Be of good cheer, you’re quite welcome here,
If sad and alone, let this be your home,
Here you will find a welcome most kind.
The wooden sign mounted over the entrance to Hollyburn Lodge has been replaced and repainted over the years, but those rhyming words of welcome remain unchanged and have beckoned mountain visitors through the door below for close to 90 years.
The simple poem captures the spirit of the historic mountain lodge that sits in a clearing next to First Lake in Cypress Provincial Park. Since opening in 1927, the lodge has been a gathering place for outdoor enthusiasts drawn to the recreational mecca that is Hollyburn Ridge — from the early-day Scandinavian pioneers who helped develop winter sport on the North Shore mountains, to the present-day hikers, snowshoers and cross-country skiers who use the established network of wooded trails in the area. But, as happens, time and the elements have taken a toll on the wood-framed, gable-roofed building and the mountain community has banded together to revive the deteriorating facility.
“There’s really nothing left of it. It’s just boards. And the floor’s all wonky,” says Jackie Swanson, president of the Hollyburn Ridge Association. Bracing was installed last year to prevent swaying, she says. Still, “It’s not safe for future business.”
The association, along with the Hollyburn Heritage Society, the District of West Vancouver, Cypress Mountain and B.C. Parks have long been in talks about fixing up the lodge. This April, restoration work is expected to finally begin with an anticipated completion date before the start of the 2015/16 ski season. It’s a $1.1-million project — $800,000 of which is already accounted for. A fundraising campaign is now underway to close the $300,000 gap.
Swanson says the new and improved Hollyburn Lodge will retain the heritage character people are so attached to, but a solid infrastructure will ensure it’s around for future generations.
“It’ll be the same but better. We’re gearing for the 23rd century,” she says.
Since 1998, the Hollyburn Heritage Society has been advocating for the restoration of the lodge and compiling a detailed history of the building and surrounding area. In 1924, a group of Scandinavian entrepreneurs converted the abandoned Nasmyth mill building on Hollyburn Ridge into the first commercial ski operation on the North Shore mountains. There they provided overnight bunks and rented out wooden skis that customers would strap on before gliding down a snow-covered heap of sawdust.
A couple of years later, that building was dismantled, moved up to the west shore of First Lake, where snow conditions were better, and renamed Hollyburn Ski Camp. This facility was operated by Swedish settler Oscar Pearson and his cousins from 1927 to 1946.
Skiing and ski jumping surged in popularity during this time and private cabins began to pop up on Hollyburn Ridge, many of them built out of wood salvaged from the by-then defunct mill buildings and logging flumes in the area.
In 1946, the Burfield family bought the ski camp and renamed it Hollyburn Ski Lodge. The recreation site thrived until the mid-1950s when it began to face stiff competition from more accessible ski areas on neighbouring mountains. Business on Hollyburn Mountain slowed right down and many private cabins fell into disrepair during this lull.
Cypress Provincial Park was established in 1975, largely in response to a logging controversy that sparked public furor, and the alpine ski hill opened. A decade later, in 1984, when Cypress Bowl Recreations Ltd. took over operation of the downhill and cross-country areas, now collectively referred to as Cypress Mountain, it also purchased Hollyburn Lodge from the Burfields (and removed the word “ski” from the name).
It is the only remaining commercial lodge built on the North Shore mountains before 1960. Two other historic lodges on Hollyburn Mountain, Hi-View and Westlake, burned down in 1965 and 1986, respectively.
Today, Hollyburn Lodge is a popular rest stop in Cypress Mountain’s Nordic area, a spot where cross-country skiers and snowshoers can grab a hot meal and a cold beer. And although Cypress Bowl Road now winds up the mountainside, making Hollyburn Ridge easily accessible by car, the red and white lodge remains nestled in the woods, a 20-minute hike from modern civilization.
Don Grant is sure he isn’t the only one of his generation with terrifying memories of the Hollyburn chairlift. Opened in 1951 by the Hollyburn Aerial Tram Co., the single-seat lift saved skiers an arduous hike, allowing them to ride from Hat-Inn at 300 metres to Hi-View Lodge at 850 metres in just 12 minutes, albeit a somewhat harrowing 12 minutes.
“Rules and regulations regarding safety were not as stringent in those days,” recalls Grant, chairman of Hollyburn Heritage Society. He was seven when he took his first ride, the chair’s too-high restraining bar offering little protection from gravity. High above Marr Creek Canyon, the chair stopped abruptly and began to sway to and fro.
“I was absolutely terrified,” Grant recalls. Fortunately, that episode didn’t deter the resilient seven-year-old and better memories were soon made.
