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Welcome to the Hollyburn Heritage Society web site.

Does the path to the future draw us towards a restored Hollyburn Lodge or lead us away from it?

"Hollyburn Lodge Through the Seasons & Generations" premieres at the West Vancouver Historical Society’s General Meeting on Wednesday, March 14, 7:00 pm., West Vancouver Seniors Centre (21st St & Marine Dr., NW corner).

This 60-minute film includes many historic and contemporary photos, home movies and HD video. The film reviews the history of this historic building in its setting beside First Lake and the decades-long effort of the Hollyburn Heritage Society to gain community-wide support for the restoration and continued maintenance of the lodge.

Information included in the District of West Vancouver’s Draft 2012 budget suggests that progress is being made at last in transferring Lodge ownership from Cypress Mountain’s parent company to the District of West Vancouver (DWV). The transfer is necessary to initiate restoration fundraising, which may cost close to one million dollars. $100,000 of VANOC Legacy money was set aside years ago. A West Vancouver report has a timeline of Spring 2013 for fundraising completion and Spring 2014 for restoration completion.

In addition to attending a presentation of "Hollyburn Lodge Through the Generations & the Seasons", you can show support for the Hollyburn Lodge project by doing one or more of the following:

1. Visit the "Hollyburn Heritage Society" FACEBOOK page and indicate you ‘like’ the page.
2. Upload photos of Hollyburn Lodge, cabins, skiers, snowshoers, snowscapes, etc. to the "Hollyburn Heritage Society" FACEBOOK page .
3. Post your Hollyburn Lodge/Ridge stories, comments and questions on the "Hollyburn Heritage Society" FACEBOOK page.
4. Email HHS your Hollyburn Lodge/Ridge photos, comments, questions, stories/yarns/poems (hollyburnheritagesociety@telus.net).

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Several of our Hollyburn videos are now available on YouTube. After going to the YouTube Home page, enter "donaldkgrant" in the search box, click on "Search", and you should see the full title list of videos. To see a particular video, click on its title.

In 2000, many of Vancouver's pioneer skiers, including Brian Creer, Fred Burfield, Peggy Burfield, Buddy Barker, Johnny Halstead, Anne Sotvedt & Bob Tapp attended the Millenium Reunion at First Lake and shared stories about Hollyburn Ski Lodge and the early days on the mountain. This video is an edited version of "Hollyburn Ski Camp - A Place of Memories".

NEW ON THE WEBSITE

Page Updated (December 23, 2011) "Cabins & HRA" . A short video, "Hollyburn Ridge Cabins - December 21, 2011" has been added to the page and information about cabin ownership & history has been updated.

HHS Newsletter 2011 (Issue No. 15) is now available for download.

New Page (December 8, 2011) "A Fine Place to Rest"
A.G. M. F.'s poem presents the reflections of a Hollyburn pioneer stirred up by the expansive views from Hollyburn Peak

Page Updated (November 4, 2011) "Sentimental Journey" by Naomi Wilson MacInnes
Eight photos have been added to this page.

New Page (November 1, 2011) "When A Mountain Comes To Mind"
A.G.M.F.'s latest epic poem about Hollyburn Mountain speaks eloquently of all those things that have made it such a special place for 1000's of people since the early 1900's.

Page Updated (October 29, 2011) "Reflections on Hollyburn" by Jim Graham
Sixteen photos have been added to this page.

Page Updated (October 22, 2011) "Hollyburn Memoirs" by Scotty Finlayson
Five vintage photos & a video have been added to Scotty Finlayson's Hollyburn memoirs.

Page Updated (October 17, 2011) "I Straddled a Mountain" by Buddy Barker
Five vintage photos have been added to Buddy Barker's account of her ascent of Crown Mountain on July 15, 1928.

Page Updated (Sepember 23, 2011) Lakes in Cypress Provincial Park (Videos)
This page now features four videos - "Hollyburn Ridge Lakes - September 2011 (West Lake & Blue Gentian Lake)", "First Lake Through the Seasons - September 2011", Hollyburn Plateau Lakes - August 2011" and "Yew Lake in Cypress Provincial Park - July 2011".

New Page (July 12, 2011) The 'Grouse Grind' Trail
Information about the most popular hiking trail on the North Shore Momountains - currently over 100,000 ascents are being made each year - and a link to a video recording of a July 2011 ascent are featured on this page.

New Page (June 13, 2011) "A Ramble on Hollyburn Ridge"
A.G.M.F.'s epic poem provides us with a compelling overview of Hollyburn Mountain History.

WEBSITE OVERVIEW

Read journals, articles and memoirs written by Hollyburn's pioneers and browse our photo galleries to learn about the history of Vancouver's North Shore mountains. As the world now knows, Black Mountain, on the southwest side of Cypress Bowl, was the site of the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. ("Cypress Mountain" is the name of the company that manages the ski facilities on the three mountains that form Cypress Bowl; Black Mountain, Hollyburn Mountain, and Mount Strachan.)

Arguably, Vancouver's dream to host the Winter Olympics was born in 1928 when Hollyburn's legendary entrepreneur, Rudolph Jules Verne wrote, "Looking ahead, I can see that when the Olympic Games are held in Los Angeles in 1932, that we will be well able to take the place that St. Moritz does this year, as we have everything at Hollyburn that can be offered by any ski centre in the whole world."

Learn about Verne's historic Hollyburn Ski Camp/Lodge, located only 2 km from the Olympic venues on Black Mountain. View photos of the lodge and read about current efforts to restore this heritage building. (The restoration of Hollyburn Lodge has been identified as one of the District of West Vancouver's 2010 Olympic Legacy projects and has produced a video, "Hollyburn Lodge: Past, Present, and Future" to provide more information about the project.)

Those who are already familiar with Hollyburn's legendary ski lodges, ski runs, hiking trails and champions are encouraged to use the 'SEARCH' feature to locate specific people, places and events.

Visit the Diamond Head Chalet Photos page to view awe-inspiring photographs of the mountain retreat built by Hollyburn pioneers Joan Mathews, Ottar Brandvold, and Emil Brandvold near Elfin Lakes in Garibaldi Provincial Park. Recently added is Irene Howard's compelling article, "The Brandvolds of Diamond Head". This article, first published in 1976, provides interested readers with a detailed history of the lodge and is a 'must read for those who love heritage buildings and landscapes.

After eight years of research and writing, "Hollyburn: The Mountain and the City", has been published by Ronsdale Press. This detailed and evocative history of Hollyburn Mountain, the first definitive history of Hollyburn and its neighbours, Black and Starchan, has been written by noted author, archivist and local historian Francis Mansbridge with the support of the Hollyburn Heritage Society and many individuals who have close ties to the North Shore mountains. For more details about the book, please visit the Ronsdale Press web site. "Hollyburn: The Mountain and the City" may be pre-ordered from Amazon, Chapters/Indigo and other online stores.