Grouse Mountain
The 1231 meter high mountain Grouse Mountain is a winter sports and tourist destination in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located north of the City of North Vancouver in the mountains of the North Shore Mountains.
History
The first recorded ascent of Grouse Mountains dates back to 1894. The mountain was named by Erstbesteigern after they chased a rock mountain chicken (german blue grouse ).
In the following years, the mountain has become a popular destination for hikers was. In 1910, said to have reached the pinnacle over 1000 people. Hence the idea to build a 2.5 km -long railway line to the summit was. However, due to the steel shortage during the First World War, this project could never be implemented. Nevertheless, the first hotels were built in the following years and in 1927 a 13 km road was opened to the summit. The road remained closed for many years due to a broken bridge and then ruin the operating company.
The construction of the ski resort started in the 1930s with the first ski lift. 1949 and 1951 was followed by two double chairlifts. The next development was in 1966 with the opening of the Skyride aerial tramway, which runs from North Vancouver to the mountain. Simultaneously, two restaurants were opened at the mountain station and started the construction of the largest snowmaking system in Canada. Ten years later, the web has been supplemented by a second aerial tramway. The Super Skyride with a cabin size of 100 passengers was built by Garaventa.
Since then, several other hotels, restaurants and railways were built on the Grouse Mountain.
Tourism
Winter tourism
The skiing and snowboarding area, which lies on the southern side of the mountain, has four chairlifts and 26 ski runs. Thanks headlights on 14 slopes and night skiing. In addition, there are several snowshoe routes with a total length of 10 km. At the mountain station of the aerial tramway is a 743 square meter ice rink.
Summer tourism
At the Grouse Mountain leads the famous Grouse Grind; a 2.9 km long path that overcomes a height difference of 853 m. Each year more than 100,000 people up the path. With an automatic timing system, it is possible, the time for the rise to be measured. Top runners achieve a time of less than 30 minutes. As an average hiking time will be given 90 minutes.
The Eye of the Wind
Just in time for the Winter Olympics, a wind turbine on Grouse Mountain was put into operation on February 5, 2010. Built by Leitwind 65 m high plant has a capacity of 1.5 MW. The rotor blades are 37 meters long. What makes the eye of the wind is a viewing platform which was mounted a few meters below the spire and can be reached with a lift.