Vancouver Skiing: Grouse vs Cypress vs Seymour

B

Brocka_Flocka

Active member
What's good NS. Im an incoming freshman to UBC this year was curious about the skiing options closet to the city. I will have a Whistler pass without question, but which of these resorts is best for some quick park laps, night skiing, price and things like that. Any information (especially from those at UBC) would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
I've lived on the North Shore for 25+ years. Grouse has become a tourist destination first and foremost over the past decade, but from what I understand their park is actually pretty good. If you don't have a car and are relying on public transportation this is probably your best option.

Seymour is the cheapest with a great park, but it's a bitch to get to without a vehicle - especially from UBC. Cypress is actually a pretty solid little mountain in terms of terrain. Last season there were a few fun week nights I got out to ski some good snow, there's a few little touring options as well up to Hollyburn (Disclaimer: Don't fucking do this without the proper training, gear and people who've done it - people get lost and die up Cypress every year). Cypress has the same issue as Seymour though - it's really annoying to get to from UBC especially without a car.
 
Firstly, of the 3 resorts you've mentioned i have only been to Grouse. I'm from Australia so @Bamski is fairly spot on when saying its a tourist destination (mainly due to vicinity to Vancouver and reputation).

When I went to Grouse I found that it wasn't too busy at all - I expected it to be packed. The park there is fairly good, however the main drawcard if you are attending UBC would be ease of access.

Even for a foreigner i found it that easy to actually get to Grouse. Once you take a ferry to the north island you catch a bus which essentially drops you outside the Grouse gondola. The bus and ferry run really late so night skiing is made super easy (goes till 10pm). A bus from UBC to the ferry should be really straight forward as well.

Big Plus - the view over Vancouver from Grouse at night and during the day is just incredible.

Enjoy UBC.
 
I was an exchange student at UBC for a year and skied at Grouse and Seymour while I was there. Both have great parks but not a huge amount else in terms of terrain (particularly for night skiing as they only open a few runs in the evening). They will all take over an hour to get to from UBC by public transport so bear that in mind. If you have a car you'll find that you only really use them for evening and night skiing as it only takes an extra 30 mins to get to Whistler but they are still solid options if you're stuck. Definitely join the Ski and Board club at UBC and they will run a couple of trips to Seymour throughout they year.
 
13830307:Mattgeraghty3 said:
I was an exchange student at UBC for a year and skied at Grouse and Seymour while I was there. Both have great parks but not a huge amount else in terms of terrain (particularly for night skiing as they only open a few runs in the evening). They will all take over an hour to get to from UBC by public transport so bear that in mind. If you have a car you'll find that you only really use them for evening and night skiing as it only takes an extra 30 mins to get to Whistler but they are still solid options if you're stuck. Definitely join the Ski and Board club at UBC and they will run a couple of trips to Seymour throughout they year.
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It takes substantially more time to get to Whistler from the North Shore than 30 minutes. I make the commute weekly, it's usually around 45 minutes from the shore to Squamish - and at least another 40 from Squamish to Whistler. From UBC you're looking at a minimum 2 hours each way with no traffic.
 
13830347:Bamski said:
It takes substantially more time to get to Whistler from the North Shore than 30 minutes. I make the commute weekly, it's usually around 45 minutes from the shore to Squamish - and at least another 40 from Squamish to Whistler. From UBC you're looking at a minimum 2 hours each way with no traffic.
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I think you misunderstood me I did the commute 3 or 4 times a week while.i was.living there so trust me I know. I was saying that to drive to whistler from ubc it takes an hour and 30 minutes each way (sometimes up to 2 hours in bad traffic) where as to get to Mt Seymour I found it almost always took at least an hour to get there as your going across vancouver in shifty traffic rather than being on a highway so for the extra 30 minutes of driving time (in total, it's not like I'd drive to Seymour and then drive from there to whistler) it's worth going to whistler rather than spending a full day in Seymour
 
13830453:Z-Juice said:
Here's some more responses from a thread from a few months ago:
https://www.newschoolers.com/forum/thread/853044/Grouse-Mountain-and-Cypress-Mountain
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some of the info in that thread is wrong. - cypress is open till 10pm for most of season. - I lived in whis for 2 years, now been on the north shore for 2 years.

In the last 2 years I have mainly ski'd Cypress. A little bit of Seymour and once at grouse. and also made about 40 trips to whis in the last 2 seasons.

Apparently grouse has the best park (when I went it seemed so flat and every feature was washed out to fuck) BUT thats literally it, it is like 1/10th at best the size of cypress. If your a prime park rat then maybe MAYBE I could see the argument for grouse but tbh I cant really see the argument for it, i'd still choose Seymour. - my advice is dont bother with grouse.

Seymour was fun and has a decent park, a bit better than cypresses. It also has some nice BC but you gotta be fucking careful and its mostly hiking to get to spots.

Cypress I think is a perfect mix of everything if your not just dedicated to slaying rails and getting blind 2s. the Parks are pretty average but there are a couple of decent sized jumps (I havent had the balls to zero the biggest one yet). This years park was a lot better than last years. There are also quite a few sweet little tree runs and some decent easily accessed BC, (again be fucking careful people die yo!). This year the snow was actually fucking insane at times (better than whis base wise and pow wise sometimes) I did runs on cypress that I never thought I'd do outside of whistler, million dollar / kybers style runs, (obvs not as long)

Last year I had a whis seasons pass and a cypress seasons pass. This year I've got the 10 day edge card for whis (its unlimited till dec15th anyway) then I'm gonna get a cheap cypress pass for boosting around the mountain and then a cheap seymour pass for the park. both cypress and seymour currently have deals on for cheap seasons passes(i think till the end of september).

That was a fucking ramble and I'm sorry if its no help.

**This post was edited on Aug 17th 2017 at 1:28:39pm
 
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