Skiing In & Around Vancouver

The ski resorts of North America are found across Canada and the US, with the better skiing found on the western side of the continent. The main mountain range is the Rockies, home to the famous ski resorts of Colorado, Idaho, Alberta, and interior British Columbia, and you can also ski in the Sierra Nevada (California / Nevada), the mountains of the Pacific North-West, and the ranges of coastal British Columbia. Here you’ll find the largest ski areas anywhere outside Europe, world famous for their excellent terrain and, in the case of the Rockies, excellent snow (the coastal mountains aren’t as strong in the snow quality department).

You can also ski east of the Rockies, though the mountains are smaller and the snow conditions less reliable (and be prepared for severe cold); for most people heading to North America for a ski holiday or to seek work in the snow, the western resorts are the draw.

My own personal experiences of snowboarding in North America come from the two winter seasons I spent skiing in Canada, living in Vancouver and working at Cypress Mountain. Naturally I did most of my riding at Cypress, but also managed to check out half a dozen other resorts in the region.

Whistler is the Big Daddy and standout resort in the region, though Revelstoke actually beats it for vertical drop as well as having better snow due to its location in the BC interior. The most famous place for snow though is Mt Baker, just south of the border in America’s Washington State – unfortunately we caught it on a lousy day.

1. Vancouver locals (Cypress, Grouse, Seymour)

2. Revelstoke

3. Whistler

4. Hemlock

5. Mt Baker

Vancouver Local Hills

Vancouver has three local hills, located in the North Shore Mountains; from west to east, they are Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain, and Mount Seymour. The North Shore Mountains are the clearly visible mountain range looking north from downtown Vancouver across the harbour (the big windmill you can see up there is on Grouse Mountain).

For the two seasons I lived in Vancouver I was working at Cypres,s so that’s the hill I know best. I also did my instructor licence at Grouse, and rode at Seymour when Cypress was closed for a month for the Winter Olympics (meaning I was out of a job!)

(*this is the greatest vert available for a single run, from Skychair down to the lodge. The lowest point, at the bottom of the Raven chair, cannot be directly skied to from Skychair)

Homepage and piste map for Cypress

Homepage and piste map for Grouse

Homepage and piste map for Seymour

Good and bad points of the Vancouver local mountains

All of these mountains have snow issues, due to their coastal location and fairly low altitudes; BC coastal snow is often wet and sticky, and Vancouver’s local hills sometimes just get straight rain… not much fun when you have to be out in a downpour teaching a bunch of school kids who are just miserable in the rain, while the snow turns to porridge around your feet and your boots fill with water. And the reporting on their websites tends to paint the rosiest possible picture, so if they say it’s drizzling, light rain etc, don’t bother – it’s always worse than they say! All three mountains are also lots of fun on a good day, and the views of Vancouver and distant Mount Baker are great.

Despite their proximity to one another, the atmosphere and riding options are pretty different at each of these hills. Seymour and Grouse are both pretty small, Cypress is a fair bit bigger in both vert and area. Seymour has a reputation for being the friendliest, most ‘local’ of the three, and definitely makes the most effort with its parks; if you’re a park monkey, Seymour’s the hill for you. Grouse has a similar-size ski area to Seymour (just slightly larger), but is a much bigger business operation – it’s open year-round, with skiing in winter and various sightseeing activities and fun & games for the kids in the summer, as well as being the location of the famous Grouse Grind hiking course. So think more of a family-oriented tourist destination; it’s probably the least interesting mountain of the three from a riding perspective (you want to hit Seymour for freestyle or Cypress for freeriding), but it’s also the easiest to access and has great views of Vancouver – if you’re in Van in winter and just wanting to hit a convenient hill for the day, or grab a warm-up day before heading up to Whistler, Grouse fits the bill. Cypress is the most expensive of the three, and has a reputation for being the most corporate; but you get what you pay for, and Cypress has the biggest vertical drop and the greatest quality and quantity of terrain on the North Shore.

