Quiksilver Black

Grouse Mountain

History

Original ski area

Grouse Mountain's first lodge was hand-built by Scandinavians in the 1920s. They hauled planks up what would become the Grouse Grind hiking trail for the venture. Another company wanted to build a funicular railway for a private resort on the mountain, though that venture never materialized. By the 1930s, a toll road was built to the top via the slope of what is now the mountain's primary ski run, the "Cut", to access the lodge.

The area at the bottom of the "Cut" one of Vancouver's most well-known ski runs is the original base of the mountain, where the area's first lodge and rope tow were built. The base became known as the "Village" to local skiers, since numerous cabins were built in the trees surrounding the lodge and the base of the old Cut chairlift. Some of these cabins still exist and they are located below and to the west of the old Cut chairlift. The gravel road that was built to access the base, the Old Grouse Mountain Highway, still exists and is currently only used for maintaining the ski area.

In 1949, the mountain's first double chairlift was constructed, allowing skiing down the Cut from the top of the ridge. Grouse Mountain claims this lift to have been the world's first double chairlift, however, it was actually the second chairlift in Vancouver after the "Hollyburn" on Cypress Bowl and the third in Canada after Red Mountain; the first chair in the world was at Sun Valley in 1936. Two years later, in 1951, another a longer lift, running from a bus stop on Skyline Drive, at the bottom of the mountain, was opened, known as the Village Chair. This two seater chairlift included wooden towers (some of these towers and the lift line cable wheels are still visible on a hike following the Village Chair's lift line). Each of the chairs were, for a time, equipped with a metal roof to keep skiers dry on rainy or snowy days during the ride up to the base of the old Cut Chair lift.

Plane crash

On February 12, 1954, a U.S. Air Force F-86 Sabre aircraft entered Canadian airspace from Washington State, and promptly collided with the southern slope of Grouse Mountain near one of the old chairlifts, scattering debris around a wide area. The pilot, Second Lieutenant Lamar J. Barlow, died still strapped in his chair.

Present-day lodge and ski area

After a fire destroyed the original lodge in the winter of 1964, the two original lifts were removed in the 1970s. The government of British Columbia, seeing the possibilities for tourism, provided funding and permits for a new lodge to be built on the ridge, as well as an aerial tramway travelling to the mountaintop from the valley below. The tramway, known as the Blue Tram, was built by Austrian steel company Voestalpine and was opened and inaugurated on December 15, 1966, by Premier W. A. C. Bennett. Ten years later, the mountain was purchased from its original owners by the McLaughlin family in 1976. The new ownership provided additional funding for the construction of a second aerial tramway, known as the Red Tram or Super Skyride, that same year.

The new ski area featured the Peak and Blueberry Chairs which were both built in the 1960s and early 1970s, while the additional Inferno Chair was constructed in 1976. With only partial ownership of the mountain, the McLaughlin family obtained full ownership in 1989 and proceeded to construct Canada's first high-definition theatre, dubbed the Theatre in the Sky, in 1990 by expanding the present-day lodge.

As the Inferno, Blueberry and Peak Chairs began to age in the 2000s, all three lifts were removed due to insurance issues, beginning with the Inferno in late 2003 and the Blueberry and Peak the following year. All three were effectively replaced by Grouse Mountain's second high-speed and detachable quad chair built by North American aerial lift manufacturer Leitner-Poma for the 2005 winter season. (The first was the Screaming Eagle on the Cut.) The chair was named the Olympic Express in lieu of Vancouver's recent designation for the 2010 Winter Games. During the games, NBC Today will be broadcasting its coverage of the games live from Grouse Mountain.

In 2008, Grouse Mountain constructed two new quad chairs; one to replace the Courtesy rope tow at the bottom of the Paradise run and the other to replace the defunct peak chair, which closed after the Olympic Express was built in 2004. Both chairlifts were designed to run at a slower speed to accommodate beginners and children.

Winter operations

Ski and snowboard

uThe ski and snowboard area, located on the southern slope of the mountain, operates in the winter months between December and May, approximately. Accessed by taking the gondola from the base to the mountaintop chalet and lodge, it features four chairlifts (two high-speed quads, the Screaming Eagle and Olympic Express; and two quads, the Greenway and Peak Chairs) facilitating 26 runs, half of which are lit for night skiing and snowboarding.

