December 20, 2017 RE: 272492 – Cypress Bowl Road Dear [British Columbia Mountaineering Club]: Your email of November 20, 2017, regarding Cypress Bowl Road, has been shared with me. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding. I appreciated the opportunity to review your suggestion to open Cypress Bowl Road one hour earlier in the morning to accommodate visitors to Cypress Provincial Park. While the Ministry owns the road, winter maintenance is funded and delivered by Cypress...

November 20, 2017 Grant Main Deputy Minister Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure PO Box 9850 Stn Prov Govt Victoria BC V8W9T5 By Email: DeputyMinister.Transportation@gov.bc.ca Dear Mr. Main, RE: Earlier opening of Cypress Bowl Road in winter I represent the British Columbia Mountaineering Club which is an organization of over 1,000 members in the Lower Mainland. We engage in backcountry ski trips in Cypress Provincial Park which is reached from Cypress Bowl Road in West...

December 2, 2017 Jesse Morwood, the area manager for MoTI spoke with me about two weeks ago and subsequent to my letter to him on November 19, 2017 regarding "permit for sign, erection or obstruction on Cypress Bowl Road by Cypress Mountain Resort." Here is what I heard. I explored with Jesse Morwood of MoTI the idea of opening Cypress Bowl Road earlier by one or two hours. A 24/7 opening would probably be impractical because MoTI would not agree to have the road open and not maintained. Of...

November 19, 2017 Jesse Morwood Area Manager, Squamish/Whistler Area Office Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Suite 310 - 1500 Woolridge Street Coquitlam BC V3K0B8 By Email: Jesse.Morwood@gov.bc.ca Dear Mr. Morwood, RE: Permit for sign, erection or obstruction on Cypress Bowl Road by Cypress Mountain Resort It is my understanding that Cypress Bowl Road was classified as an "Arterial Highway" by Order in Council no. 116 in 1992. As recently as 2011, I am in receipt of an email...

May 24, 2017 BCMC spoke with Jesse Morwood of MoTI about the winter road closure. He's the Area Manager for the Squamish/Whistler Area Office of Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Point summary of Mr. Morwood's statements The closure runs from 11 PM to 7 AM during winter only There is no summer closure The road is not maintained during the hours of the closure and therefore it is not safe for public use The winter closure has been in place since way back before the downhill...

The road is closed and gated just above Chippendale Drive between 11 PM to 7 AM during the winter months.

April 24, 2017 Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure publishes its maintenance specifications including highway snow removal on its website under the heading Highway Maintenance Agreements here: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/transportation-infrastructure/contracting-to-transportation/highway-bridge-maintenance/highway-maintenance/agreement. Under schedule 8 of the highway maintenance agreement, it shows Cypress Bowl Road is part of the Howe Sound service area....

A related story - backgrounder on Stawamus Chief Provincial Park, by Anders Ourom, July 2014 This story arose from a blog post on SquamishClimbing.com at the link: Logging planned above Squaw (Slhanay)/Olesen Creek The logging of Olesen Creek is behind Stawamus Chief and Squaw (Slhanay) and was of concern to climbers and other recreationists. Anders Ourom provided the following perspective: There may be other aspects to this question that should be considered. It may be in the best...