Having been in Vancouver for 5 days, I felt pretty comfortable with Downtown; I knew how to get around, I was familiar with the public transport, and I knew where to buy particular things. However I wanted to explore further afield. Having bought a friend’s snowboard (An ex-IEC’er, he was also kind enough to drop it at my hostel for me, legend!), I wanted to try it out, and see if I could remember how to snowboard, given it had been 9 years since I’d previously been!
So the logical choice was, of course, Grouse Mountain. Having done some research, I had discovered that not only did it have a few decent runs, it was also easily accessible from Downtown! So off I went, with my trusty “TransitTimes+” app running on my phone. For anyone curious, BUY THIS APP. It’s a couple of quid, but will answer all your questions, it tells you exactly how far it is to walk to the nearest bus stop or Skytrain station, and tells you how long you need to be on said bus, or Skytrain. It even tells you the bus stop numbers – invaluable for anyone new to the city.
I walked up Granville Street, to the intersection of West Georgia St & Granville, opposite the Skytrain station. I took the No. 246 bus towards Highland, then hopped off at Woods Drive/Paisley Rd and changed to the No.236 direct to the base of Grouse Mountain. As soon as you leave Downtown, the scenery changes dramatically. You’re treated to views over the bay in both directions, combined with travelling up through thick woodland – its a really nice change to being in Downtown. It only cost $4 as well, given it was 2 zone’s worth of travel, compared to a bus in the UK that’s pretty good!
After a short while I arrived at the base of Grouse Mountain; at this point, it was just like a normal spring day – no snow, fairly dry, nothing exceptional. That was all soon to change though. $60.90 paid, I was on the SkyRide, snowboard in hand. The climb was a lot steeper than I imagined, rising to a total of around 4,000 feet. The surroundings soon changed from green woodlands to snow covered treetops – being from the UK, we don’t get to see snow that often, so its pretty exceptional when it seems to appear so quickly! Once you’re off the Skyride, all the various chairlifts are “free”, so there’s no faff with a lift pass. Oh, the view:
Pretty special.
Having not snowboarded for so long, I was keen to start on the easy stuff, so off to the biggest green run there was, “The Cut”. The bottom end of it is in the picture above – its nice and simple, and reasonably long. Ideal. I was soon back into it; with only a few wrong edges caught, I think I got lucky! Once I’d got comfortable, I headed down a few other runs, Paper Trail and Expo being particular favourites. I also headed to the Peak, via the Olympic Express Chair. The chair ride was pretty long, going up through some narrower parts:
Heading down another blue run, “Heaven’s Sake” (a good challenge for an amateur boarder….), gave this view:
Not a bad place to be!
After spending most of the day exploring the various runs on Grouse, old injuries were starting to flare up, so it was time for home – It was already 5.30, I’d been on the mountain since 11am! Getting back to Downtown was literally the reverse of getting to Grouse, the 236 then the 246 buses.
So, a summary of Grouse Mountain:
The runs are varied, however limited. I think I’d grow bored of it after 2 or 3 visits, however if you’re only wanting to visit occasionally then its ideal. It’s incredibly easy, and cheap, to get to – if you time the buses right you can leave Downtown Vancouver and be standing at the base of Grouse Mountain in under an hour. I visited on a Wednesday, however I think that it’d get VERY busy over a weekend, especially at the height of the season. Something to bear in mind. I enjoyed my day immensely, it was great to get back into snowboarding, however I’m now aching a lot! Final count: a few missed edges and bum slides, one EPIC faceplant.
Over and out.
IEC Musings 