Schedule blew open a bit tonight so I took advantage, jumped in the car and headed over to Grouse Mountain. It took me a bit less than an hour to get there, even though it was probably only 20 miles away … that is traffic through a city like Vancouver I guess. And then you need to cross the Lion’s Gate Bridge.
Okay, the run itself. Think Fern. Except more stair steps. And A LOT of people. I easily passed 200 people on the route. Maybe more. I could not really believe how many folks were doing this thing. Most walking but a good number of people trying to get at it. And of course, when I am barely moving, they toss up a challenge too. Some folks obviously were content to let me slip pass as I muttered “on your left” but others saw me coming or wanted to latch on and fight some. All good fun. Motivating of course. They mark the route up to let you know when you have done a quarter of it, half, 3/4s.
Most of it was a power hike for me. It is just too steep for me to be runable with the steps as they are. I didn’t take any pix en route, but here are some before and afterwards.
The grade is steep. Pretty constant on the step ups at 40% plus …
At the top, the local lodge offers beverages (beer) and food. And as you are not supposed to run the grind back down (which with the steepness, and the traffic I sort of get), they want you to take the gondola down. Prior research had me figure out that I could take the BCMC trail down and so I sought that out. When I asked someone about it, they looked aghast. “You are going to go down?” After the brief smile and explanation, they pointed me in the direction and told me to bear right or “you will end up in a ravine.” The down was stupid steep too, but probably a bit less than the Grind itself. In CO, we tend to forget about the wet roots and slick soil that can cover the scree rock … makes it a who new level of challenge. I think I actually descended at a slower pace than what I went up at.
38:36 for on the up for those keeping score, Calling it is 3.5 on the night with the up and the down.
Awesome, stoked that you went. I watched a handful of videos earlier in the week, looks like a blast. Did you have to buy one of those timing cards, or I assume that it just a fun option and you can just do your own timing?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I could gather, sounds like you can actually descend the Grind despite the discouragement (not against the rules, but just discouraged, sort of like with the Incline), but like you said, with the crowds, best not to, probably more fun doing what you did. With a season pass on that gondola, you could get in some mad laps with little to no pounding, a 12 or 24 hour Grind would be awesome.
Yeah, Jeff I thought about what guys like you or Tony could do on it. I am pretty sure you'd be flirting with sub a half an hour.
ReplyDeleteI did not get the little timing card. The mountain organization has built quite the business around the grind: pay for parking, pay for the timing card, a restaurant at the top, pay for the gondola down. Pretty smart as they are leveraging what they had from the ski season. And a lot of people are doing it so they are certainly making some bucks.
I think I read the same article you did about going down the grind. It would have been really slow with the steep nature and the tons of people coming up. I was slow going down the BCMC trail and there was may 2% of the people on that ...
And yeah, I thought about the laps too. I just didn't want to drop the 10 bucks last night and was more interested in exploring a bit.
Good stuff man, nice job, very cool that you got out there and shared it with us!
ReplyDeleteCool! Glad you made it out of the city a bit. Can relate to the descent taking longer, most of the mountain stuff we do out here (quebec, 'dacks, catskills) is like that (steep, rocks, roots, usually wet).
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wonder too about how long it would take, being at sea level and all. On my best efforts on steep stuff at the 6-8,000 foot elevation range, I can (or perhaps that is past tense now?) average between 77 vfpm on things like Fern, to mid-90's on something more efficient like the Incline and have done 115 I think in Alaska at sea level, so translating that over, I think sub-30 would certainly be likely (for you too of course if that was your focus). Of course this is all just yammering from afar, would love to put my money where my mouth is so to speak. Tony would likely beat that record, but I have no idea who set it (23:??).
ReplyDeleteThat grind looks awesome!
ReplyDeleteNext time (if there ever is one) you should run down the way you came up while wearing a Colorado Avs Jersey and yelling out "USA" and "Canada Sucks".
How does this compare to the Incline?
ReplyDeleteThink Staponowich is doing 24 hours of the Incline on July 4. That dude needs to get a girlfriend.
And yes, what Jaime said!
Strava profile, data ... http://app.strava.com/activities/152926732
ReplyDeleteGreat you got to Grouse!
ReplyDeleteJonathan Wyatt held the record in 24:22 at one point but I think it's 23 something now…not sure who has it. Very stout record.
just found it… 23:48 by Sebastian Salas
ReplyDeletehttps://www.grousemountain.com/press_releases/grouse-grind-record-time-shattered#.U5sqTBa4plo
Some other links: the list from Grouse on top times: https://www.grousemountain.com/grind_stats
ReplyDeleteAnd the strava leaderboard: http://app.strava.com/segments/888067?filter=overall
Jaime, You mean the Avs with the roster of +90% Canadians, coached by a Canadian? ;)
ReplyDelete