As a skiing family in Vancouver, we are lucky to have three local mountains to choose from: Cypress Mountain, Grouse Mountain, and Mt. Seymour—all within a 30-minute drive from Downtown Vancouver. With more friends joining us on the slopes, I thought it was the perfect time to compare these mountains from the perspective of a family with young skiers and share our journey through them.
The Local Ski Hills
Cypress Mountain
- Longest run: 4.1 km
- Largest of the three resorts, more than the other two mountain combined
- 600 acres of skiable terrain, 61 runs across two mountains
Grouse Mountain
- 212 acres, 33 ski runs
- Unique Skyride Tram and Blue Gondola for access
- Only resort accessible by TransLink buses
The tram and gondola setup makes Grouse a lot easier and shorter to drive to, and the parking lot is almost never covered in snow. The wait at the tram to get up and down the mountain used to be a major nuisance, but with the addition of the Blue Gondolas it’s much quicker to get up and down the mountain.
Mt. Seymour
- Smallest at 200 acres, 23 runs
- Longest run: 1.6 km
- Challenging parking—season pass holders must book time slots on peak days
🏆 Winner: Cypress Mountain for its size and variety of terrain.
DIY Intro to Skiing For Little Kids
Before shelling out our hard-earned money for a formal lesson, we opted to teach the kids the basics of skiing ourselves. We want to skip the first level of skiing lessons where the kids are basically just paying top dollars to play in the snow with their instructors.
For this purpose, Mt Seymour is the clear winner. With the 135m Goldie Magic Chair that has a cover to protect young skiers from the elements, and a cheap $8 lift ticket for kids 0-4 and $30-49 for a Goldie-Only ticket for the adult, this is the best deal for a lift-assisted DIY intro to skiing.
The only way to beat this in price is to go to local hill after a big snow dump and walk up and down the hill with the skis (we’ve done that too).
If the parent had already bought a season pass, then going to Grouse is a viable option. The magic carpet on Grouse is much shorter at only 53m and it’s harder to get to (requiring either a long walk/ski down to the Ski Wee area or waiting for a sleigh ride, compared to Goldie on Seymour which is basically off the parking lot), but the kid under 4 can ski for free.
Cypress is a poor choice for DIY first lessons, since their magic carpet is exclusively for formal lessons.
🏆 Winner: Mt. Seymour for its beginner-friendly setup and affordability.
Kids Ski Lessons
After messing around with the kid for a while, you’d want to put them in lessons. One, they learn much better from a teacher than their parent. And two, you might start to lose your sanity. Getting formal lessons is also the recommended way to introduce skiing to your kids if neither parent are competent skiers. All 3 mountains offer group ski lessons for kids aged 3 and up.
- Cypress Mountain: 2.5-hour lessons, $130 for ages 3-14
- Grouse Mountain:
- Ski Wee (ages 3-6), 3-hour lessons ($176, includes 30-minute snack break)
- Zone Camp (ages 7-12), booked in groups of 4-5 lessons at a time, priced at $110 per half-day or $190 per full-day
- Mt. Seymour:Multi-day camps only (4-5 days)
- Ages 3-4: 1.5-hour lessons, $82 per session
- Ages 4-7: 2-hour lessons, $90-115 per session
- Ages 7-9: 2.5-hour lessons, $100-120 per session
For 3-6 year olds, taking lessons on Grouse is the most expensive, but the 1.5 hour lessons on Seymour are probably too short. It’s also annoying to commit to a 4-day camp for kids at this young age when you aren’t sure if they would be willing to keep going week after week. For this age group, Cypress seems to be the best choice.
For kids 7+, both Grouse and Seymour lock them into multi-day ski camps but at least their interest in skiing may be more predictable. The prices become comparable between the resorts, with Cypress continuing to offer the flexibility of booking-by-the-day. If the kids have been skiing for a few years like ours have at this age, they likely would have outgrown the small hills at Seymour already.
🏆 Winner: Cypress Mountain for its flexible single-day lessons, making it easier for families with unpredictable schedules.
Lift Tickets
Once you decided where to go to teach your kids skiing or temporarily drop them off at the on-snow daycare that is kids group lessons, you still have to buy a lift ticket for yourself if you also want to ski.
The lift ticket pricing varies a lot depending on weekend vs. weekday, full day vs. night time, and the age of the skier. Roughly speaking, their price comparison for day-time skiing in February 2025 is:
| Cypress | Grouse | Seymour | |
| Adult 19-64 | $92-119 | $89-99 | $74-$94 |
| Youth 13-18 | $65-83 | $69-74 | $45-$59 |
| Child 6-12 | $43-63 | $39-44 | $30-$37 |
| Skooter 4-5 | $11 | $39-44 | $8 |
| Tot 0-4 | $11 | Free | $8 |
| Senior 65+ | $65-83 | $69-74 | $45-$59 |
Toddlers from 0-4 years old can ski for free on Grouse, which can be a consideration for families with the youngest of skiers.
Season Passes
If skiing becomes a weekly recurring winter activity for your family, you may want to invest in a season pass.
