Grinds #10 and #11 - Everest Unleashed!

Grind #10 – Monday Oct. 4th - Sounds like someone’s got a case of the Mondays!

              As you can probably imagine we’ve quickly come to realize that until they install an escalator our Grindings don’t vary a heck of a lot from day to day. We typically arrive at the Grind between 5 and 6 and get our stuff together in hopes that we can arrive at the top before dark. This time of the day at this time of the year there are few people on the Grind especially on dreary Monday’s like today. We were basically the only ones heading up and we could see why as Grouse was almost completely hidden by the time we got to the base of the Mountain. It was a little cooler and we were determined to make another record time though about half way up we were stopped dead in our tracks. Often I’m so focused on not losing Jill and making good time I can lose sight of what’s important (like breathing). We reached a lookout point and turned around to see the sun struggling to shine through the misty haze and trees, creating an incredible photo opportunity. Our camera’s primary function as of late had been simple; take a quick self-photo at the top to avoid any fake moon-landing like accusations about whether we were grinding or not and be on our way! Today we stopped for about a minute a few times as it was one of the coolest things we’ve ever seen. Here are a few we'd like to share:

            

Grind  #11 – Our First Everest!

Grind time - 46:53

BOOM! One Everest done! It’s funny how as a kid Mt. Everest always seemed like a ridiculous, unachievable goal that only hardcore mountaineers, celebrities, and pretty much any Nepalese person could summit. Yet here we are, on top the world, having arrived without the aid of Sherpas, oxygen, cold-weather gear or even taken any regard to the need for acclimatization. But seriously, we did the math repeatedly to ensure that 11 Grinds is actually the equivalent ascension from sea level to the top of the world. Now that we’ve done it though we’re really not that surprised as the last few weeks has been hot, freezing, fun, painful, stressful, relaxing, tough, easy, energizing, exhausting… all in all a roller coaster of emotions. Above all else though it’s been an experience that has dominated our lives and we’ve enjoyed immensely.

                We’ve been asked a number of times as to what sparked our decision to do this and it started with my folks asking if we had any interest in going to Africa in January for a medical mission. This quickly snowballed into something that just had to be done and now we just had to figure out how it would work. Jill would likely be fine with taking a couple weeks away from her Masters and Duncan’s work would hopefully contribute a bit of time and the rest would be made up with overtime and vacation. Recently they agreed to generously donate a week of my work time and I would make up the remaining week or two myself, finally making the mission a reality. I guess that’s more about the how than the why. The reason why stems from the fact that working in a city like Vancouver for a few years where even a professional can find it hard to make it financially, you can become pretty focused on yourself. My last volunteer experience had been about 8 years ago at St. Mary’s of the Lake and now that I was established here I realized there was a void. We felt as though our greatest assets were our knowledge, experience and time and our knack to spontaneously dive into a huge commitment such as a bi-daily ascension of the Grouse Grind. Anyways, Jill and I are proud of what we`re doing although we realize it`s a drop in the bucket and that you guys are the real heroes as you`re making this possible. Thank you all!!
                We were originally slated to complete our first Everest on the Wednesday though Duncan got a late invite to a thank you event for contributors on a project he worked on in Victoria. If you ever get a chance to go and check it out it's called "The Atrium Building" located at Yates and Blanchard and you can access the main Atrium from street level. Duncan worked with the Design-Build firm StructureCraft to help design and detail the 60 foot span skylight trusses which are made from pine-beetle-kill 2x dimensional lumber and steel. Here are a few shots of Yates including the inaugural truss being lifted into place about a year ago and some shots from Wednesday night of the final product:

Inaugural Truss being Lifted into Place

Full Shot of the Atrium

               

              Now for our Grind! We arrived at about 6 o’clock and knew it would be another race against time to make it to the top before dark. When we arrived we were surprised by what we saw: over 50 people standing around in the parking lot looking like they were just about ready to head up the Grind. We weren’t really interested in being in the middle of such a huge group so we jumped out of the car and just as they were beginning we grabbed our stuff and scrambled up around them to get ahead. We made it in front of them though then we realized they looked pretty hard core and thought about how demoralizing it would be of being passed by 50 people. They were on our heels for the first few hundred meters and then thankfully diverted off the main path to take an alternate route. We passed a volunteer for the North Shore Search and Rescue Team who was doing the daily sweep of the Grind and politely gave us a little spiel about hours and daylight. We name-dropped my cousin Don who was a senior North Shore Search and Rescue member and assured him we were all good. In the end, it was a burst of a start, then a steady push up the mountain to shave seconds off our record.