Mt. Seymour could become the largest of Metro Vancouver’s three ski area under a new development plan released this week. Currently the local’s mountain operates just three chairlifts and one surface lift, which could grow to 14 lifts over the coming decades. Seymour lies within Mount Seymour Provincial Park and could increase its footprint from 581 acres to 825 with comfortable carrying capacity rising from 1,717 skiers per day to 4,561. Whistler-based Brent Harley and Associates (BHA) crafted the plan. “We have the potential to expand our winter operation with excellent higher elevation intermediate terrain, mountaintop food and beverage with 360 world-class views, and a little more space for us all to breathe,” wrote Mt. Seymour. “We already carefully control our capacity to avoid overcrowding, but we all need more space.” Potential full buildout could include four new quad chairs, two double chairs and two-T-Bars. Summer offerings would grow significantly with a via ferrata, mountain biking, hiking, zip lines and more.
First could come a new Brockton Chair, which dates back to 1970 and remains one just four Murray-Latta lifts on Earth. Phase 1b also includes nearby Summit and Percy quad chairs, adding intermediate and advanced terrain. “Unique, undulating topography of the slopes will result in remarkably playful and dynamic ski terrain featuring natural bumps, rolls, and banks sought after by experienced skiers,” the plan notes. Summit would be quite long and include an intermediate station about two thirds of the way up. A double chair called Flower and access T-Bar could be built alongside Summit.
Phase three includes a new Ridge chair, located near the former Ridge double chair which stopped operations circa 2008. This fixed quad would service beginner and intermediate progression terrain. “The proximity of this lift to the rental and ski school buildings makes it very accessible to newer skiers and well suited to ski school lessons,” BHA noted. Ridge could also service a future downhill bike park.
A new quad called De Pencier would probably come last, offering a distinctive alpine experience. This phase would also include construction of a Haul Back T-Bar and Exit chair to facilitate egress. The final phase also mentions the possibility of a gondola from the foot of the mountain to the ski area similar to the Blue Grouse Gondola at nearby Grouse Mountain. “Gondolas are increasingly being employed in resort and recreation contexts where onsite parking capacity is limited or where additional vehicles would detract from the desired experience,” BHA noted. “The development of a gondola at MSR would address parking capacity issues at the resort and reduce traffic on Mount Seymour Road.” This high dollar project would need to be studied extensively in partnership with BC Parks.
Mt. Seymour plans to host an open house on June 11th from 4:30 to 7:30 pm at the Parkgate Community Centre. Comments on the plan can also be submitted online.
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Cool, but expansion terrain would still be low elevation
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Cool, but expansion terrain would still be low elevation
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technically goldie lake (Besides ridge which would be more for summer use) would be higher than the top of lodge is now…. not perfect but it’s better. The other option. It closes permanently? You like that option?
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Too bad replacing Brockton. The De Pencier lift is interesting, but I’m not sure of the t-bar’s alignment.
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Interesting there was no mention of snowmaking – Seymour is the only local Vancouver hill without. Definitely would be a requirement for the lower elevation lifts – this is partly why the Ridge chair area was abandoned after it was damaged.
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Perhaps they simply don’t possess a suitable water source.
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their plan does include additional snowmaking. If you go their site you can read it there.
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I think that they would have to really have to have significant summer ops (bike park, hiking & sightseeing tourists) to justify all this investment.
The winters are going to keep getting shorter, so the amount of ski days (with snow conditions to sell a lot of tickets/passes) to pay off all these lifts might not be adequate by itself.
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I think you nailed it! People don’t want to drive all the way up to Whistler if Seymour can reign in the mountain bike crowd from Vancouver and Northern Washington.
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Overall, interesting idea but there is a very little chance of it actually getting built out.
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Perhaps read… the ridge would be built to facilitate mountain biking. The winter use would be limited, but would run just fine during the kid lesson season which is what that area is for anyway.
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The lift could absolutely go up a 70 degree grade… it doesn’t have to follow the contour. Could you ski down that face. Doubtful, and an exit lift up it is perfectly doable. Might be a bit scary to ride but doable. My guess the flower chair would serve a terrain park. The season isn’t going past April regardless and anyone that actually skis there knows by spring break it’s pretty much dead up there. All the people screaming the season is too short are just fan boys and not business people. The money is made in the early season, before Valentines Day. Most is in December. If they want long term success they need to be able to sell more tickets in December and January. What happens in March is meaningless. They can’t sell more tickets without more lifts otherwise wait times on mystery would be over an hour…. already in December January its usually about 20 mins. Where as in February it’s about 10 and less than 5 in March on most weekends.
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I hope they do the exit lift because it would look awesome
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I rode Mt Seymour a few times about 20 years ago, I’m pretty much a local and know everything about the place. (That’s a joke)
It is a pretty cool little hill with fun terrain and an amazing view of the city. I had a great time. (That’s true)
Ridge chair could be helpful to provide additional space for lessons.
Flower chair and Access t-bar seem pointless.
Summit chair could go from bottom of proposed Flower chair to top of Brockton and service the same terrain.
Percy chair could be a little flat at the top of the runs.
De Pencier chair looks interesting.
The exit chair seems odd, I wonder if it would work better for the haul back t-bar to be located higher up the hill and stop at the top of Brockton/Summit chairs.
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I skied at Mt Seymour in 1969!
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I learnt to ski on Grouse, was Voli Ski Patrol (CSPS) on Seymour for a few years and have skied to the summit many times on skins. Replying to some of the thoughts on here;
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Local news article, including possible push-back on the plan due to the expansion into BC Parks land.
https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/north-vancouvers-mt-seymour-resort-eyes-massive-expansion-12366910
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