As exhausting and challenging as this may be both physically and mentally, I actually quite enjoy the battle with yourself as you ascend towards to top of Grouse Mountain. It’s also become somewhat of a regular thing for me by now, so I do also look forward to the challenge to set a new personal best time. Get a good nights rest, wake up much earlier than you’d like to while on vacation, and off you go. Once you start you can’t stop as traveling downhill is not permitted; your only option is to move forward. Just make sure you bring some money to the top (and not to mention lots of water) so you can buy a ticket to take the gondola back down.

I did manage to be able to set a new PB (1:50:32.02) despite being incredibly out of shape and constantly stopping to take photos, so I was fairly pleased with that. Let me know what your time is if you ever decide to challenge the Grouse!

-brandon.

Click HERE to view the full photo set on Flickr.