The Grouse Grind attracts an estimated 300,000 people each season, including many without proper footwear or water.DARRYL DYCK/The Globe and Mail
Vancouver's most popular hike – sometimes labelled its most dangerous – has put such a strain on local rescue services that regional park management has started an experiment this year with roving rangers to educate people about how not to get into trouble on the Grouse Grind.
Two rangers paid by Metro Vancouver started patrolling the Grouse Mountain trail as of early May. The idea is do preventive work with the inexperienced people who try to walk the 2,800-step trail when they are in bad shape, wearing flip-flops or high heels, travelling without water and committing other wilderness sins.
"People think it's a walk in the park, but it's really an extreme fitness event," said the District of North Vancouver's fire chief, Victor Penman. His crews were out yet again on Wednesday helping someone in medical distress at the midway point and another near the top of the trail, which rises 853 metres over its 2.9-kilometre length.
The crowds start to appear on the Grind in early May and go until late fall, with as many as 8,000 hikers on peak weekends and an estimated 300,000 in a season. The trail, on one of Vancouver's main ski mountains, is attractive in part because people can ride the gondola down at the end.
Mr. Penman and Metro Vancouver watershed manager Bob Cavill came up with a plan to bring in a couple of rangers to walk the trail all day based on a successful program that the fire service implemented in Lynn Valley canyon in the 1990s after a spike in the number of rescues there.
"It's a response to the constantly growing use of the trail. We're well up into the hundreds of thousands of people using it and it's right on the edge of town," Mr. Cavill said.
The two rangers, one woman and one man, worked at Lynn Canyon previously. On their days off, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the trail will be patrolled by Metro's fire-suppression crews.
The number of calls the district fire service responds to on the Grind has grown from only a few a season to 15 or 25. Mr. Penman did not have a dollar figure for the cost to the district.
Crews are often sent out with only a vague idea of the distressed hiker's location and how serious the problem is.
Mr. Cavill said having rangers on patrol will help save time and money, since they will know where the person is and can provide rescuers with a more precise description of the situation.
North Shore Rescue is also welcomes the new rangers, because its teams have had to spend more and more time helping inexperienced Grind hikers. (In general, North Shore Rescue deals with lost hikers, while fire services handles those who are injured.)
About eight years ago, the rescue organization started assigning volunteers to walk the trail at sunset every night to look for people who may not be able to make it out before dark.
"It's worked very well for us," team leader Mike Danks said. "The sweeps we do every night are key. They've helped to reduce our call volume."
Outdoor magazine put the Grouse Grind on its 2013 list of the 10 most dangerous hikes in the world, along with the Drakensberg Traverse in South Africa, the Maze in Utah and Mount Hua Shan in China.
Three people have died on it since 1999, two from cardiac problems and one in an avalanche.
Mr. Penman said it is too early to say whether the rangers are making a difference, but noted that fire crews have had to go out only twice so far in May in spite of exceptionally good weather that draws more hikers.
"So far, we're pretty encouraged."
Frances Bula