Day 59: Grouse Grind

Grouse Grind

When we first were in Vancouver, nearly 2 months ago, I already spotted the Grouse Grind. But as we just arrived, were waiting for our luggage and overall not full power after our horror trip, we decided to postpone it.

Today was now the day, the Grouse Grind is a quite famous climb. There is even a official timing program where you can buy a card, which is used to clock in at the bottom and out at the top and allows you to track your times online.

And in the top times, you can spot some famous names, for example Sebastian Salas which was a professional cyclist (alright, I never hear of him before… but whatever ;-)).

So we drove to the Grouse Mountain Skyride, from where the Grouse Grind starts. In detail it’s a 2.5km Hike with 800m of elevation gain. As it’s really steep, it consists mainly of stairs, a total of 2830.

It was quite crowded directly from the start, so we had to pass some people, then we had stretches without other people and then we hit the next “bubble” of people. As I wanted to push, we decided to split up. First I was then a bit too fast, but soon found another guy which had the perfect pace, so we teamed up. From then on we passed a lot of people and had a fast and consistent pace.

The effort was high and soon I was completely wet from the sweat and the effort was high, which my Garmin later confirmed with a 179 avg heart rate. But it was fun, mostly because it was something completely different to a normal hike or run.

Initially it was hard to set a goal, because it was so different compared to other activities. The sign stated 1.5 - 2h, but based on my hiking experience I assumed that 1h should be doable. So this was my first goal and I kept track, mostly with the help of the markers along the trail. There are 40 in total and they tell you how much you have already done (e.g. 5/40, 7/40, 35/40).

In the end I managed to finish in 47:10, which seems pretty decent. I’m always a bit competitive with stuff like that and I tried to lookup more information about the Times, but couldn’t find much, beside the top times. So I just assume that it’s good :) Nicole arrived just a tad bit later with 58:23 💪🏻.

For the way down we took the Gondola, the Grouse Grind itself is only one way but there would probably some other trails that led down.

Vancouver

Back in the city it was first time for a shower, then hunger began to strike and we went for a real lunch. Something which happened a bit more in the last time, but it’s still not default. Our choice was Roxy Burger, which was good and we could refill our energy.

There was still a bit of hunger left, or at least desire for something sweet, so we went to Gelato Express for a Shake. They were made with real ice cream and absolutely delicious. I had a Coconut + Mango mix, which sounded strange at first but turned out well.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with chilling in the outdoor area of the Hotel and Reading. Until hunger got again the better of us and we looked for a Dinner option.

Jinya Raman was our pick and they were really good, only the place itself was a bit too loud…

Pictures

Activities

Hike: Grouse Grind