Both Daniel and Henrik Sedin were known for their incredible conditioning when they were with the Vancouver Canucks. They were intensely competitive with each other, even to the point of wanting to beat each other in fitness testing at the start of training camp.
The Sedins may have retired from professional hockey five years ago, but they’re still in tremendous shape, as Daniel proved last week at the Multi-Grouse Grind Challenge.
The event took place on June 21, with 70 participants taking part to help raise money for North Shore Rescue . The goal is to run the Grouse Grind as many times as possible from dawn to dusk, with June 21 chosen because it is the longest day of the year, giving participants as much time as possible.
The Grouse Grind is a challenging 2.9 km trail up the side of Grouse Mountain that has earned the nickname “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster.” It includes nearly 3000 stairs and gains 800 metres in elevation over the course of the trail.
The 42-year-old Sedin completed the Grouse Grind 11 times over the course of the day, with his fastest time coming in at 51:38 and his slowest time at 1:04:02. In total, he was on the Grouse Grind for 10:08:18 — over ten hours racing up the steep elevation in one day.
It’s a testament to how Daniel has stayed in shape. Both he and his brother have taken part in multiple trail races since retiring and both ran in the Vancouver Marathon in 2019. Since then, Daniel ran a sub-three-hour marathon in Amsterdam in 2019 and he seems to be taking the lead between the two in running.
Maybe that's because Daniel has always been the one pushing his brother when it comes to fitness.
“He's a lot more regimented and structured than Henrik," said Kevin Bieksa of Daniel ahead of the Sedins’ induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. "He's the worker of the two. He's the one who would drag Henrik along as far as conditioning, cardio, diet.
“Henrik was more laid back. He liked to sit back and joke around. He'd like to sit on the couch and have coffee and be in the mix. Daniel did too, but Daniel would say in Swedish, 'Time to go. Let's go to the gym.' Daniel is the bus driver out of the two."
Not that Henrik has lagged behind in fitness. The two could be seen at the Canucks' 2022 prospect development camp completing the Grouse Grind side by side. That was, of course, just one trip up the mountain.
As impressive as Daniel’s 11 grinds in one day is, he still only finished 23rd of the 70 participants. With an astonishing 18 grinds completed, Damien Waugh won the event, followed by Megan Wing with 16 grinds, which was first in the women’s division.
Waugh came one short of the record for most grinds in one day, set by Vancouver's Wilfred Leblanc when he completed 19 grinds at the 2019 Multi-Grouse Grind Challenge.
Among men aged 40-49, Daniel’s 11 grinds ranked sixth. That said, the other participants probably didn’t spend two decades getting crosschecked in the back repeatedly, leading to back surgery.
The event raised over $25,000 for North Shore Rescue.
