Grouse Mountain resort, gondola forced to close on Canada Day
Posted July 1, 2024 7:15 am.
Last Updated July 2, 2024 11:06 am.
Grouse Mountain was closed for Canada Day following maintenance issues that left some hikers on the ‘Grind’ waiting and some injured.
Grouse Mountain Resort announced Monday that its ‘Skyride’ gondola, chalet facilities, and all mountaintop activities would be closed due to “required maintenance.”
“We are working hard to complete the required maintenance and it may be finished as early as tomorrow afternoon,” the resort said.
Posts to social media show that some hikers making their way up the Grouse Grind or surrounding trails Sunday were left waiting for gondolas for hours or forced to hike the steep decline down.
District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services Assistant Chief Dwayne Derban told CityNews that emergency crews responded to a call around 5:50 p.m. Sunday afternoon about a woman with a sprained ankle on the way down the BCMC trail, just east of the Grind.
He says that’s when they became aware of how many people were struggling down the mountain.
“On the way up, we came across another lady who was making her way down — who needed some assistance down. Turns out that the Grouse Grind gondola had had mechanical issues and had been not functioning from about 1:30 p.m. in the afternoon until about 6 p.m.,” said Derban.
“So people who were up there, a few of them started coming down via the Grouse Grind, or actually the trail next to the Grouse Grind, the BCMC, which allows for downhill travel without, I think, realizing the distance and the difficulty of that descent. So as the call progressed and we called for some more help, we came across two other patients who were quite fatigued. One of them was some distressing vital signs with a heart rate very low.”
Derban says his crews were helped by North Shore Rescue volunteers to extract four patients from the trail.
A “full day of mountiantop fun” was originally planned for the holiday on Grouse, including a barbecue, a lumberjack show, and a scavenger hunt.
The resort apologized for the inconvenience and said if you have already purchased a ‘download’ pass or a mountain admission ticket, it will still be valid for 90 days from Tuesday.
