Grit and the Grind: Trudeau tackles trail
Leader climbs Grouse, but offers little at summit
• The Grouse Grind, a 2.9-kilometre trek up 853-metre Grouse Mountain, is a popular spot for anyone hoping to test their physical mettle — or, perhaps, demonstrate youthful vigour to the Canadian electorate.
“I’m hoping for a respectable time,” Justin Trudeau, 45, said as he stood Friday morning at the bottom. “I just want to beat Tom Mulcair and Stephen Harper.”
The Liberal leader was followed by some reporters, including me, and about 30 volunteers and candidates.
At the first quarter mark, most were still with him, and Trudeau turned to 18-year-old volunteer Anna Yamaoka with a question: “Is it weird that I have Miley Cyrus’ The Climb going through my head?”
Yamaoka stayed with Trudeau until the end, when he finished at 54.55 minutes. (Most people average an hour and a half to reach the top, while the official record holder has done it in 23 minutes and 48 seconds.)
But others started to fall behind. Although it was expected Trudeau would stop at every quarter mark, he kept going, forcing cameramen to run to catch up.
“He just booked it,” said Yamaoka, who noted Trudeau is super-competitive.
By the halfway mark, I’d lost the Liberal leader, my legs struggling to tackle the rest of the 2,830 steps of “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster.” It didn’t help that when I passed people who were taking a break from the climb that Trudeau was “way up there.”
I emailed my editor to say I thought I’d lost Trudeau and thought I was going to die, then decided to interview his supporters.
My misery found company in the form of Brittany Whitmore, 27. She had almost turned back at the beginning, she said, after realizing it was harder than she remembered. But she wanted to make it to the top to see Trudeau.
“It’s very brave of him to do this for the first time,” said Whitmore, who has been a Liberal since she reached voting age.
“It’s cool that he’s doing this to engage with everyone, especially the volunteers because they’ve worked really hard.”
Whitmore isn’t a volunteer but was invited to join the epic trek because they needed more women. A lot of girls didn’t want to sign up, she said, because they had to sign a waiver about appearing in videos and photos.
“I guess they didn’t want their photos taken when they were all sweaty,” she said. Whitmore was more concerned with whether she would make it.
Yamaoka’s friend, Ekateryna Nova, 23, said it was probably “the most fun political event ever.”
At the top, though, Trudeau only offered: “I don’t think this is something I will do every day.”
That’s what Yamaoka told me, anyway. I arrived too late.