Last weekend we traded in our ski boots for hiking boots and joined in on the fun pain of hiking up Grouse Mountain. Here are some official (and unofficial) stats about the infamous Grouse Grind:

trail facts

trail length: 2.9K
elevation gain: 2800ft
commonly referred to as: Nature’s Stairmaster
number of people who climb the grind annually: 100,000

stairway to heaven (though it feels like hell)

total number of stairs: 2839 steps

to put this into perspective:
• Empire State Building: 1576 steps
• CN Tower: 1776 steps (to the main deck)
• Sears Tower: 2109 steps

random stairway fact:
The longest stairway listed by Guinness is the employee-only service stairway for the Niesenbahn funicular railway near Spiez, Switzerland. It totals a whopping 11,674 steps – the equivalent of climbing the Grind 4 times.

record breakers

race to the top
(it takes the average person an hour and a half to get to the top)
• male record: 23:48
• female record: 32:08

number of grinds grinded
• The record for the most total trips up the Grind is 1353 times.
• The record for the most trips up the Grind in one day is 15 times.

2012 opening morning stats

number of people who climbed the Grind during the opening day party: 1500

number of bears seen on the trail: 1

number of beers drank at the top: 433

number of sweet videos made recapping the morning adventure: 1