When people visit Vancouver for skiing, they typically go to Whistler. So I had never really thought about what the local mountain scene looks like in someone else's city — especially internationally.
Cypress Mountain changed that.
It's a small ski area just outside Vancouver, the kind of place locals grew up on. Not a destination resort, just a mountain people drive to after work. I had never experienced that in a different city before, and it turned out to be one of the more interesting parts of the trip.
Two Mountains
We showed up expecting one mountain. Briefly looking at the trail map, we thought it was split above and below the parking lot.
Turns out it's two separate mountains facing each other! It was a genuinely fun surprise. You could ski down your mountain and look directly across at people coming down the other one. We kept alternating between the two throughout the day.
The View
The best part might have been the view from the top. On a clear day you can see all of downtown Vancouver spread out below you. We caught it at sunset, and it was stunning.
It's a different kind of ski day than Whistler. Smaller, quirkier, more local. But sometimes that's exactly what makes it memorable.