The most prominent run on the mountain is the Cut, one of two beginner runs, which is easily visible from the Vancouver area. It runs alongside the Screaming Eagle chairlift. East of the Cut are several intermediate runs, which take skiiers and snowboarders down to the Olympic Express which accesses the mountain's easternmost expert runs, most of which originate from the mountain's 4,100-foot peak. Altogether, Grouse Mountain features three green (beginner), 15 blue (intermediate), six black diamond (advanced) and two double black diamond (expert) runs. There are also three freestyle terrain parks the novice to intermediate Rookie Terrain and Paradise Jib Parks, as well as the intermediate to expert Quiksilver Terrain Park.

Grouse Mountain is also home to the Tyee Ski Club, an organization for training children and youth to become competitive alpine ski racers in slalom, giant slalom and super-giant slalom skiing. The club also has a newer program for snowboarding racers.

In addition to the 305 centimetres of annual natural snowfall, the mountain uses 37 snow guns, covering 75% of the ski and snowboard terrain, for artificial snowmaking. With the capacity to extend the snow season into the spring and account for fluctuations in weather, the mountain invested in a self-reported $7 million in snowmaking equipment over a decade spanning the mid-1990s and 2000s.

Snowshoeing

The Munday Alpine Snowshoe Park includes four main groomed snowshoeing trails the beginner-intermediate Blue Grouse Loop and three trails circling Dam Mountain and Thunder Bird Ridge.

Ice skating

Adjacent to the mountaintop chalet and lodge is an 8,000-square-foot outdoor ice rink.

Summer operations

Grouse Grind

Grouse Mountain

Elevation

1,231 m (4,039 ft)

Prominence

86 m (282 ft)

Location

Location

British Columbia, Canada

Range

Howe Sound Group

Coordinates

492310 1230435 / 49.38611N 123.07639W / 49.38611; -123.07639

Topo map

NTS 92G/06

An elevation profile of the trail

Grouse Mountain is also the location of a very popular hiking trail known as the Grouse Grind. It is an extremely steep and mountainous trail that climbs 853 m (2,799 ft) over a distance of 2.9 km (2 mi), with an average grade of 30 degrees. The trail, nicknamed "Mother Nature's Stairmaster", is notoriously gruelling due to its steepness and mountainous terrain. Hikers, who often time themselves on the trail, reach the top in approximately 90 minutes on average although some who are very fit can finish in 45 minutes.

Don McPherson and Phil Severy built the Grind in the early 1980s, uninvited by the regional district or the owners of Grouse Mountain.

As of September 2009, these are the fastest officially recorded ascents: (Note: The unofficial record is on the Grind Trail only, while there is a slight additional distance to the finish line for the Grind Mountain Run event. The unofficial record was properly timed, but on a shorter course.)

Event

Person

Time (min:sec)

Date

Overall Unofficial Record

Jonathan Wyatt

24:22

June 12, 2004

Annual Grouse Grind Mountain Run (Men's)

Sebastian Salas

25:24

September 20, 2009

Annual Grouse Grind Mountain Run (Women's)

Leanne Johnston

31:04

September 21, 2007

Sebastian Albrecht of Vancouver holds the record for most grinds completed in a 24-hour period, having done the climb 13 times on 22 June 2009.

The difficulty of the trail is often underestimated. North Shore Rescue conducts many rescues each year of hikers who collapse on the Grouse Grind, or begin too late in the evening and are unprepared to find their way in the dark.

Photo gallery

Skyride in October

Closeup of the Skyride

Wolf

Wooden bear carving in wintertime

Wood carving (October)

Grinder and Coola

Trees

Bear habitat

Vancouver as seen from Grouse mountain

The Grouse Grind Trail

Trivia

Grouse Mountain and its aerial tramway stood in for the fictional "Skyland Mountain" in the Blue Ridge of Virginia, in a 1994 episode of TV show The X-Files in which Dana Scully is abducted on top of the mountain. The X-Files was filmed in the Vancouver region for its first five years.

