jordenf v2.0

I’ll admit it, I’ve been living a lie these past 26 years.  I’ve been passing myself off as a true Vancouverite but alas it is not entirely true… because everyone knows to be a true Vancouverite you need to at one point complete the Grouse Grind.  And on Sunday it was my first time doing it.

Now for you foreigners to my blog (foreigners is a bit harsh actually… I’ll just say, if you’ve never been to Vancouver before you’re in the foreigner category) the Grouse Grind is basically a popular hike in Vancouver that goes from the bottom of Grouse Mountain to the very top.  It’s 2.9km at an elevation of 853 meters (or 2,800 feet for you “foreigners”) and you end up climbing 2,830 stairs.  According to Grouse Mountain’s website annually 100,000 people hike The Grind… and it felt that about half that number was hiking on Sunday morning.

The hike was a great workout but it was a little annoying as well because you had to work your way past people that had no business attempting to work their way up the mountain, or people who had no idea what The Grind was and brought their 3-6 year old children to scream along the way.  But it wasn’t just the children having a rough go, I had to stop half-way up and ask a lady if she needed me to resuscitate her because she was on all fours breathing so hard that I thought she was either dying or giving birth.

But other than the number of people it was great.  In my opinion there is nothing that makes you feel more manly than climbing up a mountain (which is a good thing because the manliness I was exuding off-set the fact that all my clothes matched perfectly and I’m fairly pretty as far as men go).   And of course nothing makes exercise more worthwhile than having a beer and nachos at the pub on top of the mountain… I mean that’s pretty much the only reason you do it anyways.

Now I went with my cousin who had this super cool app for his iPhone… I have a BlackBerry which does not have super cool apps but that’s another blog for another day.  Anyways this app is called Run Keeper and basically how it works is using the iPhone’s GPS it can track your distance, time, speed, pace, calories burned and elevation.  It also speaks to you and shows you the route you are taking on Google Maps.  If you have an iPhone pay the money for this App… if you have a BlackBerry throw it out and get an iPhone.

Anyways… the Grouse Grind was excellent and I will definitely be doing it again and I recommend you give it a go too… unless you are a 3-6 year old child or you have trouble breathing after walking from the couch to the fridge.

Cheers!

jordenf – the newest Vancouverite