliff Classification (Zoom: 10-13): This allows you to see the cliffs even when zoomed out really far. It may take a moment to render because there is a lot to compute.

4. Cliff Classification 10m Res: Just the fuzzy classification converted to binary yes/no cliff tiles. The fuzzy maps are better.

5. Cliff Classification 30m Res: A lower resolution version of cliffs classified so you can compare with the NED Landforms cliff classification map.

6. NED Cliff Classification: The previous best available cliff classification map I could find. Data provided by The Conservation Science Partners. This only shows the tiles classified as cliffs in the NED Landforms map.

Thanks to MountainProject.com and their users for the climbing location info.

Cliffs are some of the most striking features on the landscape. Some are even known worldwide.

The big cliffs are well documented, but there are thousands and thousands of small cliffs that are not.

Sometime these small cliffs are quite attractive.

Sometimes they provide amazing rock climbing.

Sometimes they are relevant in terms of ecology, public safety, history, land navigability, and more.

Really, I just wanted to explore. While searching for some of these small cliffs in the Pacific Northwest I realized the existing publicly available maps are not very good for this purpose.