Cypress Mountain

Vancouver ski hills include Grouse, Mt. Seymour and Cypress. Also, just two hours away in opposite directions, there’s Whistler and Sasquatch.

To learn how much snow is on each of the mountains, see our article about Vancouver Ski Hills & Snow Conditions. To learn about the different hills in general, and how they compare, continue reading.

Note: As of April 24th, 2023, Sasquatch, Mt. Seymour, Cypress, Grouse and Whistler are all closed for the season. All things going according to plan, Blackcomb, however, expects its skiing to continue until May 22nd.

Vancouver Ski Resorts in 2023

This article features information about all five of the Lower Mainland’s ski hills, plus a sixth mountain located just a three-hour drive away. Details provided include resort locations as well as descriptions of each venue’s facilities, terrain and typical snow.

Information in this article includes the following topics:

The Lower Mainland Has 5 Ski Hills

There aren’t many major cities in the world where there are great ski hills just thirty minutes away. Vancouver has not one, but three local ski mountains to choose from: Grouse, Cypress, and Seymour.

Right at the edge of the city, rising out from the ocean, are these three winter playgrounds set in the stunning North Shore Mountains.

Further afield (and much larger and even more famous) is Whistler Blackcomb, arguably one of the finest ski resorts on the planet. People come from all around the world to ski Whistler’s slopes.

In the opposite direction, up at the edge of the Fraser Valley, is Sasquatch Mountain Resort (which until 2017 was called Hemlock).

And finally, even further away is Manning Park. Manning is a three-hour drive from Vancouver, so definitely not a Vancouverite’s first choice for skiing, but convenient for people living (or visiting) in the farther reaches of the Fraser Valley (like past Chilliwack).

Manning Park Resort is also a good place to ski for people wanting an overnight trip, or something different from the local hills that’s closer than the Okanagan.

View from Top of Cypress — View of North Shore Mountains from Cypress

How is Each Ski Hill Different?

The Lower Mainland’s various ski hills are all great in their own special ways. Some are larger and others smaller. Some are also more modern, less modern, either more or less crowded, cheaper, more expensive, better for beginners, better for expert skiers and with differing average quantities and qualities of snow.

See below for details about each location. Or, to learn about the ski conditions, see our article about Vancouver Ski Hills & Snow Conditions.

Snow Conditions Comparison Overview

Below are snapshots of the various snow reports as of around the last day of skiing for each mountain.

Grouse: As of April 23rd, there had been 827 cm of total snowfall for the season with 340 cm still at the plateau and 447 cm at the peak. 2 cm had fallen over the previous 24 hours and 74 cm had been made by the resort’s snow-making machines for the season.
Cypress: As of April 16th there had been 40 cm of snow in the last week including 30 cm of new snow in the previous 2 days. 435 cm of snow remained at the base.
Seymour: As of April 6th, there had been 57 cm of snowfall in the last seven days and 2 cm in the previous 24 hours. 310 cm remained at the base and there was still 442 cm at the summit. (Note: The last day of the ski season was April 9th.)
Sasquatch: As of April 3rd, the resort reported 38 cm of snow in the previous 48 hours with 326 cm at the alpine base. (Note: This ski hill’s season ended on April 2nd.)
Whistler: As of April 16th, there had been 12 cm of new snow in the previous 24 hours and 881 cm over the season. 283 cm still remained at the base. (Note: The final day of the 2022/23 ski season for Whistler Mountain was April 16th. Blackcomb, however, expects to stay open until Victoria Day on May 22nd.)

Cypress Bowl Ski Resort

Cypress Mountain has the most lifts, most terrain and most vertical drop of the three closest ski hills to Vancouver, plus tickets usually start at only about $50 per adult if you have a Gold Medal Card. The resort has 53 runs, 6 chairs, 600 acres (240 hectares) of terrain and 610 metres in vertical drop.

Cypress isn’t a huge ski hill, but it’s still pretty big and the largest and most advanced of Vancouver’s three most central hills. In addition to downhill skiing, the resort also has great cross-country (Nordic) skiing and a tubing park.

Over the past 6 years Cypress has averaged about 35 feet of snow per year, with amounts ranging from just over 27 feet at mid-mountain in 2006/07 up to over 45 feet in 2010/11.

New for the 2022/23 season is the Sky Quad system. The brand new chairlift has a loading carpet to help everyone get into the four-person seats comfortably and efficiently.

Click Cypress Mountain for more information on this ski hill.

Grouse Mountain Ski Resort

Grouse Mountain is the most accessible of Vancouver’s three local hills (so you don’t normally require winter tires and you can take public transit). Grouse also offers the best deal for season’s tickets (the famous Y2Play Pass) if you buy in the spring before, and the best year-round activities.