Cypress:
| Gold Pass | Silver Pass | family silver pass | |
| Adult 23-64 | $1,140 | $700 | $630 |
| Young adult 19-22 | $1,140 | $580 | $580 |
| Youth 13-18 | $800 | $550 | $495 |
| Child 6-12 | $495 | $370 | $333 |
| Skooter (gold) 0-5 | $150 | $150 | $135 |
| Senior 65+ | $800 | $550 | $495 |
Gold Pass is unrestricted season pass, basically you can show up and ski whenever the resort is open. Silver Pass is “valid everyday open to close 7 days a week EXCLUDING: Dec. 26, 2024 to Jan. 2, 2025, weekends in January & February, and Family Day Feb. 17, 2025.” Excluding all weekends in January and February is pretty brutal.
Grouse:
| Winter Season Pass | Renewal Y2Play Pass | New Y2Play pass | |
| Adult (19-64 years) | $1,049 | $299 | $429 |
| Student* (19+) | $799 | $199 | $289 |
| Youth (13-18 years) | $799 | $199 | $289 |
| Child (5-12 years) | $459 | $89 | $129 |
| Tot (4 years & under) | $59 | $39 | $39 |
| Senior (65+ years) | $739 | $129 | $189 |
Grouse Mountain has an absolutely insane deal in their Y2Play Pass, which sells out every year. It usually goes on sale around the end of February and it’s valid for the rest of the current season as well as the entire following season. NO RESTRICTIONS. It also includes some good perks such as discounts at the Starbucks, shops and restaurants on Grouse, 2 day passes at Revelstoke Mountain, and 50% off annual pass (for summer access).
Seymour:
| Season Pass | Value Season Pass | Reload | |
| Adult (19-59) | $799 | $399 | $329 |
| Student (19+) | $799 | $289 | $249 |
| Youth (13-18) | $649 | $269 | $219 |
| Child (5-12) | $299 | $129 | $99 |
| Tot (0-4) | $59 | $29 | $29 |
| Senior (60-74) | $649 | $229 | $199 |
| Super Senior (75+) | FREE |
As mentioned above, Season Pass holders have to reserve their time slots during peak daytime hours (holidays, weekends). Value Season Pass is only valid on weekdays and from 4:30pm-Close on weekends and holidays.
🏆 Winner: Grouse Mountain’s Y2Play Pass offers insane value—the best season pass deal in Vancouver.
Other On-mountain Amenities
In our experience, the first 1-2 seasons for the youngest skiers (think age 2-4) can be very rocky. We took many baby steps with Big Bro, with outings that ranged from 0 minutes of skiing to 1-2 hours. Having a youngling call it quits after one single run is a shared experience for many of our friends. If you have enough adults on hand, you may not have to retreat when the youngest of your troupe gets tired if there’s somewhere warm they can go.
For this, Grouse Mountain really shines. The Peak Chalet offers hot food and drinks, gear shops, and an impressive Theater in the Sky that shows seasonal movies or well-produced short films about wildlife and nature. Tina had entertained our younger ones many times in the Chalet while I train the older ones on the mountain.
Cypress also has a Cypress Creek Lodge that offers some snacks and drinks, but it would be harder to keep little kids occupied here for hours.
Mt Seymour has no indoor space for families to relax. They would rather you get off the mountain and free up the parking space. Once we had to put a tired younger sibling in the car to nap while the older brother kept skiing.
🏆 Winner: Grouse Mountain for family-friendly indoor amenities.
Conclusion
So, how does one choose between the 3 mountains? Generally speaking, Mt. Seymour with its Goldie Magic Chair is the most beginner friendly, Grouse with the Peak Chalet is the most family friendly in case the little ones get cold, and Cypress offers the best skiing at a premium.
If your family has only 1 child learning to ski and you aren’t sure if they would be into the sport, buying a Mt Seymour Goldie-only day ticket for the adult and a $8 ticket for the kid 5 and under would be the best idea. This allows you to test the water and see how ready the child is without over-committing in a season pass.
After a few sessions on the Goldie Magic Chair, you can progress to the rest of Mt. Seymour. It’s big enough for the beginner skier who can’t appreciate the larger terrains on Cypress or Grouse yet. This was our Season One for Big Bro.
After the young skier knows how to do pizza turn turns, it’s the perfect time to start formal lessons for the kid. They can skip the play-in-the-snow level and take their pizza-turning skills to the ski hills with their instructors. If they get this interested in skiing, it’s time to think about getting a season pass for the adults. Although the Ski Wee lessons at Grouse are more expensive, if the adults can get a Y2Play pass the cost savings more than make up for it.
If you have more than one kid, this is also the time when the younger sibling may start itching to get on the mountain. Grouse has the added bonus of having the Peak Chalet as the rest stop for the younger one while the older sibling keeps skiing. Mt. Seymour would be too small for the intermediate skier, and it lacks the amenities to keep the youngest skiers content.
After 3 seasons on Grouse, Big Bro and I are starting to outgrow it. It basically has 2 runs: the Cut green run, and the Peak-Expo blue run. We can only do the same blue run so many times before we get totally bored.
I think we are ready to move onto Cypress for the next season. We can take advantage of the flexible ski lessons for all 3 kids, and when Big Bro and I go for night skiing ourselves, we would have more terrain to choose from. We would probably opt for the Family Silver Pass but it’s pretty restrictive with the prime weekends in January and February blocked out.
Last updated: February 2025