| Cypress Provincial Park | |
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 The Lions seen from the Hollyburn Mountain Trail | |
  Location ofCypress Provincial Park in British Columbia Show map of British Columbia | |
 Interactive map of Cypress Provincial Park | |
| Location | Metro Vancouver,British Columbia,Canada |
| Nearest city | West Vancouver |
| Coordinates | 49°23′30″N123°12′45″W / 49.39167°N 123.21250°W /49.39167; -123.21250 |
| Area | 30.12 km2 (11.63 sq mi) |
| Established | 1975 (provincial park) 1982 (Howe Sound added) |
| Visitors | 1.832 million (in 2017-18)[2] |
| Governing body | BC Parks |
| Website | Cypress Provincial Park |
Cypress Provincial Park is aprovincial park on theNorth Shore ofMetro Vancouver Regional District,British Columbia. The park has two sections: a 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi) southern section which is accessible by road fromWest Vancouver, and a 9 km2 (3.5 sq mi) northern section which is only accessible by hiking trails. The two sections are linked by a narrow strip of park along the mountainousHowe Sound Crest Trail.
The southern section of Cypress Provincial Park contains a ski area (Cypress Mountain Ski Area) that is operated under a Park Use Permit by a private company called Cypress Bowl Recreations Ltd, owned by Boyne Canada, a subsidiary of US-basedBoyne Resorts.[3]
The name Cypress refers to the treeCupressus nootkatensis, also known asyellow cedar oryellow cypress, which is common in the park at altitudes over 800 metres. Cypress Bowl is the name of thebowl between the three mountains that make up the Cypress Mountain Ski Area (Mount Strachan, Black Mountain, and Hollyburn Mountain).
Evidence ofSquamish andTsleil-WaututhFirst Nations use has been documented in the park, including 350-400 year old bark-stripping scars on old-growth yellow cedar trees above Yew Lake.[3]
Logging first began in 1870[4] toclear cut dense forests on Mount Vaughan, later renamed to Hollyburn Mountain in 1912. In 1918, James Nasmyth started a logging operation and built a mill on Rodgers Creek which operated until 1923.[3] In the 1920s, Hollyburn Mountain became a popular recreation area for hikers and skiers utilizing the old logging roads.[4] In 1926, the Hollyburn Lodge was built on First Lake, becoming the first commercial ski camp on the North Shore when it opened as the Hollyburn Ski Camp on January 16, 1927. In 1933, the West Lake Ski Camp also opened. By the late 1930s, Heaps Timber Company acquired timber leases in the Hollyburn and Cypress Bowl area. Public controversy forced the provincial government to set aside Cypress Bowl as a park reserve in 1944, after 40 hectares had already been logged.[3] On January 17, 1951, the Hollyburn Aerial Tram (HAT) chairlift and HAT Inn opened near Hi-View Lookout. With rising popularity of skiing, nearly 300 cabins were built on Hollyburn Ridge by the 1960s.
Clear-cut logging resumed in 1966, affecting portions of Black Mountain and Strachan Mountain.[3] The controversy about logging in the park, under the oversight of theSocial Credit government, was debated in the BC Legislature and reported on in the media.[citation needed]Public outrage caused the province to take over development of winter recreation, resulting in the creation of Alpine and Nordic skiing facilities in 1970 and the construction of Cypress Bowl Road in 1973. Cypress Provincial Park was granted Class A Provincial Park status in 1975. The park was expanded north in 1982 to its current boundaries. The expansion included a narrow ridge running from Cypress Bowl toBrunswick Mountain, along what is now theHowe Sound Crest Trail, and a valley of subalpine mountain lakes (Brunswick Lake, Hanover Lake, and Deeks Lake). The Howe Sound Crest Trail linking the two park sections was completed by the late 1980s.[3][5]
In 1984, the ski resorts, formerly operated by BC Parks, were privatized and now operate under a Park Use Permit. Beginning in 1986, the ski resort operator began attempts to block public access to winter activities in the provincial park without a day pass, resulting in protests. Hiker access trails were later developed to ensure public access to park areas outside of the resort area. The resort has unsuccessfully petitioned to expanded their Park Use Permit area numerous times but in 2002, 40 hectares of second growth forest on Black Mountain were added to the permit area, while a similar area of mostly old-growth forest and subalpine meadow on Hollyburn and Strachan was removed from the permit area. Cypress Creek Lodge opened in 2008. In 2010, Cypress helped host the2010 Winter Olympics inVancouver where it hosted Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding competitions. The original Hollyburn Lodge, first constructed in 1926, completed renovations and reopened in 2018.[3]
