OpenGL find distance to a point

Question

I have a virtual landscape with the ability to walk around in first-person. I want to be able to walk up any slope if it is 45 degrees or less. As far as I know, this involves translating your current position out x units then finding the distance between the translated point and the ground. If that distance is x units or more, the user can walk there. If not, the user cannot. I have no idea how to find the distance between one point and the nearest point in the negative y direction. I have programmed this in Java3D, but I do not know how to program this in OpenGL.