Sebastian Albrecht Sets Grouse Grind Record With 13 Climbs In One Day
33 year old Vancouver Realtor Sebastian Albrecht used to run a lot. But now, with bad knees he’s turned to a less punishing effort – climbing the Grouse Grind.
Last year, for fun, he ascended the 2.9km trail that soars with 800+m of vertical with a friend 12 times in 1 day. He didn’t really plan it very well, had to wait a couple times for fully loaded gondolas and was clogged on the route by a busy trail.
When the anniversary started to roll around, Sebastian challenged himself to break his own record and this time tie it to charity. With a $10 000 goal to raise money for The Shelter Foundation, Sebastian set off at 630a yesterday to climb the Grouse Grind 13 times in one day. He scheduled a pace that would get him to the top with time to refuel on the way down and not miss any gondola rides.
Here are some facts about The Grouse Grind:
Length: 2.9 kilometres (1.8 miles)
Elevation Gain: 853 metres (2,800 feet)
Total Stairs: 2,830
Average Time: On average it takes up to an hour and a half to complete the hike. For novice hikers, up to two hours is recommended.
Calories Burned: it all depends on pace, but average is 1 100 calories.
Now let’s multiply that for what Sebastian did:
Length: 37.7 kilometres (a marathon is 42 km)
Elevation Gain: 11 kilometres (Mount Everest is only 8 kilometres of vertical – his climb was 1.5 x up Mount Everest)
Total Stairs: 36 790 (that’s 1226 flights)
Average Time: 50 min (his fastest was 43min, his slowest was 1h10)
Calories Burned: 14 300 (Michael Phelps’ insane diet is only 12 000 calories a day. Some diets recommend 14 000 calories a week)
Without doubt, Sebastian is one of the most accomplished athletes in Vancouver after pulling this stunt not once, but twice (and pumping updates to Twitter the whole time)! I got up early to tackle climb #1 with Sebastian, here’s the interview.
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