Grouse Mountain

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Grouse Mountain

Super Skyride
Location:	British Columbia, Canada
Nearest city:	North Vancouver
Coordinates:	49°22′46.40″N, 123°04′54.49″W
Vertical:	957 m
Top elevation:	1,231 m (4,039 ft)
Base elevation:	274 m
Runs:	24 (13 night skiing) 17% beginner 54% intermediate 21% advanced 8% expert
Lift system:	2 chairlifts 2 ropes 1 magic carpet
Web site:	GrouseMountain.com

Grouse Mountain is a ski area and tourist attraction located in the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia.

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

1 Layout
2 History
3 Grouse Grind
4 Photo gallery
5 Trivia
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Layout

The area at the bottom of what is now called the "Cut" – one of Vancouver's most well-known ski runs – is the original base of the mountain. It was here that the area's first lodge and rope tow were built. The road that was paved to access this base, the Old Grouse Mountain Highway, still exists and is currently only used for maintaining the ski area.

Public access to the mountain is by aerial tramway, the Grouse Grind hiking trail, or the Old Grouse Mountain Highway (foot and bicycle access only).

[edit] History

In 1949, the first double chairlift in Greater Vancouver opened, allowing skiing down the Cut from the top of the ridge. Grouse Mountain claims this lift to have been the "world's first"; several other ski areas dispute this.^{[citation needed]} In 1951, another lift – presumably one of the world's longest at the time^{[citation needed]} – was opened. This lift ran from a bus stop on Skyline Drive, at the bottom of the mountain, to the base of the Cut. Both the original 1949 lift and the 1951 lift were removed in the 1970s.

When the original lodge burnt down in the mid-1960s, 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 up from the valley. The "Blue Tram" was built by Voest and was opened and inaugurated on December 15, 1966 by Premier W. A. C. Bennett. Also constructed in the 1960s and early 1970s were the Peak and Blueberry Chairs. The Inferno Chair was built in 1976 and removed in late 2003; it was reportedly one of the steepest, and in quite bad shape.^{[citation needed]}

The mountain was purchased from its original owners by the McLaughlin family, who provided additional funding for the construction of the Red Tram/Super Skyride in 1976. They purchased total ownership in 1989, and constructed Canada's first high-definition theatre – the "Theatre in the Sky" – in 1990, by expanding the original lodge.

In recent years, the mountain has become something of a tourist attraction, as the area's dependence on skiing has been eased by the addition of a "native feast-house", bear habitat, and high-speed quad lifts, as well as other attractions.

[edit] Grouse Grind

Grouse Mountain
Elevation	1,231 m (4,039 ft)
Location	British Columbia, Canada
Range	Howe Sound Group
Prominence	86 m
Coordinates	49°23′10″N, 123°04′35″W
Topo map	NTS 92G/06

Grouse Mountain^[1] 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 meters (2,800 feet) over a distance of 2.9 kilometres (1.8 miles). Although the trail is known for being notoriously grueling for its hikers due to its steepness and mountainous terrain, it is popular among the outdoor enthusiasts in Greater Vancouver, and hikers often time themselves on the trail to see how quickly they can reach the top. The average time to reach to the top is approximately 90 minutes, although hikers who are physically fit can finish it in 45 minutes.

As of November 2005, these are the fastest officially recorded ascents:^[2]^[3]

Event	Person	Time (min:sec)	Date
Overall	Jonathon Wyatt	24:22	June 12, 2004
Annual Grouse Grind Mountain Run (Men's)	Michael Simpson	26:26	September 25, 2005
Annual Grouse Grind Mountain Run (Women's)	Kelly Matoul	32:54	September 14, 2002

[edit] Photo gallery

Closeup of the Skyride	Wolf	Wood carving	Grinder and Coola
Trees	Bear habitat

[edit] 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.^[4]