| Climate data for Hollyburn Ridge (Cypress Mountain) (Elevation: 930.00 m) 1971−2000 | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 17.8 (64.0) | 16.7 (62.1) | 17.5 (63.5) | 22.5 (72.5) | 30.5 (86.9) | 31.7 (89.1) | 33.3 (91.9) | 32.0 (89.6) | 30.5 (86.9) | 26.7 (80.1) | 22.2 (72.0) | 12.8 (55.0) | 33.3 (91.9) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 1.1 (34.0) | 2.5 (36.5) | 3.9 (39.0) | 6.6 (43.9) | 10.5 (50.9) | 13.3 (55.9) | 17.5 (63.5) | 17.7 (63.9) | 15.3 (59.5) | 9.2 (48.6) | 2.6 (36.7) | 0.6 (33.1) | 8.4 (47.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −1.4 (29.5) | −0.4 (31.3) | 0.8 (33.4) | 3.0 (37.4) | 6.3 (43.3) | 9.0 (48.2) | 12.6 (54.7) | 13.0 (55.4) | 10.6 (51.1) | 5.8 (42.4) | 0.3 (32.5) | −1.8 (28.8) | 4.8 (40.6) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −4.0 (24.8) | −3.2 (26.2) | −2.4 (27.7) | −0.6 (30.9) | 2.0 (35.6) | 4.7 (40.5) | 7.6 (45.7) | 8.2 (46.8) | 5.9 (42.6) | 2.3 (36.1) | −2.0 (28.4) | −4.1 (24.6) | 1.2 (34.2) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −21.7 (−7.1) | −20.0 (−4.0) | −15.0 (5.0) | −8.3 (17.1) | −4.4 (24.1) | −2.2 (28.0) | 0.0 (32.0) | 0.6 (33.1) | −3.9 (25.0) | −14.0 (6.8) | −20.0 (−4.0) | −26.7 (−16.1) | −26.7 (−16.1) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 310.0 (12.20) | 301.4 (11.87) | 249.7 (9.83) | 177.6 (6.99) | 177.6 (6.99) | 155.7 (6.13) | 120.2 (4.73) | 120.7 (4.75) | 149.0 (5.87) | 299.9 (11.81) | 389.7 (15.34) | 354.0 (13.94) | 2,805.4 (110.45) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 173.1 (6.81) | 164.6 (6.48) | 139.7 (5.50) | 107.1 (4.22) | 167.9 (6.61) | 155.4 (6.12) | 120.2 (4.73) | 120.7 (4.75) | 148.4 (5.84) | 285.6 (11.24) | 284.1 (11.19) | 213.2 (8.39) | 2,080.4 (81.91) |
| Average snowfall cm (inches) | 136.9 (53.9) | 136.9 (53.9) | 110.0 (43.3) | 70.5 (27.8) | 9.6 (3.8) | 0.2 (0.1) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.1 (0.0) | 14.3 (5.6) | 105.7 (41.6) | 141.9 (55.9) | 726.1 (285.9) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.2 mm) | 17.6 | 16.5 | 16.4 | 15.2 | 12.6 | 12.9 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 10.0 | 15.1 | 19.3 | 18.9 | 172.0 |
| Average rainy days(≥ 0.2 mm) | 8.8 | 8.2 | 8 | 9.7 | 11.8 | 12.8 | 8.5 | 9 | 9.9 | 14.1 | 12.7 | 9.0 | 122.5 |
| Average snowy days(≥ 0.2 cm) | 12.2 | 11.3 | 11.2 | 8.3 | 2.2 | 0.09 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.09 | 2.4 | 10.9 | 13.6 | 72.28 |
| Source: Environment Canada (normals, 1981−2010)[6] | |||||||||||||
During the winter, this is aski area for bothcross-country andalpine skiers. The ski operation has four quad (2 are high speed) and two doublechairlifts, as well as a tube tow and a magic carpet for their ski school participants. With 53 downhill runs (beginner 23%, intermediate 37%, advanced 40%) and over 19 km (12 mi) of cross-country trails, Cypress Mountain is the largest ski area on Vancouver's North Shore. It also has the highest vertical rise, 613 m (2,011 ft), of the three North Shore ski resorts.[7][citation needed]
In summer and fall, the park is usually free of snow and is popular with hikers. Its trail system includes sections of theBaden-Powell Trail in the southern section of the park, as well as theHowe Sound Crest Trail in the northern section.Parkbus offers a seasonal shuttle service to the park.
Beginning in the summer of 2005, Cypress Mountain Resort has created a lift-assisted mountain bike park, as set out in the 1997 Cypress Provincial Park Master Plan. Even though the lift accessed biking has now been closed for Olympic preparations and they have not yet bothered to restore the trails Cypress still hold many non-lift accessed bike trails. Most of these trails are situated lower down the mountain and are actually not a part of the park because of this they are under threat to development. These Trails on Cypress (Black Mountain Side) are known around the world for being some of the most technically challenging in the world, more challenging than the other two shore mountains (Seymour and Fromme). Trails on Cypress are known as being steep, eroded, and very dangerous. It has multiple rock faces that are close to vertical also having large jumps and drops. Most famous of these is the Brutus Gap, (appearing in many large bike films) it is a step-down drop in excess of 20 ft (6.1 m) in both length and height. That being said Cypress does house some more easily ridable trails, still not easy by any means but more accessible. Some of these include: Mystery DH, Stupid Grouse, Slippery Canoe, Upper Tall Cans, Firehose, and Pull Tab. Some of the legendary and most difficult trails are: 5th Horseman, Sex Girl, Shoreplay. One of the original trails is pre-reaper and reaper these are steep trails that used to have some very difficult man made features, sadly most of these were sawed down and destroyed by the government. For more information regarding trails on Cypress there are mountain bike specific maps that include many of the trails and is a great place to start for riding on the mountain.
The lower section of the park contains three main mountains that form Cypress Bowl. The upper, smaller, section includes a series of mountains along a north–south ridge from St. Mark's in the south to Gotha Peak in the far north of the park.
Cypress Bowl (South)
Howe Sound Crest (North)
A significant part of Vancouver's2010 Winter Olympics was hosted by Cypress in February 2010, including thesnowboard (half-pipe,snowboard cross and parallelgiant slalom) andfreestyle skiing (moguls andaerials) events, as well as the recently added Skiercross, which used thesnowboardcross run, with some modifications. The Freestyle Venue was completed in the Fall of 2006.
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