Cypress sweet spots

Cypress has the better terrain of the Vancouver locals, but unfortunately as a result they tend not to make so much effort with their parks – which isn’t to say the park crew don’t work hard, those guys do a great job, but the mountain doesn’t prioritise freestyle and the park crew are limited in what they’re allowed to build. Unfortunately Cypress didn’t keep the Olympic halfpipe in place after 2010, it would have been the only resort in the region with a halfpipe other than Whistler… it was open to ride for the season preceding the Olympic season, and I had a great time scaring the shit out of myself in that halfpipe; a real shame they didn’t keep it… but anyway, if you’re in Vancouver and wanting to ride somewhere reasonably interesting without being limited mostly to the park, then Cypress is the best choice. It has some very decent tree skiing if you catch it when the snow’s good; the best bits are below Skychair, the trees off Panorama (marked as ‘Detention Glades’ on the map), and the trees around Slash and Moons (marked as ‘Crator Glades’ and ‘Under the Volcano Glades’). You can also get some awesome skiing on the actual runs under Raven chair – the handful of black runs there are left ungroomed all season and have a steep gradient. This of course means they get badly moguled, and they can be pretty icy with the freeze-thaw conditions that are common, but if you catch them when they’re just right – i.e. on a quiet weekday after a heavy dump – they’re absolutely brilliant (you can also get into the trees there, but the undergrowth is very dense in places so it’s not as good as the other areas I mentioned). If you’re at Cypress on a powder day, Raven is the first place to check out; if that’s no good, make for the trees elsewhere.

There is also some enticing looking but actually very sketchy out-of-bounds terrain, as well as one off-limits in-bounds area (between Top Gun and Humpty Dumpty); these really aren’t worth it. One of them (out of bounds off Collins) is named ‘Australian Gully’ after the two Australians who died there; the off-limits section next to Humpty Dumpty feeds into a steep, narrow gorge named after the British tourist who was the first person to die in it, a friend’s friends led us in there once and it was a fucking stupid place to be – lots of untracked snow, sure, but totally not worth the sketchiness. It’s grim but fascinating to hear about these fatal incidents from the old-time staff members. One night when I was working on the lifts, ski patrol had to go and save two drunken morons who’d fallen off a cliff out of bounds behind Skychair… it was pretty dramatic seeing them all charging off en masse to the rescue on their snowmobiles. They did manage to save them, including one with life-threatening injuries… but it left only one patrol team for the rest of the customers on the mountain for a while, which is clearly stretching things. So, in summary, Cypress has some good off-piste within the resort area, and you should be able to satisfy yourself with that as the backcountry is sketchy and not worth it; although it’s ‘only’ a local hill, there’s some treacherous terrain and you could find yourself in serious trouble out back… don’t put yourself and others in danger.

(For best photo ops at Cypress, Skychair obviously has the highest vantage point, but also the top of Raven chair has great views of the city and Mt Baker, and the run Horizon has nice views down into Howe Sound)

Access for Vancouver’s Hills

Grouse has a cable car and you can reach the lower station on Vancouver’s city streets either by car or public bus (number 236 from Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver, which you can reach by Seabus from Waterfront station), so Grouse really is the easiest to reach especially if you don’t have a car. You can drive up to Seymour and Cypress in about 40 minutes from downtown Van, and both of them also have a shuttle bus. The Seymour bus also departs from Lonsdale Quay, as does the Cypress bus – but if you’re staying downtown you can also take their earlier Cypress crew bus which goes from Davie Street in the West End (see here for details)

Vancouver Skiing Summary

Cypress: best for freeriding

Seymour: best for freestyle

Grouse: most convenient, best for family outings

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Whistler

Well, this is supposed to be a review of Whistler Blackcomb; but really, what’s the point?! Fact is that if you’re a seasoned skier or snowboarder, you already know all about Whistler and how awesome it is, and there isn’t a great deal I can add except to confirm it. It’s the biggest resort in North America (and the biggest resort anywhere outside Europe), and is one of the most famous and talked-about ski areas in the world. Furthermore, given its size and the fact I’ve only had a total of maybe 10 days’ riding there, I don’t really know the mountain well enough to be able to give insider tips on the sweetest off-piste spots and so on. But anyway, check out these juicy stats:

Homepage and piste map

While I can’t add much to the information that’s already out there, what I can say is that Whistler does justify its reputation. The ski area packs in just about every type of terrain you could possibly wish to find in-bounds at a ski resort; what with Blackcomb’s glacier, Whistler’s back bowls, and great tree-skiing and pistes of all difficulty levels on both mountains, plus a variety of world class park & pipe options, there’s just so much there to keep you entertained. And although it’s a lot smaller than the largest European mega resorts, it matches them for the quality of terrain available; and the (relatively) smaller size means it packs all that great terrain into a more compact area, allowing you to hit a bunch of different stuff without having to go up and down a series of boring lifts and runs in between (which is one of the drawbacks of places like Morzine). Whistler also has an Alpine style resort village at the base, unlike the majority of Canadian ski areas, so it has plenty of apres ski action, restaurants to suit all budgets, and the full range of accommodation options from backpacker to luxury.

