Squamish's Sea to Sky Gondola project gears up for a spring opening

The $22-million Sea to Sky Gondola project, just south of the Stawamus Chief, should attract over 200,000 visitors in its first year, while enhancing Squamish’s reputation as an outdoor recreation mecca.

“The gondola itself is just one component,” said Jayson Faulkner, general manager and a founding partner of the project. He said the project is a good fit for Squamish, which calls itself the Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada. “It’s a much bigger facility, with a lot of other amenities.”

Bored with Grouse Mountain’s gruelling Grind? Get ready for a new ‘GrindTrail’ for the hardiest of hikers that’s planned to open in 2015 as part of the project.

Proponents promise it will take hikers up 853 vertical metres on a 2.5-kilometre trail to a 9,000-square-foot lodge — also opening next spring — where they can have a beer and a burger on a large deck overlooking Howe Sound....

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Story by Brian Morton