"Grinding" up Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver

by Keith and Heather Nicol

Be sure to check out the grizzly bear exhibit

     On Saturday, November 8 we headed up the Grouse Grind in North Vancouver. Despite it being late in the hiking season the good weather brought out lots of people wanting to do this “natural stair master” of a hike. We were joined by our daughter Kristie and her boyfriend Eric who have been doing this route regularly through the summer and early fall. For anyone not familiar with the Grouse Grind  it starts at the base of Grouse Mountain and climbs steeply gaining about 850 meters in 3 km.  Over 150,000 people do the uphill trek each year and then most take the aerial tram back down to the bottom. Many people use the “Grind” as a fitness routine and we were passed by many people dressed light trail running gear and some were literally flying up the mountain. The hike has been done in an amazing 25 minutes but we took a more leisurely 1 hour and 25 minutes, which was 5 minutes slower than our last trip here in May, 2014. At the top we also checked out the grizzly bear exhibit and which is a popular attraction at the summit of Grouse.  The grizzly bears (Grinder and Coola) are part of a wildlife interpretation programme that Grouse Mountain has been running for over a decade. Grouse also has chairlift rides, ziplines and is also now beginning to get ready to winter where they offer skiing, snowshoeing and lots of other winter activities. For more information on Grouse Mountain check out: https://www.grousemountain.com/

Kristie enroute to top of Grouse 

The view from the top of Grouse provides a great panorama of  the Vancouver area