North Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain is a snow sport paradise in winter with skiing, ice skating, snowshoeing, a sliding area and fantastic ski conditions.
Grouse Mountain opened for the 2024/2025 ski season on November 23rd. The estimated closing date is the night of April 23rd. Exact details, however, are to be confirmed.
TIP: If you plan to ski more than once in the late spring, don’t buy a singe day pass! A single day ticket for adults costs $89, plus taxes. If you buy a Spring Fling Pass, however, it costs just $99 and with it you can ski as much as you want until the end of the 2024/25 season!
See below for a description of Grouse Mountain in winter including details on the following topics:
Ski Conditions | Grouse Mountain Video | Admission | Ski Hill Features | Resort Accessibility | Winter Activities | Christmas Activities | Night Skiing | Snowshoeing | Outdoor Skating | Sliding Zone | Other Information
Winter Activities at Grouse Mountain
Grouse Mountain is Vancouver’s most accessible ski hill and is considered one of the region’s most popular destinations year-round. The resort offers a wide range of activities 12 months of the year. During winter, Grouse becomes especially popular!
For information about Grouse Mountain in the non-snowy season, check out Grouse Mountain in Summer. For information on Grouse Mountain in the winter, see below.
Ski Conditions at Grouse Mountain
Conditions as of the morning of April 17th, 2025, were the following:
- Total snowfall this season to date: 742 cm
- New snow in previous 24 hours: 0 cm
- New snow in previous 48 hours: 0 cm
- New snow in previous 7 days: 0 cm
- Snow depth at peak: 315 cm
- Snow depth at plateau: 218 cm
- Weather conditions: 7 degrees with clear skies
Grouse Mountain Video
For an idea of what Grouse Mountain looks like on the slopes in winter, check out the following video.
Admission at Grouse Mountain
As of January in 2025, a weekday of skiing at Grouse costs $89 for adults, $69 for seniors and youth, and $39 for children (ages 5 to 12). Weekend rates are about $5 to $10 more. Children under the age of five have free admission at all times.
Parking at Grouse in winter normally costs about $8 for three hours or $10 for the day.
Ski Resort Features
Grouse is one of the North Shore‘s three local ski hills. The others are Cypress (which has the most lifts and terrain) and Mt. Seymour (which is arguably the best for beginners). Grouse Mountain receives over 1 million visitors each year.
Grouse Mountain has 26 runs and four chairs. Its terrain parks are considered the best on the North Shore. In fact, in 2018, Newschoolers, considered by many to be the world’s top skiing website, named Grouse Mountain the #3 terrain park in the Northwest corner of North America! Whistler was number one.
The mountain has runs of all levels, but it’s not a huge ski hill. During the day you can ski some of the same slopes at least a couple of times. The resort is big enough, though, for people to have a wonderful time (including skiers with season’s passes).
Grouse finished the 2018/2019 season with just 259 cms of snow still remaining at the peak. For comparison, on the last day of the 2020/2021 season the hill had 387 cms of snow at the peak. The 2021/2022 season began on November 20th in 2021. It ended on May 15th, 2022, with 290 cms of snow at the plateau and 420 cms at the peak. The ski hill had 574 cms of snow for the season.
The 2022/2023 ski season, meanwhile, started on November 18th in 2022. It came to an end on April 23rd, with a total of 447 cms of snow left at the peak and 340s cm at the plateau. The most recent season began on December 8th, 2023. It concluded on April 21st, 2024. In the last week of the season, there was about 251 cms of snow remaining at the peak and about 138 cms at the plateau. There was a total of 640 cms of snowfall over the course of the season.
To learn more about the mountain and its year-round activities click Grouse Mountain. Click Lower Mainland Ski Hills for information about all the region’s various ski resorts including a comparison of the different mountains.
Resort Accessibility at Grouse Mountain
With most ski hills in the area you have to drive to get to (or pay for a shuttle bus). With Grouse Mountain, however, there is easy public bus access, and the parking lot is usually well below snow level.
At Grouse you park in the pay parking lot, get on the aerial Skyride tramway (which is an attraction in itself), and arrive minutes later at the base of the ski hill. It’s fast and easy to get to, plus no worries about winter driving, which in Vancouver is dangerous because people struggle to drive expertly in the snow.
Note: In winter, indoor areas of Grouse Mountain are also accessible by wheelchair including the resort’s indoor theatre and restaurants. With all the snow, though, it’s not so easy to get around outdoors if you have mobility issues. You will, however, sometimes see people flying down the hill in ski equipment adapted for people normally in wheelchairs.
Grouse Mountain Winter Activities
Of course, there is great skiing and snowboarding in the winter at Grouse Mountain, but there is also snowshoeing and outdoor skating. Grouse offers some exceptional skiing as well as stunning views, including sights of the city below.
Other year-round activities on the hill include movies in the Peak Chalet’s Theatre in the Sky, and fine dining at a couple of great restaurants.
Grouse Christmas Activities
December is usually a particularly special month at Grouse Mountain when the resort offers its Peak of Christmas event starting in late November. During this time, there are music concerts, gingerbread house displays, sleigh rides, reindeer to look at, sparkling lights, Santa Claus to visit and other festive Christmas activities.