The only downsides really are the snow quality (which is often wet and sticky due to the coastal BC maritime climate), the crowds (meaning fresh tracks are hard to get), and the high prices – though of course, the crowds and the prices are the way they are because it’s a good mountain. At Whistler you pay more than elsewhere in BC, but you do get plenty of bang for your buck. So, if you’re seeking fresh tracks in fluffy powder, that’s one area where Whistler isn’t the best choice (the BC interior resorts such as Revelstoke are better in that regard); but if you’re looking for a great all-round mountain with all types of riding available and action-packed into a relatively compact area, Whistler doesn’t disappoint.

For those heading to Whistler for the season but without a job already lined up, my advice is to get there early, before the season opens – aiming for November would be advisable. In my case, I didn’t get there until January due to a hold up with my working holiday visa. This meant I’d completely missed the boat, and after a fairly depressing week of fruitless job hunting (but including a couple of days of awesome riding!) I gave up and took the Greyhound over to look for work in the Banff / Lake Louise area. That didn’t work out either, so I backtracked to Revelstoke for a day’s riding and then headed back to Vancouver where a friend lined me up with a lifty job at Hemlock.

And if you’re there in summer, Whistler isn’t just an awesome place to ride snow. It’s also good for:

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Revelstoke

Located in the Canadian Rockies midway between Vancouver and Calgary, Revelstoke is a fairly new kid on the block in Canadian skiing with an up-and-coming reputation. Revelstoke is basically a handful of lifts accessing an awesome bit of terrain with huge vert and steep slopes, and the large quantities of dry powder for which the Rockies are famous. Not really one for freestylers, but great for just riding the terrain.

Homepage and piste map

Revelstoke is a fair bit smaller than Whistler with only three lifts, but it has more vertical than any other resort in North America and boy do those three lifts open up a serious range of steep and varied terrain options. It’s also very cold there, and the snow quality (as well as quantity) is excellent; all of which makes it a great mountain for expert skiers looking for a fix of steep and deep, though there isn’t much for beginners and there’s no park or pipe. Long term plans for the mountain do include freestyle features though, and with another 20-something lifts planned Revelstoke may eventually be larger than Whistler if all plans come to fruition.

I had a great day at Revelstoke riding steep gradients, deep snow, and gnarly off-piste, in the icy cold and with great views of the Rockies, and the potential for the area was clearly enormous. Do be a little careful going off-piste at Revy though, when I say gnarly I do mean gnarly – I ended up skiing down this (apologies for the crappy old camera phone picture quality):

…which could’ve ended badly if I’d been going too fast into it. That would probably have been completely roped off at many resorts, so go easy if you don’t know the lay of the land as there could be some nasty surprises!

For now, it’s a great mountain to hit if you want some challenging riding away from the Whistler crowds, though the driving times of 6 hours from Vancouver and 4 hours from Calgary mean it is a bit of an effort to get there – I went by Greyhound bus, which worked fine but took even longer. Perhaps the best idea if you want to hit Revelstoke is to do a road trip, taking in Revy along with other interior BC & Alberta resorts like Red Mountain, Fernie, and Banff.

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Sasquatch Mountain

Sasquatch Mountain is a small ski resort in BC near the towns of Mission and Abbotsford, around a 2-hour drive from Vancouver. It only has three lifts and around 400m of vertical, so it really is just a local hill for those living in the area (if you’re driving two hours from Vancouver to go riding, Whistler is obviously a better choice!)

Homepage and piste map

I’d never even heard of Sasquatch Mountain before I went there (it was actually still called Hemlock at the time – the name changed in 2017), but having travelled around BC and Alberta in an unsuccessful attempt to find work in Whistler, Revelstoke, or Banff, I ended up back at my friend’s place in Vancouver and through a friend of hers I heard there was work in Hemlock. I then spent a week in Hemlock working as a lifty, and while I liked the friendly atmosphere of the resort, it really would have been disappointing to spend the season there having started out with visions of Whistler (and the pokey Hemlock staff accommodation wasn’t really somewhere I wanted to live for three months!), so when I got an email inviting me to an interview at Cypress Mountain, I jumped at it and spent the rest of the season in Vancouver.

To be honest, there’s no point in going to Sasquatch unless you’re already in the Mission / Abbotsford area, in which case it offers you a place to go for an easy day’s riding without having to drive far. If you don’t have wheels, the closest you can get by public transport is Mission from where it’d still be an hour or so by taxi. (I had a ride from Van up to the resort which was nice & easy, but then a rather interesting return journey involving a hitchhike down the hill from what turned out to be a drunk driver, and a long wait stuck outside Abbotsford bus station in a blizzard with the bus arriving just as I was getting into hypothermia territory)

Note also that in some seasons the resort has suffered from a lack of snow and either opened late or failed to open completely. With that said, Sasquatch has an expansion plan which would see it add snow making equipment and twenty additional lifts at higher altitudes, so it could one day become a pretty big resort. Until then, I can’t recommend making the effort to go there when there are so many better options in BC; but if you’ve searched online for Hemlock/Sasquatch and ended up here, chances are you’re not a local and are seeking information (maybe you’ve been offered a job and are wondering whether to take it – and I’d say sure give it a go, they’ll take care of you and riding there is better than not riding!), so I hope you find this useful.

