The wait is over for visitors at Grouse Mountain Resort, as the brand-new gondola is now open, revolutionizing access to the mountain’s plateau level from the parking lot.
A grand opening celebration was held on Thursday afternoon to mark the occasion, culminating with an evening fireworks show launched next to the plateau level’s skating pond.
The new Blue Grouse Gondola boasts a capacity for 1,000 passengers per hour on its 27 enclosed gondola cars, each with a capacity to hold up to eight passengers. Its average travel time is 5.5 minutes each way, which is faster than the existing Red Skyride. Each gondola car is also equipped with a blue ceiling light for nighttime illumination.
Four of the gondola cars feature a unique exterior livery designed by winning artists from a competition that showcased artworks inspired by their cherished memories of Grouse Mountain.
Within the bottom third of the ride, the gondola crosses under the Red Skyride; at times, visitors riding the gondola will pass directly underneath the large cars of the aerial tram. The gondola’s base terminal is located immediately to the west of the Red Skyride’s base terminal, while the gondola’s plateau terminal is situated to the east of the chalet and the Red Skyride’s plateau terminal.
A new large entrance plaza has been built immediately to the north of the gondola’s base terminal, which has a queuing area directly attached to the Red Skyride’s queuing area.
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Colorado-based aerial lift manufacturing firm Leitner-Poma supplied the gondola cars and equipment. Unlike an aerial tramway, the gondola operates on a continuous loop using numerous smaller cars.
The existing iconic Red Skyride aerial tram will remain operational, complementing the gondola and providing much-needed additional capacity and redundancy.
The Blue Grouse Gondola is a replacement of the previous 1966-built Blue Skyride aerial tram, which has a far lower capacity than the new gondola or the Red Skyride. The Blue Skyride, which saw very limited general use by visitors in recent decades, was permanently closed earlier this year as part of the new gondola’s construction process. Construction on the gondola first began in September 2022.
In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized, Steve Sammut, the president and COO of Northland Properties, stated that both the Red Skyride and the Blue Grouse Gondola will operate simultaneously, with no plans to reduce the use of the 1976-built Red Skyride in favour of primarily operating the new gondola.
And there are also no plans to build a new second gondola to replace the Red Skyride.
In fact, he mentioned potential plans to replace both aerial tram cars of the Red Skyride, ensuring the tram’s continued operation for the long term. Each of the existing cars on the Red Skyride have a capacity for about 100 passengers.
“Really with the new gondola coming, this basically gets us back to the same capacity we had, a little bit more actually,” said Sammut, referring to the limited use of the Blue Skyride, which had smaller aerial tram cars than the Red Skyride.
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Although the Blue Skyride is now decommissioned, its two aerial tram cars have been retained for potential creative reuse at the plateau level. Sammut noted that there are no definitive plans for the old cars but suggested one possible idea: using them as a coffee shop.
With the use of both the Blue Grouse Gondola and the Red Skyride, long queues for uploads and downloads during peak periods will become a thing of the past. Additionally, this eliminates previous mountain resort closure periods caused by technical issues with the Red Skyride or its scheduled maintenance.
“We’re really excited about what the Blue Gondola is going to do for people visiting Grouse Mountain. It should be the end of any wait times and any perceived wait times here,” said Tom Gaglardi, CEO of Northland Properties, during his speech at the grand opening celebration.
“It’s an incredible engineering feat, what’s happened here. When you get up to the top third of this ride, you’ll see how steep it is. It is truly unbelievable that that can be done, but here we are.”
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Gaglardi also noted that the Blue Grouse Gondola’s capacity could be expanded in the future by adding more cars, a move similar to the one made by the Sea to Sky Gondola near Squamish in 2019.
But in the short- and medium-term, the increased mountain ingress and egress capacity allows Grouse Mountain to introduce new activities and attractions, broadening the resort’s summer offerings and further diversifying operations beyond winter skiing.
For the short-term improvements, Grouse Mountain will open a new mountain bike park, which will be the only lift-accessed bike parking among the North Shore’s three mountain resorts. It will open in Spring 2025.
A new gravity-fed coaster ride will open in Summer 2025 at Grouse Mountain, providing competition for Cypress Mountain’s similar attraction. However, unlike Cypress Mountain’s seasonal coaster, which requires annual assembly and disassembly, Grouse Mountain’s version will be a permanent fixture year-round.
Grouse Mountain’s coaster will have a track length of 1,434 metres (4,700 ft) on a vertical descent of 919 metres (3,015 ft). Its ascent of 515 metres (1,700 ft) returns the riders to the mountaintop without having to exit the ride vehicle. Riders will be able to reach speeds up to 45 km/hr (28 miles/hr).
The new gondola, bike park, and coaster have been timed to open just ahead of Grouse Mountain’s 100th anniversary in 2026. All three projects carry a combined total cost of about $45 million, including about $35 million for the gondola and $9 million for the bike park and coaster.
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Further down the timeline, Gaglardi shared there are other modernization projects planned for the base area (parking lot level) and the plateau level.
“We’re just getting started here in our investment in Grouse Mountain, so we’re super excited and honoured to be able to have that opportunity,” said Gaglardi. “This is the number one most visited tourist attraction in British Columbia, and now with our ability to double the capacity up the hill, it opens up all kinds of opportunities to grow tourism, and we’re excited about that.”
“I think, you know, now being able to, starting in spring-summer, to mountain bike down this unbelievable mountain with views of Vancouver, it’s going to be one of the greatest experiences in the world, and so this gondola affords us the ability to do that, and a roller coaster that will run year-round will create all kinds of opportunity and excitement for the community and for tourism generally, and for the province.”
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Opening day of the Blue Grouse Gondola at Grouse Mountain Resort on December 12, 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Gaglardi’s family owns Northland Properties, which is perhaps best known for their ownership of the NHL Dallas Stars. They also have a real estate development arm and own Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Sandman Hotel Group, The Sutton Place Hotels, and a range of restaurant brands, including Denny’s Restaurants, Moxies, Shark Club, Chop Steakhouse & Bar, Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, and Bar One.
Northland Properties acquired Grouse Mountain in January 2020, after a company with ownership links to the People’s Republic of China chose to sell the property just two years into its ownership.
“We were very honoured as a family to be chosen to acquire the mountain in 2020. Unfortunately, we timed it a few weeks before COVID hit, which delayed a lot of things, including the gondola, but here we are, we made it through,” continued Gaglardi.
“I think we feel very honoured that an asset as important as Grouse Mountain is to this community, is in the hands of a Vancouver family and a Vancouver company.”