Here, the North Shore Rescue group conduct avalanche probe training on Seymour Mountain, circa 1983. Training such as this was important for the group given the popularity of back country adventures in winter.

While the snowshoe equipment and clothing may be different, the joy of stopping on route for a cup of warm tea must be the same as today. But whereas most people nowadays would carry a Thermos flask, this group had a campfire and kettle.

Depicted in this photograph are Mrs. W. Johnson, Edith Henby, Phyllis and Don Munday, Millie Dodds, and Neal Carter.

Hugh Aikens had many memories of his time in the North Shore Mountains, hiking and skiing around the 1940s and 1950s. This included his time on Seymour Mountain, on the slopes and in the cabins.

He skied on Seymour at the time that Vancouverites were building many of the cabins, giving insight into cabin life in the middle of the twentieth century.

Joyce Coats and husband George built a cabin on Mount Seymour between 1953 and 1956. There was a two-year hiatus in the construction while George attended business school.

This photo, probably taken around 1955-1956 shows the partially completed cabin. They collected lumber from trees felled nearby. The steel beams in the roof were dragged by sled up the mountainside during winter. The beams were George’s idea. He was a civil engineer (though not certified at the time) and designed the structure. All the windows and furnishings were taken by foot to the cabin during summer.

A home-from-home on the mountain — or as homely as it could be, given that everything had to be carried in by muscle power.

In this photo, Joyce Coates relaxes in the cabin she and husband George had built. The size of the kettle on the stove is huge. It would have done a good job in making tea for a party of skiers or filling a sink with hot water for washing dishes to make up for a lack of running water.

A year after this photo was taken in 1959, she and George moved to Montreal and donated the cabin to the Boy Scouts of Canada.

Taken in 1956 on Mount Seymour, Joyce Coates stands in front of the cabin she built with her husband George. A home-from-home, the cabin gave them more time to ski in winter, and a place to relax in summer — that was after they finished building it. They had spent the summer of 1956 living on the mountain during its construction.

When the snow came deep in winter, their sense of accomplishment must have been great.

Joyce Coates pauses while skiing in 1956 on Mount Seymour. No doubt she was enjoying the view. As a skier who had a cabin on Mount Seymour, she had more time to enjoy such ski outings than those who had to trek up the mountain each day.

This photo is described as “Conquerors of the Eastern Lion” in 1908. This party may have reached the summit, but they were not the first as it was first scaled by John Latta and his two brothers in 1903.

The concept of "conquering" mountains is now understood to be a uniquely colonial attitude. A part of our interconnected world, mountains are not there to be "overcome" as in the definition of conquering. In addition, the settlers who claimed "first ascent" of a mountain were in fact claiming the first recorded ascent under the settler construct of "peak bagging". Being on the territorial lands of Indigenous Nations, wherever they were in BC, those settlers were quite possibly following in the footsteps of many Indigenous individuals who were hunting, gathering or traversing the mountains for other reasons.

Preventing the need for rescue was important to the North Shore Rescue team. Here, Earl Chambers gives a hiking safety lecture to students on Grouse Mountain in 1970. That prevention education is still a part of the team’s work today.

As part of the strategy to prevent rescues in the first place, the North Shore Rescue team was responsible for trail management. This included marking and cutting trails.

Here, the team marks the trail from Seymour Mountain to Elsey Lake. This route was important to work on as Elsey Lake had a hut that hikers would try to reach but get into difficulty on the way.

For those who know the fun of skiing or tobogganing today, watching this footage from decades ago will be very familiar. Families and friends out enjoying the slopes on a sunny day. Even the queue for the rope tow to get back upslope might be familiar to some.

This video also lets us see what winter fun on Mount Seymour in the earlier years was like. It even includes footage of a ski jump competition. What is interesting, or perhaps terrifying, is that the ski jump ramp seems to have no barriers to stop a competitor flying off in the wrong direction.

Today, Mount Seymour is a half day's hike from the parking lot at the Seymour Ski Resort. Popular with families, it is a very different experience from the first recorded ascent by Charles Chapman in 1908.

On the way, Charles and his climbing buddies spotted a tree stump that looked like a water pump. Nicknaming it Pump Peak, the name stuck. Over a century later, this summit on the way to Mount Seymour is still called Pump Peak.

This short video follows Charles' grandchildren as they make the journey to the summit in honour of that 1908 ascent.

The smiles say it all — a get together in the Grouse Mountain Cabin. Who could ask for more?

Their hobnail boots, seen here, would have been helpful in getting to the cabin. These boots gave traction while walking on ice or scrambling up steep snow. Those snowshoes would have been essential for getting across deeper snow. The snowshoes and ice axes in front have been arranged to represent the BC Mountaineering Club crest. Taken between 1930-1949.