“After that first trip we just loved getting on the chairlift and doing the walk up to Hollyburn Lodge and renting skis from Fred Burfield and using the rope tow on the Popfly Hill,” he says, “and all the kids you would know from school, they were up there. Those were good times.”
Since the heritage society began documenting the history of the lodge 16 years ago, Grant has collected hundreds of photographs and heard countless tales of sporting life on the ridge.
When he steps inside the lodge today, he is aware of all those who have stood there before him.
“I see these young faces in the lodge. Some people would say they’re ghosts. I would say they’re spirits of the happy form.”
When Jackie Swanson was growing up in West Vancouver, in the winter, her father would bundle her into an overstuffed snowsuit and take her up the mountain.
“We’d go up the (Hollyburn) chairlift, that has since burnt down, and he’d try to teach me how to ski, which didn’t turn out so well at that time,” she says with a laugh.
Later, the two of them would bring their dog and a big pot of chili up to a 10-by-10-foot rental cabin and spend the night in the woods. And as a teenager, Swanson and her friends would hike up the ridge on summer weekends, avoiding bears along the way. Hollyburn Lodge stands out in her memories.
“It’s just always been there,” she says.
Eight years ago, Swanson and her husband purchased one of the rustic, hike-in cabins on Hollyburn Ridge. Of the 300 cabins built in the area, about 100 remain scattered throughout the forest on land leased from the District of West Vancouver. For this mountain community, Hollyburn Lodge has always been, and still is, an important social hub.
“It’s really the cornerstone of the community and I say that because it’s where we gather to meet each other,” Swanson says. “It’s our recreation, it’s our community centre, it’s our history and we’re all connected to it in some way.”
It’s a diverse cross-section of mountain-loving people who meet at the lodge for company and entertainment, she adds.
“It’s a real mix of ages. It doesn’t matter how old you are, especially on dance nights, you’re going to get five-year-olds dancing with 70-year-olds and 80-year-olds and everything in between. It’s just a beautiful melding of generations.”
The bulk of the capital required to rebuild Hollyburn Lodge, $500,000, is coming from Cypress Mountain’s ownership group, CNL Lifestyle Properties, while the District of West Vancouver is pitching in $200,000 and B.C. Parks is contributing $100,000 from its Olympic Legacy Fund.
“The time for this couldn’t come sooner,” Joffrey Koeman, director of sales and marketing for Cypress Mountain, says of the renewal project.
For the past 80-plus years, the lodge has been a special place, says Koeman, “and hopefully for another hundred years it’s going to be the same type of thing.”
A major component of the restoration work will involve connecting the lodge to a sewer line. Currently, septic waste is cabbed out by snowmobile, a job that can’t be done unless there is snow on the ground. With a sewer line link, Cypress Mountain will have the option of turning the lodge into an all-season facility.
“It could be used for summer camps and outdoor schools, that type of thing. There’s a number of different options. Obviously it has to be economically feasible to do these types of things, but it definitely opens the door to more things that we haven’t been able to do up there in the previous years,” Koeman says.
Plans also include insulation to make heating more efficient, and bringing the kitchen up to modern-day standards.
“With a proper foundation and increase in the size of the kitchen, storage, and proper washrooms out there, it’ll be a lot easier to run as well and a lot more user-friendly for guests,” says Koeman.
Hearing that Hollyburn Lodge would finally get the upgrade it so needed came as an overwhelming relief to Don Grant, but the news was tinged with sadness. Two of the people who originally started advocating in the late 1990s for the restoration of the lodge, Bob Tapp and Gord Knight, both passed away in the last year before their shared goal was realized.
“So it’s kind of a bittersweet thing — but mostly sweet,” says Grant. “We wish they were there for the grand opening.”
Over the decades, bits and pieces of the board-and-batten-sided lodge have been removed and replaced, leaving little of the original structure remaining. Still, Grant is hopeful that much of the current building material can be kept, ensuring the lodge retains its rustic charm. His fingers are crossed that the wood plank floorboards can be salvaged.
“It will capture the feel, the ambience of the present-day lodge, but it will also create a building that is going to exist for generations to come,” he says of the renewal.
If they were still around today, the pioneers who erected the original ski lodge would likely be pleased to hear that it’s slated for restoration.
“When the Swedes opened the lodge at First Lake in 1927, the plan at that point was to rebuild the lodge into a more upscale facility,” Grant says. “They never did. So in essence, by doing this renewal, we are realizing that dream for the Swedes.”
Donations can be made to the West Vancouver Foundation at westvanfoundation.com in the name of Hollyburn Lodge Renewal Initiative, or through the Hollyburn Ridge Association at hollyburnridge.ca/lodge2015 or by mail to the Hollyburn Heritage Society. For more information, visit hollyburnheritage.ca.
