Epic Hike - GG & SSG

Once a season we get together to push ourselves a little bit further than our every day hikes. You may remember our Epic hike in March when we hiked up the BCMC (Grouse Mountain) with our Snowshoes on our back, then continued up Grouse Mountain on the SSG (Snowshoe Grind) And last summer a couple people did the Grouse Grind 3 times consecutively.

This year we decided to do our weekly hike up the Grouse Grind, and then make our way to Goat Mountain. The views are said to be amazing and 360' around.  Well.....with a cloud over Grouse Mountain as we started up the Grind we hoped it would clear for the second half of our epic hike. We didn't have much luck.

Continuing on towards goat mountain, it starts off up whistler waterway, which is the same trail that we do in the winter on snowshoes for the Snowshoe Grind. It was fun to see the terrain in the Summer. And how different it it looks when we're on the ground, and not on top of meters of snow.

Following a hand written sign we had some doubts about where we were going, but following the yellow markers, at least we were on 'a trail' we found ourselves on top of a mountain, we just didn't know which one. In the middle of a misty cloud, and the rain coming down, we had no other option other than to stared back down, and we find ourselves on Dam Plato.

The visibility was horrible, and with no idea of which way Goat Mountain was, we decided to call it a day and head back down to the chalet. We'll try again when the snow has melted and we can see more than 15 feet in front of us.

It was a cold, wet, muddy day, but we all had a great time, and can now say we've hiked the Grouse Grind and the Snowshoe Grind in the same day !!







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Epic Hike - BCMC & SSG

Each year we take on the task of doing something a little crazy. 

2010, was the first year trying the Grind twice in a row.
2011, was a hat trick (three) Grind adventure.
2012, BCMC (British Columbia Mountain Club) & SSG (Snow Shoe Grind)

The morning of  day light savings 4 of us got up early, extra early with the time change, to take advantage of the early morning light. Strapping our snowshoes to our packs and started up the BCMC.

Surprised at the number of people on the trail there were lots of hellos as well as an opera singing Hungarian using the acoutics of the forest for his singing practice.


Strapping on our YakTrax at about the 3/4 mark it was like being on a movie set with the hard top layer of undisturbed snow.

Once arriving at the top of the BCMC, we were only half way through our big hike. We had a granola snack and started off again. Switching our YakTrax for our snowshoes we headed up the Snow Shoe Grind. All feeling like slugs and having smaller steps than our usual bounce on the SSG we managed to reach the top in just under an hour.
Unfortunately the view was not spectacular this day. It was overcast and we could not see the chalet or the eye of the needle. But it was well worth it as well bounded our way down in the hill in new snow.

A first for this combo, but we all can way we've done it !