Cypress Mountain Ski Area

Cypress Mountain Ski Area
Skiers at Cypress Mountain
Skiers at Cypress Mountain
LocationCypress Provincial Park,
British Columbia
Canada
Nearest major cityWest Vancouver
Coordinates49°23′44″N 123°12′12″W / 49.39556°N 123.20333°W / 49.39556; -123.20333
StatusOperating
OwnerBoyne Resorts
Vertical614 m / 2,014 ft
Top elevation1,440 m / 4,724 ft
Base elevation826 m / 2,710 ft
Skiable area240 hectares (600 acres)
Trails53
Beginner 13%
Intermediate 35%
Advanced 37%
Expert 8%
Freestyle Terrain 8%
Longest run4.1 km (combination)
(2.5 mi.)
Lift system6 chairlifts
1 magic carpet
2 surface lifts
Snowfall622 cm/year (245 inches)
Websitecypressmountain.com

Cypress Mountain is a ski area in West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, located in the southern section of Cypress Provincial Park, operated under a BC Parks Park Use Permit.

The ski resort is a 30-minute drive north of downtown Vancouver,[1] and has 53 named alpine ski runs (many accessible for night skiing) and 19 km of cross country trails. Snowshoeing tours are also popular. Snow schools and rentals, Cypress Creek Grill, Gold Medal Cafe and Crazy Raven Bar and Grill and a Big Bear Sports retail shop are also located on the premises in the Cypress Creek Lodge.

Cypress Mountain hosted the Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding events of the 2010 Winter Olympics, including SkiCross as a demonstration sport, and the first running of Snowboardcross as a Medal sport.

The ski area's downhill runs are built on two mountains (Mount Strachan /strɔːn/ strawn[2][3] – 1,440 metres (4,720 ft) and Black Mountain – 1,200 metres (3,900 ft), on a vertical rise of 610 metres (2,000 ft).

The resort is legally known as Cypress Bowl Recreational Limited Partnership, previously owned by Boyne Resorts, then sold to CNL Income Properties, then Och-Ziff Capital Management, but Boyne Canada has continued to run the ski operation for several years under a lease-back agreement. Boyne repurchased the resort in March 2018.

The ski resort name Cypress Mountain is derived from the name of the bowl between the three mountains, Mount Strachan, Black Mountain, and Hollyburn Mountain – "Cypress Bowl", which was the original and still-used common name of the resort (the facilities by Cypress Bowl Recreations Ltd.). The term cypress comes from the yellow cedar tree Cupressus nootkatensis which is common in the park at altitudes over 800 metres, and is also known as yellow cypress, as well as from the name of the park in which the ski operation is located.

Despite the resort name, there is in fact no mountain named Cypress Mountain in the park.[4]

  1. ^ [1] Archived February 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Strachan, Mount" in BCGNIS Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Fairley, Climbing & Hiking in Southwestern British Columbia, p. 23.
  4. ^ The only mountain named Cypress Mountain in BC is 22km East in Coquitlam.[2]