I'm lookin at my Garmin 301 and I have maximum elevation, minimum elevation, total ascent, total descent, average ascent, average descent, odometer, movin time and movin average. I assume that "average" refers to velocity. I doubt that the odometer or movin average take into account elevation, especially since there are 6 other fields dedicated to it, but I could be wrong - happened once before.

This is all fun stuff and progress is great but if you want to quantify an up and downhill hike are you assuming that the trail is uniform and steepness does not matter? Certainly a gradual uphill hike culminating with a scramble up a talus pile to the top and then say onto snow to an overlook is going to be harder to quantify... is there a seasonal algorythme? Icey trail at the top say vs dry near the TH?

Like you can say 5 miles with 800 feet of up and 500 feet of down with some easy rocks near the top, and 57 switchbacks. OR maybe you could say that the trail has a meander coeficient of .23 and will require 57,000,000 ergs of energy per pound of hiker/pack...

Just funnin ya