Blowin' in the Wind

Have you seen the new wind turbine on the top of Grouse Mountain? Somehow I had my head in the sand and missed all the news stories leading up to its unveiling.

I was traveling to work on Skytrain one morning a couple of weeks ago, gazing at the local hills as I often do, when I spotted a tall white spire just East of the seasonally brown ski slope. The angle of the sun at that time of the morning was reflecting off the white paint bringing more attention to the tower than would normally be the case. That’s probably the reason I noticed it in the first place. It looked like the tip of a tent pole poking through the roof of a tent. I looked at for a few minutes, and as Brentwood station approached, I decided to get off there and see how close my digital telephoto lens would get.


That camera never ceases to amaze me. Not only did I get a much clearer view of the still unidentified spike, I also saw a construction crane beside it. I hadn’t seen the crane from the train platform. The image is a bit hazy, mostly from the atmosphere I would think, but the strength of the digital zoom is definitely space age.

As to what it actually was, I guessed it was either a communications tower or an extension of the chair lift. Not being a skier I really had no idea if a ski run existed in that location of the mountain or not.

The next day I was listening to my new favourite radio station, The Peak, when the host mentioned that the latest “green” technological wonder to hit Vancouver could be seen atop Grouse Mountain; a wind turbine. It’s supposed to provide up to 20% of Grouse’s electricity when it’s finished.

Plus (!), it’ll be crowned with an observation platform.

And no, for all of you fitness fanatic Grouse Grinders, you won’t have to climb a million stairs to reach the top. There will be an elevator to the observation deck.

How cool is that?