The ski hill at Grouse Mountain has 212 acres of skiable terrain, 33 daytime ski and snowboard runs, 15 night skiing runs, 5 terrain parks, 4 chairs, a vertical drop of 365 metres and 9 kilometres of snowshoeing trails. The resort also gets an average of 9.7 metres (or just under 32 feet) of snow per year.

The resort has been operating since 1926, has large-scale snow-making capabilities and it’s particularly popular with families, youth and international visitors.

What makes Grouse different from all the other ski hills is the fact that you have to take a tram up to its base. The parking lot is at the bottom of the mountain and instead of driving to the top you take a ride on the Skyride tram for about 8 or so minutes. The scenery from the Skyride is stunning and the trip means you rarely need winter tires to access the slopes, which makes Grouse the region’s most accessible mountain.

Click Grouse Mountain for more information.

Mt. Seymour Ski Resort

Mount Seymour is arguably Vancouver’s best hill for beginners and young families, plus often it’s the local ski resort with the most snowfall. It’s located within Mount Seymour Provincial Park.

Seymour has 40 runs, 3 chairs, 200 acres of terrain and 330 m in vertical drop. It’s the only one of the three local mountains that doesn’t have its own artificial snow-making capabilities, which means it struggles in warm dry winters, but is great most years.

Mt. Seymour features snowshoeing trails in the provincial park section that require day passes as of January, 2022. The place also has a great (but not free) tubing park. The resort has 4 tubing lanes and 8 sledding runs.

Other features of Mt. Seymour include its four terrain parks, all of which have lighting at night, and lots of free parking. The resort has 5 lifts including a high speed quad and 2 double chairs, and 40% of its runs are marked as Green for novices, 40% Blue for intermediate skiers, and 20% Black for advanced and expert skiers.

The longest run at Mt. Seymour is 1.6 km, the summit elevation is 1265 metres (or close to 4200 feet), and the average annual snowfall is close to 10 metres (or over 33 feet).

Click Mount Seymour or Mt. Seymour Snowshoe Trails for more information about the mountain.

Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort

Whistler-Blackcomb is the world-class ski resort that co-hosted the Olympic Games with Vancouver in 2010. It’s about a 2-hour drive from Vancouver (plus or minus depending on where you are coming from and the traffic), so more of a trek than other skill hills, but worth the drive as it is in a class of its own.

The resort is actually made up of two ski hills, although the same ski ticket gives you access to both. Whistler is slightly larger, with over 4750 acres of skiable terrain compared to slightly more than 3,400 on Blackcomb, although Blackcomb beats Whistler by about 250 metres in elevation. Whistler and Blackcomb have similar vertical drops and comparable base elevations.

Between the two mountains the resort has over 200 runs, 8171 acres of terrain, 24 chairs and gondolas, and 1609 metres in vertical drop. It’s also a full little mega-resort village with hundreds of restaurants, types of accommodation and shops.

In a typical year Whistler gets around 11.4 metres of snow or 37.5 feet. 44% of that usually falls in November and March which are typically the resort’s two snowiest months.

Click Whistler-Blackcomb for more information or visit WhatToDoInWhistler.ca.

Whistler Blackcomb Mountain — Whistler Blackcomb

Sasquatch Mountain Ski Resort

Known as Hemlock Valley Resort until 2016, Sasquatch Mountain is a ski hill located in the Fraser Valley not far from Harrison Hot Springs. It’s not the region’s most modern ski hill, but not the smallest either, and if expansion plans proceed it could one day be one of if not the biggest!

Sasquatch Mountain Resort is a ski hill with wide open terrain, 3 chair lifts and about three dozen runs of which some 45% are classified as Black Diamond. Complementing its skiing and snowboarding facilities, the resort has 13 km of snowshoeing trails and a brand new 8-lane tubing park. The Fraser Valley’s only ski hill, it’s also one of the most affordable snow-sport resorts in the Lower Mainland.

In total, Sasquatch Mountain has 335 metres in vertical drop, which is similar to other ski hills, and around 200 acres of skiable terrain. The last day of the resort’s ski season in the spring of 2023 was April 2nd.

Click Sasquatch Mountain Resort to learn more.

Sasquatch Mountain View — Sasquatch Mountain in the Hemlock Valley

Manning Park Ski Resort

Manning Park is a smaller ski resort that isn’t actually in the Lower Mainland, although it does serve eastern parts of the region. The ski hill is a 3-hour drive from Vancouver, when traffic is good from the city through the Fraser Valley.

The resort has over 30 km (18 miles) of groomed cross-country ski trails, a great little alpine hill with a couple of chairs, and a tubing park. Because it’s further into the interior and away from the ocean, the temperatures are colder at Manning Park than at ski hills closer to Vancouver and the coast, which means the snow is usually better.

To learn more see the Manning Park website.