[BLP] The Grouse Grind

Sunday, July 26, 2015

On Saturday morning I got to do something that I've always wanted to do since I was around ten years old: the Grouse Grind. Around this age was when I hiked up the Stawamus Chief in Squamish, which is a similar hike except after admiring the view at the top, you have to hike back down. Annica had also completed the Grouse Grind around this age, but I never had a chance to make a trip to Grouse Mountain until my parents' friend, Tito Al, came to visit. Grouse Mountain is a popular tourist attraction, so my family never drives up unless we're bringing a guest.

There were some showers when we arrived at the bottom of the mountain, a bittersweet occurrence since Vancouver was experiencing a bit of a drought and water shortage up until this weekend (and it's the reason why I didn't end up bringing my DSLR up with me, and took pictures with my phone). But nonetheless, many hikers showed up and began their adventure up the mountain. The weather kept the air cooler than usual, and after the rain stopped completely towards the 1/4 mark, the sun began to peak out as we reached the end of the hike.

Something that I greatly underestimated was the steepness of the hike. I hated climbing up the stairs at home, but that's literally nothing compared to the stair-climbing that's required to get to the top.

Here's some grade 10 trigonometry for you: 2.9 km/ 2900 m hike up (hypotenuse), and 853 m elevation gain (adjacent) = a 73˚ angle to hike up. For comparison, the Chief is 84˚ because it's a 5.5 km hike up a 600m elevation gain. No wonder its nicknamed 'Mother Nature's Stairmaster'.

Being overwhelmed with the amount of agility needed to climb up 2 830 steps of stairs, combined with the thinning of oxygen, I was practically dying in the first half of the hike up. We took frequent breaks to drink water and to take a couple bites of our Cliff bar because I was starting to see double and feel slightly lightheaded. If it wasn't for music blasting in my ears, things would've been a whole lot harder. But I pushed through and somehow took my mind off things, and the last half was an exciting adventure. We stopped several times, but for me it was mostly to take pictures because after the beautiful hazy fog, it began to be a bit brighter towards the top. It was literally the light at the end of the tunnel.