Grouse Grind winter hikers could delay trail opening

There is no snow on Grouse Mountain but officials say the popular Grouse Grind hiking trail is still closed, and those who aren't obeying the signs are doing damage that could delay the trail's opening.

"It is early. It is warm, but we still have had some excessively wet and rainy weather," Mike Mayers, Metro Vancouver's superintendent of environmental management told The Early Edition's Rick Cluff.

"The ground is saturated and we've not been able to do our safety assessments yet. There's rocks that are dislodged. We have stairs that need to be replaced. People travelling up the Grind at this time are just exacerbating the erosion on the trail."

Mayers said there is a considerable amount of work to be done before the trail's opening in May.

"Having people hiking on the trail won't help us that much. Some of this work is dangerous. We need to get some trees down and rocks off the trail and people hiking below just causes us to delay that type of work."

To hear the full interview with Mike Mayers, click the audio labelled: Grouse Grind still closed for winter.