When Grouse Mountain had a grand reopening in 1996, there was a special pullout in the North Shore News. With a touch of nostalgia, the piece looks back at the early years of the resort — including Al Beaton's tale of drunken dignitaries on the 1948 opening day of the original chairlift (that travelled up the mountain from near the top of Lonsdale Avenue).

Spending around $15 on bamboo poles, boots, cable bindings and skis made of ash wood was a lot of money for James Adam Craig’s mother. At the time she bought them, around 1940, it would have been similar to spending roughly $270 today. And James did not even like skiing. But, as this article shows, his time spent on Grouse Mountain with friends has stuck with him for decades.

His memories of the 1940s are detailed, giving us a glimpse into his time building cabins and socializing in them, even skipping off work to help with construction, and the effort involved just to get to the slopes.

He also gives a good account of ski equipment of the time.

Grouse Mountain Ski Club cabin. How many friendships were cemented here? How many trips were planned or successful ones celebrated? If only the cabin could talk, it would have had many stories to tell.

L. to R: D. Manley, V. Poulter (?), N. Nelsen (?)

These men look dressed to impress on the slopes. Each has the Grouse Mountain Ski Club motif on their sweaters. The men were skiing on Dam Mountain north of Grouse Mountain in 1928, which would have meant quite a trek to get there. This makes their dapper appearance even more impressive.

The men are club members (left to right) Frank Owston, C.H. Mead, Ernie Wintemute and John Hope.

This stylish and happy group would look at home on the front of magazine, showing just what fun winter can be for a Vancouverite in the mid-twentieth century.

Grouse Mountain Ski Club group near the Club cabin. L. to R: Mildred Bridges, Frank White, [unknown], [unknown], Vincent Poulter.

The Hiker & Skier was a twice-monthly magazine that covered hiking, winter sports and outdoor life in the North Shore Mountains. Updates from ski clubs, ads for businesses selling clothing or equipment, and tales from ski trips further afield are all to be found in these pages. Without web pages or social media, magazines like this were the way to find out what was going on in the world of outdoor adventure.

The Hiker & Skier was a twice-monthly magazine that covered hiking, winter sports and outdoor life in the North Shore Mountains. Updates from ski clubs, ads for businesses selling clothing or equipment, and tales from ski trips further afield are all to be found in these pages. Without web pages or social media, magazines like this were the way to find out what was going on in the world of outdoor adventure.

With their destination behind them — the Lions — and on a hiking trail many take today, these men were enjoying the trails around Cypress Mountain.

Ski patrollers today are recognizable by their red jackets and white, first aid crosses. The Hollyburn Ski Patrol team here look more casual, but likely took the role just as seriously.

In the 1930s, Fred Williams would not let a lack of ski equipment or money beat him. Keen to get onto the snow, he crafted his own skis from a maple tree, and his own bamboo poles. When he was finally able to upgrade his skis a few years later, he made his old skis into a pack board. This initiative and creativity was a sign of the times for the Great Depression in which he lived.

Is this skier looking down his run? The windblown snow/ice on those narrow trees suggests he is at an exposed and high elevation. Described as "January on Mount Seymour", he is perhaps looking down towards Indian Arm or Vancouver. Either way, it would likely have been an impressive view.

Jim Hudson is roped up as he climbs the Camel's Head in 1924. But any climbing instructor today would tell him to get down immediately. With a rope tied simply around his middle and no helmet or anchor points, he had every chance of being seriously injured if he fell. For early mountaineers though, he was not doing anything unusual. Times have definitely changed.

The rope here was also likely not even meant for his safety. Instead, once he reached the top he would have used it to support a less experienced climber by pulling in the rope as they climbed.

In 1935 (item F205-S12(12-9)-i1), the BC Mountaineering Club wrote to the Minster of Lands advocating for the “reservation” of land at Mount Seymour to set it aside for skiers. This letter is the reply from the Province to the Club, explaining that the matter was already under “advisement.”

In 1936, Mount Seymour Provincial Park was created.

A year before the Province created Mount Seymour Provincial Park, the BC Mountaineering Club wrote to the Minster of Lands advocating for its “reservation” as a public park, mainly to set it aside for skiers.

A lucky skier enjoying fresh tracks. Taken on Mount Seymour.

Skis stood in the snow while their owners are in the lodge...waiting for friends on a spring-like day...setting off or coming in at the end of a run...while the clothing and equipment may be different from today, this scene is perhaps familiar to many who enjoy the slopes now.

