22 Dec 2021
The Grouse Mountain Alpine ski/snowshoe area is very close to downtown Vancouver, BC. Extremely packed 6 minute Gondola (tram) ride to the top. Alpine skiing was in full swing on 12/21/2021. This day was cloudy with a bit of internment rain atop mountain. We chose the snowshoe trails. Took about 30 minutes to rent snow shoes for friends. I brought my own snowshoes and trekking poles. My friends chose not to wait further for poles, which made off trail movement more difficult. A paper map of trails could not be found. The trails were supposed to be marked relative to their level of difficulty. They could have been better marked. We had fun going off trail. The actual trails were very hard packed and snowshoes we're actually unnecessary. I prefer back country to this experience to the hard packed trails.