Altamont, West Vancouver: Homes for Sale, Prices, Schools and Daily Life

Altamont is on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, the next neighbourhood west of Dundarave. Marine Drive crosses it near the water, around 29th, 30th and 31st Streets. The houses climb from there to Altamont Crescent, below the Trans-Canada Highway. On October 11, 2026, homes were listed for sale on Marine Drive, Mathers Avenue, Mathers Crescent, Palmerston Avenue, Rosebery Avenue, Gisby Street, Altamont Crescent, 29th Street and 31st Street.

The slope is steep. Natural Resources Canada's elevation data gives 38 metres above sea level for 30th Street at Marine Drive, 66 metres at Mathers Avenue and 88 metres at Rosebery Avenue. The upper corner of Altamont Crescent and Gisby Street is at 135 metres. That is a rise of 97 metres between two points that are 781 metres apart in a straight line.

The District's Official Community Plan has a policy written for this neighbourhood alone: "Retain the park like qualities of the Altamont Area." The plan describes what it calls "country estate" characteristics, and it lists them as large lots, mature trees, narrow roads and houses set within a landscaped environment.

In our view, Altamont suits a buyer whose first wishes are space and privacy. Daily errands mean a trip to Dundarave. A buyer who wants to walk to a cafe every morning will be happier in Dundarave or Ambleside.

The name comes from Ireland. The province's place name office records that John Fitzgerald Mahon, of Vancouver and London, divided land here into lots in 1913. He named the land after his brother-in-law, who used the title Earl of Altamont as the eldest son of the Marquess of Sligo, an Irish nobleman. The earl was the brother of Mahon's wife, Lady Alice Mahon. Mahon died in 1942. The record says Altamont appears in many directories from the 1920s, and the province adopted it as an official place name on November 26, 1979.

A railway reached the shore in the same years. The District's Time Walk history site says the Pacific Great Eastern Railway ran trains between North Vancouver and West Vancouver from 1913 to 1928. At its busiest, the site says, the line carried freight and commuters several times a day between Lonsdale Avenue and Horseshoe Bay. The West Vancouver Archives holds a photograph from the 1920s of a child at Altamont station on that railway. Its record for 31st Street adds that a second stop, named Marine, stood west of the railway bridge that crosses Marine Drive at 31st Street.

The trains stopped in 1928, when costs were high and more people travelled by car, the same site says. The company kept its land, and the line opened again in 1956 to join North Vancouver to Prince George. The Province became the owner on April 1, 1972.

Two of today's parks appear in old records. An archives photograph dated to 1918 shows Altamont Beach Park, looking south from Marine Drive, with the railway's footbridge behind it. The archives also holds the constitution and bylaws of the Altamont Playground Society, dated February 5, 1951, and files them under Altamont Park.

Altamont has houses, parks and a school nearby, and it has no shops. The map data on this page shows no cafe, grocery store, pharmacy or clinic inside the area. The tables name the nearest grocery store, cafe, library and recreation centre, and all four are east of Altamont, toward Dundarave and Ambleside.

TransLink's schedule gives the 250 bus two to three minutes from Marine Drive at 30th Street to the stop at 25th Street, beside the Dundarave shops. In our experience, most residents drive for groceries because the way home is uphill.

Marine Drive carries the traffic between Dundarave and Horseshoe Bay past the lower houses. A freight railway also crosses the lower part of Altamont. The Province says its company BCRC owns the former BC Rail land and tracks and leases them to CN Rail. OpenStreetMap shows the line between Marine Drive and the shore east of 31st Street, a bridge over Marine Drive at 31st Street, and a crossing at street level on 29th Street. Visit a house near Marine Drive at several times of day to hear the road and the trains.

In our experience, the streets higher up are quieter. The District's guidelines for Altamont describe narrow roads with planted boulevards, which are the strips of public land between the pavement and the property line. The guidelines discourage paved parking on those strips, and they discourage long high fences, walls and gates along the street.

Altamont Beach is a gravel beach below Marine Drive. OpenStreetMap maps it along the shore from Altamont east to Dundarave Park. Altamont Beach Park, mapped as a nature reserve, is south of Marine Drive between 29th and 30th Streets. A District footpath called the Stokes Trail runs down through the park, with steps, and crosses the railway on the way to the shore.

Check how you would reach the beach from a house you like. On July 22, 2024, District council voted five to one to close the public path at the foot of 30th Street so that the land could be sold with a District lot at 3000 Park Lane, the North Shore News reported. The same report said an access at the foot of 29th Street had been closed since storm damage in 2013 and that another exists at the foot of 31st Street. CBC News reported on July 31, 2024 that the District was considering repairs at 29th Street. We have not confirmed what is open today, so walk the route before you make an offer.

OpenStreetMap shows courts and play areas in three small parks. Altamont Park, at the corner of Rosebery Avenue and Gisby Street, has a playground, a tennis court and a basketball court. 29th Street Park, between Marine Drive and the railway, has two tennis courts. Benbow Park, beside West Bay Elementary, has three tennis courts and a playground. The table on this page lists the other parks nearby.