Early snowfall appears at the Peak of Vancouver

Fall weather at Grouse Mountain bodes well for coming winter

Snow graced the peak of Grouse Mountain today, signaling the coming winter in Vancouver may bring another robust season of flurries. The heavy rainfall this afternoon temporarily turned to snowfall at the highest altitude of the resort, and came as a pleasant surprise to onlookers.

Snow enthusiasts will soon be able to swap their sunglasses for goggles at Grouse Mountain as the city begins to look ahead to an exciting winter season. The brief arrival of snow and significant drop in temperature come at a time when Grouse Mountain is readying for the spectacular annual Peak of Christmas festivities, and anticipating guests from around the world during the Winter Olympic Games.

Grouse Mountain is committed to continuously adding value to the alpine experience for its loyal guests, as well as enhance the experience with even more activities including ziplining (now available year-round) and 24/7 operations during the Olympics. We look forward to the next snowfall and another excellent winter season!

The Eye of the Wind energy tower construction complete

Today was an unforgettable day. It marked the completion of construction on the Eye of the Wind energy tower at Grouse Mountain and has forever changed the face of alternative, clean energy in British Columbia. We have worked long and hard towards this day and there is a degree of emotion attached to witnessing the structure complete. We have a way to go before it is fully operational and guest accessible, but the completion of the structure solidifies this amazing project as a reality to all of us.

Stay tuned for more updates on the progress concerning elevator installation and readiness for energy production. Thanks to all for your support and enthusiasm. We'll see you in the ViewPod very soon...

Wind Tower reaches 65 metres

Our wind turbine reached new heights today as the third tower section was lifted into place. Next, the ViewPod – our custom built observation deck - was lifted to its new home looking out over Vancouver. The ViewPod is the only structure of its kind in the world – a true engineering marvel. It is seven metres in diameter, over 30,000lbs, and offers a 360 degree view of the Lower Mainland, surrounding mountains and the operating wind turbine. The last stage for today was to lift the machine carrier (some call it the nacelle) to the very top of the tower. The machine carrier allows the blade assembly to rotate about the tower and supports the generator, hub and three turbine blades. With the machine carrier in place, the tower has now reached its final 65 metres in height.

Tomorrow, the construction continues.

Tower Assembly Begins

Today assembly of the Grouse Mountain Turbine officially began. This morning, drivers along the Second Narrow’s Bridge may have noticed the first tower section upright on the top of Peak. We had some challenges bringing the section up Heaven’s Sake ski run because of the sheer weight. The construction crew worked seamlessly to lift the first section into the air, lower it gently in place and bolt it to the foundation. This concrete foundation is installed on bedrock and has 15-metre deep rock-anchors. Next, the middle tower section was lifted and secured into place on top of the first. So we now have a 40 metre tall white tower on our mountain. Assmebly will continue tomorrow.

Photo: Devin Manky

19th Annual BMO Grouse Grind Mountain Run

The Grouse Grind record has been broken.

Sunday, September 20th saw 22-year-old Sebastian Salas from West Vancouver walk away from the 19th Annual BMO Grouse Grind Mountain Run as the new record holder with an official time of 25:24. Very impressive. The former record was 26:17 set by Michael Simpson at the 2007 event.

In other Grouse Grind related news, the last Grouse Grind Social Night of the season takes place tomorrow evening, September 23rd from 6pm in Altitudes Bistro. Don't miss it!

The Grouse Grind is currently open 7:00am to 5:30pm daily; the hours are not expected to shift again until Friday, October 9th.

Three tower sections brought to the mountaintop

The middle and upper tower sections slowly crawled to the top of Grouse Mountain this morning via our back Mountain Highway. This means all components for the wind turbine are officially sitting ready on our mountain. The tower sections will not be brought to the actual project site until a few moments before they are actually erected into place. This is necessary because the project site has an exceptionally small footprint and can only handle so much gear at one time – just one of the many challenges associated with constructing a wind turbine on a mountain top. Today the crane assembly was completed and final preparation work is in motion. We are hoping for sunny skies this week.

For more images from the trek up Mountain Highway, visit our Wind Turbine Flickr Set.

Work continues on the wind turbine base tower section

Since the base tower section arrived at Grouse Mountain on Friday, it’s been getting a bit of a makeover. Our electricians have been busy installing cables while our millwrights have been installing more gear for the elevator that will be installed inside the tower. Tonight, the middle and top tower sections will be catching up as they travel from a lot in Surrey up to our back road off of Mountain Highway. The project site is looking different, too, as the LR1280 crane is almost completely assembled. Meanwhile, the Construction Supervisors arrived yesterday from Italy and are busy getting all the final details in place.

Turbine tower base arrives at the mountain

Last night starting at 2am the turbine tower base section traversed from the US Border through Vancouver, Port Moody and North Vancouver to reach Grouse Mountain’s back road off of Mountain Highway. This over-sized load is a hollow steel cylinder, 20 metres wide and 4 metres across. It required a specialized Schnable trailer to give maximum flexibility for making turns and overcoming inclines. We only had to disassemble three road signs which were replaced immediately. Today the tower section will travel up the 13km gravel road on the back side of Grouse Mountain. Meanwhile, the installation crew will be arriving from Italy tomorrow to prepare for construction next week.

LR1280 crane arrives at Grouse Mountain

Today the first and largest part of the LR1280 crane that will erect our wind turbine reached the project site at the Peak of Grouse Mountain. It was a difficult ascent up the steepest incline of Heaven’s Sake ski run but with some extra care it made it to the top. This crane from DLB Cranes Ltd based in North Vancouver is a monster – it can lift 300 tons and has a 90 metre boom. Even more good news, the base section of our tower crossed into Canada this morning from Washington State and will start it’s trek through Vancouver and up the mountain at 2am tonight.