Link to Exhibit 1 for Cypress Resort Master Plan from 2006: CypressResortPUP1506-Exhibit1.pdf

Crony Capitalism and BC Provincial Parks 101 Requirement:  A relatively unoccupied and thus considered "economically unproductive" piece of land that holds some sort of annoying and restrictive protected status regulated by Government policy and Legislation. Step 1:  Commercial Proponent or Developer comes forward with an idea/plan to plaster an excessive number of condos and houses, build gondolas, pipelines, power project, ski resorts, golf courses or run a guided heli-ski...

Link to a map published by BC Parks showing the winter trails and backcountry access corridor (BAC) through Cypress Resort's controlled recreation area (CRA): Cypress Resort Winter Trails and BAC Map

Link to a BC Parks discussion paper on parking capacity at Cypress and Mount Seymour Provincial Parks: CypressSeymourDiscussionPaperParkingCapacity-2014-08.pdf

Link to Cypress Resort Master Plan from 2006: CypressResortPUP1506Restated-2006-05-26.pdf

Cypress Resort's predecessor was Cypress Bowl Recreations Ltd. Here is the link to the original master plan from 1986: CypressResortPUP1506-1986-11-14.pdf

Link to the Cypress Provincial Park Master Plan: CypressProvincialParkMasterPlan-1997.pdf  

Once again, the BC Government and BC Parks has sided with Commercial Interests in a Provincial Park by restricting access to the backcountry and the historic Howe Sound Crest Trail.  Although Cypress Provincial Park is considerably south of Garibaldi Provincial Park, we feel duty bound to also stand up for non-mechanized backcountry users at Cypress.  It seems a pattern has emerged. In January 2016, Cypress Mountain ski area unilaterally implemented a policy preventing public access...

BC Parks Managers have an unspoken and unpublicized policy of concentrating (limiting) non-mechanized access to Garibaldi Park to the "5 Trailheads".  At 2020, we often refer to these as the "4 1/2 trailheads" because one of the five is the Singing Pass Trail.  See: http://backcountrybc.ca/index.php/24-issues/swbc/s2s/singing-pass-issues/70-singing-pass-trail-fiasco The BC Parks policy of limiting access to the 5 trailheads is not mentioned anywhere in the Garibaldi Park 1990 Master...

December 24, 2016 A Lower Mainland mountain club recently criticized BC Parks for its attack on volunteers working at Crest Creek Crags in Strathcona Park. Volunteers for the last thirty years have added $1 million of value to the crags and made it known internationally. BC Parks response is to slap the volunteers with heavy fines and sabotage the spirit of volunteerism in Strathcona Park. BC Parks is indulging in a petty vendetta and behaving like a small child throwing a hissy fit. Letter...

December 21, 2016 In a letter dated December 19, 2016 from Mr. Jim Standen, Assistant Deputy Minister at BC Parks to our organization Garibaldi Park 2020, Mr. Standen has confirmed that the significant irregularities with Whistler Heli-skiing Ltd.'s park use permit (PUP) cited by 2020 do exist. Despite the irregularities the permit was renewed for a further ten years. Highlights from the letter: BC Parks admits the heli-skiing PUP trespasses into the Wilderness Conservation Zone...

December 9, 2016 The B.C. Mountaineering Club with more than 800 members has cited the actions of Cypress Mountain Resort in closing the backcountry access corridor to Howe Sound Crest Trail as harmful to public safety. Meanwhile, BC Parks has stood by doing nothing to prevent it but has endorsed the resort's backcountry access policy by reportedly stationing park rangers to help enforce it. Here is the text of the letter the BCMC recently wrote to Mr. Jim Standen, Assistant Deputy Minister,...

November 29, 2016 Cypress Mountain backcountry access closure not sanctioned in master plan BC Parks is failing to follow their own master plan by preventing access to the Howe Sound Crest Trail between the hours of 10 PM to 9 AM during the winter months. The concern with public safety expressed by Mr. Jim Standen, Assistant Deputy Minister is a sham. For further information on the closure read here: Cypress winter road closure next steps The flag person that is currently preventing...

November 14, 2016 We wrote to the Minister of Environment after uncovering further irregularities with Whistler Heli-skiing Ltd.'s park use permit for heli-skiing in the Spearhead Range of Garibaldi Provincial Park.