If you’re looking for accommodation information, Sasquatch’s site has an accommodation page here. Also check Trivago for hotels in Abbotsford (affiliate link)

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Mt Baker

Mount Baker is a large volcano close to the Canadian border in Washington State, USA, which is legendary among powder hounds for the enormous amounts of snow it receives. This is one of those places that has an almost mythical status among snowboarders, and while living in Vancouver it was top of my wish list along with Whistler. So at the end of my first season in Van working at Cypress Mountain, a bunch of us piled into a couple of cars and made the 2-hour drive (a bit more I think actually, with the border formalities taking a while) in search of this legendary powder heaven… only to get rained on and find ourselves riding slushy mush all day. Major sad face. It really was a bad day to visit and the riding sucked, but it was a fun little road trip anyway.

Homepage and piste map

Mt Baker itself stands at almost 3,300m which is pretty big, but the ski area only reaches half that altitude and is actually quite small (the ski area isn’t on Baker itself, but on the neighbouring Mt Shuksan – also quite sizeable at almost 2,800m). But the important statistic for Baker isn’t the vertical drop or the number of lifts or bla bla bla, it’s the ridiculous 16m annual snowfall. Sixteen metres! Even more than the famous snowfalls of Hokkaido, where the resorts proudly boast of their ten to twelve metres per year. So forget the resort stats; Baker is basically famous for two things – the huge quantities of snow, and the excellent backcountry terrain on which to ride that snow.

Unfortunately for us, on the day of our visit we had rain, sludge, and terrible visibility; there was no point in going off-piste and we couldn’t even get a distant look at the terrain that was out in the backcountry – in fact, we barely even saw Mt Baker. Although while driving up the Cypress road before work all that season we’d seen many majestic views of the distant Baker on the horizon, silhouetted against the dawn and calling out to us from under the rising sun, we barely caught a glimpse of it when we were right there next to it!

At one point I did actually try to cut through a sweet-looking patch of untouched snow, and quickly squelched to a stop and had to dig myself out. It also didn’t help my day personally that I’d broken a rib the day before slamming off a jump, but hadn’t wanted to miss out on Mt Baker so went along anyway, wincing every time I used my right arm or laughed (digging out of the snow was a mission with one arm)

So, basically, this is a completely useless review of Mt Baker Ski Area! We went on a lousy day, and it sucked. What I can confirm is that they obviously do see a lot of snow there. The off-piste terrain at Baker is apparently excellent, and the backcountry the stuff of wet dreams, but I’ll just have to take everyone’s word for that.

Despite the disappointing riding that day, it was still a fun day out. Driving from Vancouver to Abbotsford through one of Canada’s most densely populated areas, we then crossed the border to a part of America that feels totally different and really quite remote – very few people, a certain quirkiness, and a definite feeling of being out in the boonies. We enjoyed the drive, ate some food, enjoyed the company, did a little bit of crappy snowboarding, and drank a few beers… that’s still a good day in my book! Furthermore, I had the only stress-free entry to the United States that I’ve so far experienced (out of five!), which was nice; the border guards actually smiled, and even said ‘sir’ without making it sound like a threat.

There’s nowhere to stay at Mt Baker itself, but there’s some accommodation available nearby along the Mt Baker Highway in Glacier. The nearest sizeable town is Bellingham (a drive of around 90 minutes), which has a wider range of accommodation options which you can search on Trivago (affiliate link) to quickly compare hotel prices across the various booking sites.

Resources and Useful Links for Riding in Vancouver

Search Trivago (affiliate link) to quickly compare prices across the various booking sites for hotels in Vancouver.

World Nomads has winter sports cover. World Nomads travel insurance has been designed by travelers for travelers. If you leave home without travel insurance or your policy runs out, you can buy or extend while on the road.

(This can be an important point, as I once found out the hard way in Bangkok)

*We receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.

Snow Forecast is my usual go to for accurate snow forecasts.

Photo credits:

Vancouver: Marc van der Chijs, Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license

Sasquatch: Kyle Pearce, Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License

Revelstoke: Kyle Pearce, Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license

Baker: keepitsurreal, Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license