This Sunday, a Vancouver man will climb the Grouse Grind for the 1000th time, symbolizing his incredible journey of triumph after escaping from a war-torn country with his family nearly 30 years ago.
Radislav Nikic will climb the Grouse Grind this Sunday, and many family members, including his daughter Andrea and son Boris, will cheer him on.
Daily Hive spoke with Andrea, who shared Nikic’s story with us and told us what this Sunday’s feat symbolizes for their family.
Andrea, who grew up in Vancouver, moved to Canada with her family when she was around four. Her family moved from what was Yugoslavia and is now Bosnia, to Winnipeg. They stayed in Manitoba for a year before packing the car and moving to Vancouver.
“We did one winter in Winnipeg,” she told Daily Hive.
At some point during a phone conversation in March while the family was in Winnipeg, Andrea’s aunt, who was in Vancouver, told Andrea’s mom that they were at a park, which her mom couldn’t fathom.
March in Winnipeg and March in Vancouver are very different. Her mom realized that they needed to pack up and head to Vancouver. That was 28-ish years ago.
A long, long road to Vancouver
The road to Vancouver was longer than the trip from Winnipeg to Vancouver.
Before their family moved to Canada, Andrea’s parents endured severe hardship in what was then Yugoslavia. They lived in a small town called Fojnica.
“My mom worked in a hotel, and life was pretty good. They had decent jobs, a big social community and lots of family around them.”
That took a bit of a turn.
Andrea recalled a story from her mom about when she was a little girl and was going to sleep, before a sniper outside the window woke her up.
Her parents come from a mixed marriage. Her mom is Croatian, and her dad is Serbian, two of the three main parties involved in a civil war at the time.
“So we hung out in Belgrade and Serbia and hid there for a bit, and quite unsafely.”
She added that her dad was of fighting age, so if he were found, he would’ve been forced to fight. Andrea’s mom, who was pregnant then, went to the Canadian embassy and practically begged the embassy to give her family a new home. They thankfully escaped to greener pastures in Canada.
At least 1,000 climbs
We wanted to learn how Nikic found the Grouse Grind and became so fond of it that he climbed it over 1,000 times.
“I was probably in undergrad, 14-ish years ago. I was going through an emotional time in my life, and I said, ‘Hey, Dad, let’s go do the Grouse Grind,'” Andrea said.
She doesn’t think he had much experience with it at the time. After that, Andrea says he just took off.
Nikic was big into soccer, but his knees started to bug him eventually. He found that stair climbing was less impactful. Andrea believes he has done the grind over 1,000 times, but Sunday will be the 1,000th officially recorded climb. His best time is somewhere around 42 minutes. We also found his name as a participant and one of the winners of the Grind10 Challenge in 2019.
Nikic’s dedication to doing the grind, basically every day for the last five to 10 years, is substantial.
Andrea told us that her father usually speeds away from her at the quarter mark when they climb together, praising his dedication and ability for someone nearing his 60s. Andrea and some other family members will be climbing with him on Sunday, but Nikic will also have 20 to 30 other supporters, like his recently injured wife, cheering him on.
“It’s quite inspiring to see him dedicating so much of his life to his health.”