Peggy East — maybe looking a little chilly — on the Peak of Mount Bishop during a BC Mountaineering Club trip in 1924.

Said on the photo caption to be skiers Edith Munday, Don Munday and Dave Gorie at Mount Seymour in 1931.

Edith, daughter of Phyllis and Don would have been ten years old in 1931, giving her a view most Vancouver children at that time would never have seen.

John Rollete, Randy Gomm, Al Danks, [unknown], Ross Montgomery, Heinz Schimple, and Greg Bjornson all pose beside a warning sign that was installed to prevent hikers becoming lost in Suicide Gully near Seymour Valley. Year unknown.

Mount Jarrett is a peak near Mount Bishop, in the Seymour Range. Being so close to Vancouver, this group was probably on a day hike and enjoying a get away from the hustle and bustle of early city life.

To some, the idea of honeymooning in a basic tent high on a mountain would not be their idea of fun. For others, getting away from it all and enjoying the simple pleasures of togetherness is all they need.

While the details of their honeymoon are not known, the caption for this photo suggests that Charles and Nellie Chapman were perhaps quite content with the simple things in life and their time in the outdoors.

This might not be the Grouse Grind, but these hikers are heading for Grouse Mountain summit. Across the snow they trek, with the women in their long skirts and fancy hats, looking like they just arrived from a garden party. Do you wonder if they wished they could climb in pants?

Here, Jerry Butler, Rob Holly and Mr. Duplissie of North Shore Rescue carry an injured hiker on a stretcher in winter. Thought to be on Seymour Mountain circa 1980.

Work parties building cabins on the North Shore Mountains were a common occurrence during the first half of the twentieth century. Mount Seymour was no exception.

In this article from the 1931 Canadian Alpine Journal, Don Munday describes the building of the “Seymour Hut” of the Vancouver section of the Alpine Club of Canada.

Ski champion Gertie Beaton (nee Wepsala) often wrote in Vancouver newspapers, sharing the goings-on on the local slopes as well as elsewhere. From racing updates to details on lessons or recent ski club activities, she was a good source of information. Her articles shared the types of information that might be shared on social media today.

In this article, she gives a glimpse of a time when there was excitement at Mount Seymour's first chairlift opening. Year unspecified but believed to be the 1950s.

While terrain parks offer excitement on the slopes today, in years gone by there were ski jumps to give a rush of adrenaline.

This photo shows the ski jump at Mount Seymour.

It must have been a warm, spring day when this photo was taken. Nip Stone, Doug Manley and Hubert Ackroyd (left to right) pose in wool swimsuits on Grouse Mountain.

Nip Stone ski-jumped for Canada in the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York.

The Vancouver skiers of the 1930s and 1940s were a "hardy bunch." With no road or gondola, it was a hike — with skis — for around six hundred metres (~2000 feet) to get to the slopes. The fortunate ones had cabins and could extend their stay, getting the most from that gruelling hike. For the rest, they hiked up, skied, then had to hike out again.

Here, James Adam Craig recalls his winter memories, of Whistler, Grouse Mountain, Hollyburn, and in Washington, learning the Christiania ski turn, and the equipment that took him onto the slopes.

Who would not want to pause for a while and take in the view while skiing above Mystery Lake in Seymour Park?

This skier looks to be traversing and even climbing the slope, not skiing down it. Without chairlifts or tow ropes, the only way up a slope was the hard way — muscle power. This photo from Rose Bowl on Mount Seymour in the 1930s could be a skier doing that.

A winter wonderland in the Seymour range.

A winter wonderland in the Seymour range.

A winter wonderland in the Seymour range.

A winter wonderland in the Seymour range.

This photo is aptly named "Summit Solitude - Seymour". It is not known who the lucky person is surveying the view from the cairn at the main peak, but hopefully they enjoyed what they saw.

Climbing the Lions in an "old suit and pair of shoes that were no longer decent enough for ordinary wear," and being the first recorded climber of the East Lion gives some clue as to the contents of this article.

Written by John Latta, it describes a six-day expedition in 1905 of him and his brothers William and Robert as they decided to climb the Lions. They were all aged around twenty and had no experience, making them either brave or foolhardy — or both. They were not the first known climbers of the Western Lion, but they were recorded as the first to climb the Eastern Lion.

The Hiker & Skier was a twice-monthly magazine that covered hiking, winter sports and outdoor life in the North Shore Mountains. Updates from ski clubs, ads for businesses selling clothing or equipment, and tales from ski trips further afield are all to be found in these pages. Without web pages or social media, magazines like this were the way to find out what was going on in the world of outdoor adventure.