The Grouse Grind

Having got up so early to watch the footy I was determined to make use of the beatiful summers day on offer now that a bit of sun had finally managed to break through the clouds of lower mainland Bristish Columbia !

Stocking up with two 1L bottles of water and a banana I decided that today would as good a day as any to take the famous Grouse Grind on the chin.

Grouse mountain over looks all of Vancouver forming the southern most tip of the coastal mountains that frame the north shore. Rising to a peak elevation of 1250m within less than a mile of the seafront you can imagine how good they look at all times from any where within the city. The last of the snow is only just disappearing now on the very tips of the peaks from last winter.

The infamous 'Grind' is a forest trail that leads directly up the face of the slope hidden within the trees and below the cable car that takes all the lightweights up to the top !

Now when I say directly up....... I mean it ! No meandering trail here ! The Grind is a series of steps formed into the mountain slope by either a combination of bare natural rock or tree roots laid across the path to give footing.

A vertical rise 0f 893m is made over a path length of 2900m. You got it ! Do your sums ! Thats a one in three slope ! Think more of it like doing a staircase in your house that has 5000 vertical steps over a distance of 3 Kilometres !

Its a killer ! (Quite literally - some poor old boy did just that last Sunday)

Its hard to describe the madness of it all particularly with signs every where warning that not only do people suffer very serious illness from doing the trail but that Bears and cougars had been seen recently within the vicinity.

Feeling pretty damned ill at the top (not sure my breakfast of lager and a banana helped) and wet to the core with sweat I headed off to grab a burger and chocy bar to stave off passing out ! Perhaps next time I will take more seriously every ones advise that the grind really is quite tuff !

My time was I think a respectable one hour and twenty minutes !

The record unbelievably is something crazy like 27 minutes ! The boy who did that must have lungs the size of a zeppelin, legs like tree trunks, the heart of race horse and the brains of blind drunk village idiot ! Who the hell tries to run up this thing wants their bumps feeling !

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