Its ski lodge and facilities were also used in the filming of the modern movie adaptation of the popular cartoon Mr. Magoo

See also

North Shore Mountains

Pacific Ranges

Cypress Mountain

Mount Seymour

References

^ See Tramway Titanyron Riblet, Wire Rope and Western Resource Towns

^ "1954 Grouse Mountain USAF F86 Crash - contemporary newspaper accounts". http://www.ufobc.ca/kinross/otherAcct/otherAcctGrouseMtnNewsArt.htm. 

^ "Pilot's family reunites at crash site. Lt. Lamar J. Barlow died in a U.S. air force F-86 on Grouse Mountain" (Times-Colonist, June 15, 2009)

^ a b c "Grouse Mountain 2008 Winter Trail Map" (PDF). Grouse Mountain. http://www.grousemountain.com/files/PDF/map-winter-2008.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-25. 

^ a b c "Grouse Mountain Trail Map and Stats". Grouse Mountain. http://www.grousemountain.com/Winter/skiing-riding/vancouver-bc-ski-snowboarding-trail-map.asp. Retrieved 2009-09-25. 

^ "Terrain Parks: A Cut Above The Rest". Grouse Mountain. http://www.grousemountain.com/Winter/skiing-riding/terrain-park/. Retrieved 2009-09-25. 

^ "Snowmaking". Grouse Mountain. http://www.grousemountain.com/Winter/skiing-riding/vancouver-bc-skiing-snowboarding-snow-making.asp. Retrieved 2009-09-25. 

^ "Snowshoeing". Grouse Mountain. http://www.grousemountain.com/Winter/winter-activities/snowshoeing/. Retrieved 2009-09-25. 

^ Information on the Grouse Grind

^ a b "Runner summits Grouse Grind a record 13 times". CBC News. 2009-06-23. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/06/23/bc-grouse-grind-record-set.html. Retrieved 2009-06-23. 

^ Ebner, Dave (2009-07-25). "Doing the Grouse Grind". Globe and Mail. pp. T1/T4. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/doing-the-grouse-grind/article1230259/. Retrieved 2009-07-29. 

^ CBC article

^ Grousegrind statistics

^ McMartin, Pete (2009-06-23). "Tackling Grouse Grind 13 times in a day is an uphill battle". Vancouver Sun. pp. A4. http://www.vancouversun.com/Life/Tackling+Grouse+Grind+times+uphill+battle/1722999/story.html. Retrieved 2009-06-23. 

^ Jones, Tim (2005-03-18). "Grouse Grind open for hiking". North Shore News. 

^ Vancouver Sun - Local Entertainment

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Grouse Mountain

Grouse Mountain in the BC Geographical Names Information System

Grouse Mountain Ski Resort Official Site

Grouse Mountain at the Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia

Grouse Mountain Ski Patrol

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Landmarks in Metro Vancouver

Buildings

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Bridges

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Locations

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Ski areas and resorts in British Columbia

East Kootenay/Columbia Valley

Fernie   Kicking Horse   Kimberley   Panorama   Fairmont Hot Springs

West Kootenay/Arrow Lakes

Whitewater   Red Mountain   Summit Lake   Revelstoke Mountain   Salmo

South Cariboo-Thompson-Okanagan-Boundary

Sun Peaks   Harper   Apex   Silver Star   Big White   Mount Baldy   Phoenix   Crystal Mountain   Mount Timothy

Lower Mainland-Sea to Sky Country

Grouse   Cypress   Seymour   Hemlock Valley   Manning Park   Whistler Blackcomb

Vancouver Island

Mount Washington   Mount Cain

North Cariboo, Northern Interior & North Coast

Troll   Powder King   Ski Smithers   Little Mac   Tabor Mountain   Hart Highlands   Shames Mountain   Bear Mountain   Murray Ridge   Purden

Categories: Mountains of British Columbia | Ski areas and resorts in British Columbia | North Vancouver (district municipality), British Columbia | Tourism in Vancouver | Geography of Vancouver | Pacific Ranges
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