Grouse Mountain
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| Grouse Mountain | |
|---|---|
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| Location: | British Columbia, Canada |
| Nearest city: | North Vancouver |
| Coordinates: | 49°22′46.40″N 123°04′54.49″W / 49.3795556°N 123.0818028°WCoordinates: 49°22′46.40″N 123°04′54.49″W / 49.3795556°N 123.0818028°W |
| Vertical: | 365 m (1,198 ft) |
| Top elevation: | 1,231 m (4,039 ft) |
| Base elevation: | 274 m (899 ft) |
| Runs: | 26 (13 night skiing) 17% beginner 54% intermediate 21% advanced 8% expert |
| Lift system: | 4 chairlifts 1 magic carpet |
| Web site: | GrouseMountain.com |
Grouse Mountain is one of the North Shore Mountains overlooking Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is the site of a small but well-known 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 competitions. The club also has a newer program for snowboarding racers.
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[edit] Layout
Intrepid Scandinavians who were not daunted by winter and snow hand built the first lodge at Grouse in the 1920s. They hauled planks up what would become the Grouse Grind for the venture. Another company wanted to build a funicular railway to a private resort on the mountain, though that venture never materialized. By the 1930s, the success of the lodge meant that access was needed and a toll road was cut up to the top via the slope of the Cut.
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. This original base of the mountain 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 Chair Lift. Some of these cabins still exist and they were/are located below and to the west of the old Cut Chair Lift. The gravel road that was built to access this base, the Old Grouse Mountain Highway, still exists and is currently only used for maintaining the ski area. Sadly, the beloved lodge burnt in a large fire in the winter of 1964.
Public access to the mountain is by a Swiss Garaventa 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 [double chair]; (it was actually the second chairlift in Vancouver after Cypress Bowl (aka "Hollyburn") and the third in Canada after Red Mountain; the first chair in the world was at Sun Valley).[1] In 1951, another lift – presumably one of the world's longest at the time 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. The chair lift from the top of Skyline Drive to the base of the Cut Chair Lift was known to locals as the Village Chair. This name followed from the village of cabins at the base of the old Cut Chair Lift (as above). This two seater chair lift included wooden towers (some of these towers and the lift line cable wheels are still visible on the hike of the old Village Chair lift line). Each of the Village Chairs for a time were equipped with a metal roof to help keep the skiers dry on days its rained at lower elevations during the ride up to the base of the old Cut Chair lift.
On February 12, 1954, a US Air Force F-86 Sabre aircraft entered Canadian airspace from Washington State, and promptly collided with the southern slope of Grouse Mountain near the chairlift then existing in the area, scattering debris around a wide area. The pilot, Second Lt. Lamar J. Barlow, died still strapped in his chair.[2][3]
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 the1960s and early 1970s were the Peak and Blueberry Chairs. The Inferno Chair was built in 1976 and removed in late 2003 due to age and insurance problems. Both the Blueberry and Peak chairs were removed in 2004 for the same reasons.
All three chairs were replaced by Grouse Mountain's second High Speed detachable quad chair built by Leitner Poma for winter 2005. (The first was the Screaming Eagle on the Cut). The chair was named the Olympic Express because Vancouver had just been awarded the 2010 Winter Games.
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 seat four persons per chair, and run at a slower speed to accommodate beginners and children.
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.
[edit] Grouse Grind
| Grouse Mountain | |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 1,231 m (4,039 ft) |
| Location | British Columbia, Canada |
| Range | Howe Sound Group |
| Prominence | 86 m (282 ft) |
| Coordinates | 49°23′10″N 123°04′35″W / 49.38611°N 123.07639°W |
| Topo map | NTS 92G/06 |
Grouse Mountain is also the location of a very popular hiking trail known as the Grouse Grind.[4] 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 known for being 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[5] although some who are very fit can finish in 45 minutes.
As of September 2007, 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.) [6][7]
| Event | Person | Time (min:sec) | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Unofficial Record | Jonathan Wyatt | 24:22 | June 12, 2004 |
| Annual Grouse Grind Mountain Run (Men's) | Michael Simpson | 26:19 | September 21, 2007 |
| 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.[8][5]
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.[9]
[edit] Photo gallery
 Skyride in October |
 Closeup of the Skyride |
 Wolf |
 Wood carving |
 Wood carving (October) |
 Grinder and Coola |
 Trees |
 Bear habitat |
 Winter panorama |
 Sunset |
.JPG) Close up of ski runs |
 Vancouver as seen from Grouse mountain |
[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.[10]
- Its ski lodge and facilities were also used in the filming of the modern movie adaptation of the popular cartoon Mr.Magoo
[edit] References
- ^ See Tramway Titan--Byron 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)
- ^ 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 on 2009-06-23.
- ^ 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 on 2009-06-23.
- ^ Jones, Tim (2005-03-18). "Grouse Grind open for hiking". North Shore News.
- ^ Vancouver Sun - Local Entertainment
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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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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