The Grouse Grind

Wednesday after work, I headed off to do the 'Grouse Grind' with a mate from work. The Grouse Grind is a trail from the base to the summit of Grouse Mountain, and follows the path of the cable car (see pic).

The Grouse Grind is, indeed, a 'Grind'. I was expecting it to be tough, but I was not prepared for the hour and a half of hell that awaited me. The picture to the left does not give do justice to how bloody steep this mountain is. To give you an idea, the Grind takes you from 300m above sea level to 1100m, but is actually 2.9km long. It gets better: it's all STEPS!

The trail has markers at every quarter based on altitude rather than length and the first quarter is the easiest and also the longest and flattest. We were taking it 'easy' and all up it took us about 45 minutes to make it to the first quarter. Yes, it took us 45 minutes to climb 200 metres up the mountain. I was already stuffed at this point, with my heart pounding and legs burning and had to take a 5-10 minute break to catch my breath and regain my colour. We then made a start on the second quarter.

From here on, the quarters get shorter and steeper (and harder) and the half way mark is the point of no return as it's quicker to keep going to the top rather than walking back down.

There were dozens of people, of all ages and fitness levels, doing the grind with us and it was heartening to hear them all huffing and puffing.

After just under an hour and a half, I emerged drenched and wheezing at the summit. Beer and nachos have never been so good. Besides the sense of achievement, the view is awesome and makes it worth it.


Even though it was real hard yakka, I plan on doing it again and hopefully will do it regularly in future. Sadly, and obviously, the trail is closed during the winter months.