The Peak of Christmas ran from November 22nd until December 25th during the 2024 holiday season. 2025 dates are to be confirmed.
Night Skiing & Evening Activities
Night skiing at Grouse Mountain can be a wonderful experience, especially on clear nights when the lights of Vancouver sparkle in the distance. In addition to skiing, on winter evenings there is also snowboarding, ice skating and crazy carpet fun in the Sliding Zone. Most years, there are also sleigh rides and other fun activities too.
For more information, click Night Skiing at Grouse Mountain.
Snowshoeing & Snowshoe Social Nights
Grouse Mountain has some great snowshoe trails. There are a couple of easier routes and a couple of more serious ones. The resort also hosts various snowshoeing events.
For the 2024/2025 season, the snowshoeing events run between January 7th and April 12th. There are Discovery Snowshoe Tours on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Family Adventure Snowshoe Tours run on Saturday afternoons, while Fitness Focused Snowshoe Tours happen on select Thursday nights. Costs vary from about $22 to $33 per adult.
Wednesday evenings between January 8th and April 9th in 2025 are Social Snowshoe nights. Registration is required and each event costs a donation of $5 per person. Headlamps are required and snowshoes are available for rent. Participants sign in at the Alpine Fire Pit at 6:15 pm and then start snowshoeing at 6:30 pm.
Click Snowshoeing at Grouse Mountain to learn more about the trails.
Skating at Grouse Mountain
The Mountaintop Skating Pond is normally open daily until 9:00 pm. Towards the end of the season the rink sometimes has even shorter hours of operation, and at times it even closes completely when temperatures get too high.
Although called the “Mountaintop Skating Pond,” it’s not actually a pond. It’s just an outdoor skating rink, although an exceptionally nice one. It looks like it could be a pond, but there is no risk of the ice getting thin and you falling into icy cold water. It’s just a very nice outdoor skating rink.
Access to the skating rink is included with admission to the resort. You don’t have to pay extra to skate. Unless you bring your own skates though, you do have to pay for skate rentals. You can rent them from the Fireside Hut at the edge of the rink.
For a glimpse of what the Mountaintop Skating Pond looks like just after dusk, check out the following video clip.
The Sliding Zone
The Sliding Zone is a hill where you can slide down on a sled-like contraption. The Sliding Zone is near the main lodge and outdoor skating rink.
To access the Sliding Zone you have to use an official Grouse Mountain Sliding Zone sled. You can’t bring your own sled or crazy carpet. You have to rent one, but they aren’t expensive. During the 2024/2025 season, sleds are $5 per session, or $15 for the season per person.
The Sliding Zone is usually open from around 11:00 am until 7:00 pm or later. Exact times do vary, however, and the activity only operates when snow conditions permit. If the snow gets too icy, too slushy, too fast or too sparse, the Sliding Zone gets shut down until conditions improve.
Tips & Advice
Below are some tips and suggestions to help you make the most of your visit to Grouse Mountain in winter.
TIP #1: Night skiing at Grouse is fantastic. It’s a few dollars cheaper than skiing all day, the crowds are minimal, and on a clear evening the views of Vancouver below are breath-taking. Also, with night rates starting at 3:00 pm or 4:00 pm, if you go late in the season, like at the end of March, you can still get a couple of hours of beautiful sunshine.
TIP #2: Unlike some mountains, a fair portion of the resort’s runs are lit up and open at night. Over half the mountain’s terrain is accessible daily until closing, including popular runs like Centennial, The Cut, Heaven’s Sake and Peak.
TIP #3: If you don’t want to ski but still want to go up the hill, make a reservation at The Observatory. Complimentary Skyride tram rides up to the top are included with the reservation.
TIP #4: Grouse Mountain offers a special season ticket, the Y2Play Pass, which is available for just a limited time each spring. The pass is good for skiing until the end of the season, plus the entire next season as well. The Y2Play is popular with locals and it makes Grouse a favourite for families and young skiers.
TIP #5: If someone in your group has an annual pass, up to two guests can usually get 50% off the price of the tram ride up the hill, although the discounts don’t apply to ski tickets.
TIP #6: Ski equipment can be expensive. If money is tight, to save money, buying second-hand equipment can be a good idea. A great place to do that is at one of the Lower Mainland’s various Ski Swaps which take place in the spring and fall.
Other Information
For further information about the resort and Metro Vancouver skiing opportunities, see the following:
- Visit the Grouse Mountain website for full details about the ski hill.
- Click Grouse in Summer for information about other activities in the late spring, summer and early fall.
- See Mountain Ziplining for details about ziplining opportunities at Grouse Mountain.
- Click Grouse Mountain at Night for details about night skiing opportunities at the resort.
- See Grouse Mountain Snowshoeing for more information about winter trails on the mountain.
- Check out the Peak of Christmas for information on festive activities at Grouse Mountain in December.
- Check out Lower Mainland Ski Hills to learn about the region’s other various places to ski.
- For a list of places to stay if you are from out of town, see our articles about North Vancouver Hotels and Downtown Vancouver Hotels.