{loadmodule mod_zhgooglemap,Zh GoogleMap Watersprite Lake}

October 22, 2016 To recap, on August 9th of this year, 2020 wrote to the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations regarding the obligation of Whistler Blackcomb to restore public parking and vehicular access to the Singing Pass trail head at the park boundary. See the news blog here: 2020 presses minister to make good on Singing Pass parking Read more about the Singing Pass Trail fiasco here: Singing Pass Trail Fiasco Summary On September 30th, we received a response...

Mamquam Mountain - 2588 meters/8491 feet - Location: 49.77528, - 122.85083 Mamquam Mountain is the highpoint of the sprawling Mamquam Icefield massif in southern Garibaldi Provincial Park. The approach is fairly long and is often done on skis via Skookum Creek or Elfin Lakes. The standard summit route is along the easy northwest ridge. "Many parties routinely fail to climb this summit" according to Anders Ourom in the Fairley guide.  It was first climbed in 1911 by B. Gray, C....

The following maps pertaining to the Garibaldi Park Wilderness Conservation Zone and the Whistler Heli-Ski Park Use Permit are constructed from BC Park's own map of the wilderness conservancy posted at the Elfin Lakes Trailhead.  The BC Parks map of the Wilderness Conservation Zone suggests that the conflict between Heli-Ski Operations in Garibaldi Park and the Wilderness Conservation Zone is much worse than previously mapped and understood by Garibaldi Park 2020. The blue line...

September 17, 2016 2020 wrote to Honourable Mary Polak, Minister of Environment demanding that the Whistler Heli-skiing park use permit for the Spearhead Range not be renewed in October 2016 when the current permit expires. We have uncovered significant irregularities with the current permit that cause us great concern.

September 12, 2016 2020 raised concerns about the commercial heli-skiing permit in Garibaldi Park in our June 23, 2016 blog article entitled BC Parks approves heli-ski landing zones in Garibaldi Park's wilderness conservation zone. In the blog article, 2020 contends, Mapping by 2020 reveals for the first time that a commercial recreation park use permit for helicopter landing zones inside Garibaldi Park's wilderness conservation zone was granted to Whistler Heli Skiing Ltd. by BC...

Trail Daze 2015 Trail work by Heathens Mountaineering Club at Crest Creek Crags Vancouver Island B.C. Some British Columbians are still under the illusion that BC Parks is the underfunded white-knight protector of our parklands.   While this was once true decades ago, a growing number of experiences by groups such as the Heathens Mountaineering Club and Garibaldi Park 2020 (amongst several others) suggest that the BC Parks Organization of the 21st...

August 22, 2016 Journalist Jennifer Thuncher of The Squamish Chief newspaper interviews 2020 co-founder Chris Ludwig about the perception there is a double standard employed by the Ministry of Environment. The one for commercial interests allows trespass by mechanized park users into the wilderness conservation zone, the trammelling of park values and the extirpation of mountain goats from their ungulate winter range. Read the Squamish Chief article here:...

This page contains links to quality websites that feature Articles and Photos pertaining to the history of Garibaldi Park: Hollyburn Heritage Articles: Explorations in Garibaldi Park (1930) http://www.hollyburnheritage.ca/hiking/garibaldi-provincial-park/explorations-in-garibaldi-provincial-park-1930-s/ Garibaldi Park Historic Photo Gallery: http://www.hollyburnheritage.ca/hiking/garibaldi-provincial-park/garibaldi-provincial-park-around-garibaldi-lake/ Elfin Lakes and Diamond Head...

The following list of Annual Reports comes from the Provincial Government's Website at: https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/annual/annual_reports.htm The documents listed below are hosted on the Government Server.  Of particular note is that British Columbia once had a Ministry of Recreation and Conservation.  These reports reveals the early BC Parks organization to be one focused on recreation, trail construction, and productive consulatation and collaboration with volunteers....

Garibaldi Park 2020 letter to Honourable Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations on private vehicle access along the public road to the designated parking lot at Singing Pass trail head, vicinity of Harmony Creek adjacent Garibaldi Provincial Park boundary at Fitzsimmons Creek. Response from Mr. Norman Lee, Executive Director, Mountain Resorts Branch with assigned reference no. 224595. August 9, 2016 The Honourable Steve Thomson Minister of Forests, Lands...