Category: Museum Musings

These articles have also appeared in the Whistler Question or Pique Newsmagazine in the Whistler Museum’s weekly column.

The Karen Kögler Fonds: Documenting life through photography and self-reflectionThe Karen Kögler Fonds: Documenting life through photography and self-reflection

September 28, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Written by Atessa Showrai

Featured photo: Karen climbing Nordic Rock, c. 1990s.

“Either go or fall” – Karen Kögler. Climbing, Mountaineering, Hiking, and Outdoor Adventures Log Book.

Karen Kögler was an avid rock climber and outdoorswoman, who documented her adventures through photographs, climbing log books, and self-reflections. The Karen Kögler Fonds consist of over 300 photographs of various outdoor adventures in the Sea-to-Sky region, which showcase Karen’s life as a snowboarder, mountaineer, and rock climber. 

While the collection’s photography instantly caught my eye – climbing at Nordic Rock, hiking Mt. Fee, and beautiful photos of Whistler – what made the collection truly stick with me was Karen’s story and her approach to life. Her outdoor adventures log book included a page at the end, which we interpreted as a list of self-affirmations to mentally prepare for the next climb.

Two hikers walking on a snowy mountain slope with rocky terrain and steep cliffs in the background.
As Karen captioned: “Blowdown Early Summer ‘97 w/ Dad [Hans] looking for Goats”.

Throughout my experience as a summer student at the Whistler Museum, I’ve worked on several collections, most of which only contained photographs. Karen’s collection stood out because it shows us not only the beautiful places she visited, but also demonstrates the thought and effort put into each adventure. 

The log books which accompany the photographs go into immense detail of her successes, small details and notes on what could be improved on for future climbs. Thanks to Kögler’s detailed note-taking, I was able to take a more personalized route when it came to processing and cataloging the collection into our archive.

Instead of going through Karen’s photo albums without any context besides captions, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of why certain decisions were made. Although the logs were helpful to fill certain surface-level knowledge gaps, such as climbing location and difficulty range, they also left me with even more questions. Why did she document her climbs? Did she often refer back to the logs for future climbs? Did the logs exist purely for her own reference?

Kögler loved being outdoors. She had seemingly found her calling, and attended the University College of the Cariboo to attain her Adventure Guide diploma in Kamloops. The program had a competitive acceptance rate, only admitting 24 students per year at the time. On top of that, students in the program were already expected to have a certain level of experience and knowledge in order to succeed in their studies. Unfortunately, Kögler was never able to complete the program due to a tragic accident which occurred while she was ice climbing at Banff National Park near Mount Wilson with two of her peers.

A snowboarder performing a jump on a snowy slope, with hands raised and a backdrop of snowy mountains and trees.
Karen on her first board, c. 1990/91.

In January of 1999, Kögler was waiting her turn to safely climb up Ice 9, a waterfall ice climb, when a large piece of ice broke off of a frozen waterfall and fell on her. Although Kögler had years of experience as a climber and had ice climbed before, the incident was described as “bad luck” in the Calgary Herald. Kögler passed away at the age of twenty-two on January 24, 1999. Soon after her passing, Karen’s father, Hans Kögler, created the Karen Kögler Memorial Award. The scholarship is awarded to students in the Adventure Guide program who exhibit a passion for the outdoors.

Kögler’s collection serves as a reminder that the end-result might not always show how much thought or effort goes into reaching the summit. In the meantime, the power of self-reflection and committing action to written words is more powerful than most think.

“No hesitating, clear head and tell yourself you are capable of doing” – Karen Kögler. Climbing, Mountaineering, Hiking, and Outdoor Adventures Log Book.

Atessa Showrai is one of two Collections Coordinators at the Whistler Museum this summer, supported through the Young Canada Works Program.

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New insights on the 1956 CT-133 RCAF Callaghan Plane Crash

New insights on the 1956 CT-133 RCAF Callaghan Plane CrashNew insights on the 1956 CT-133 RCAF Callaghan Plane Crash

September 17, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Written by Oliver Matisz

Featured photo: Military Search and Rescue members from the 442 Air Transport and Rescue Squadron (Comox) gather by Callaghan Lake in August 1997.

After logging 20,900 square miles, 800 flight hours, and involving over a dozen search aircraft, The Royal Canadian Air Force suspended a search for a downed CT-133 jet in April 1956. The search was conducted by sea and air across Vancouver Island, where civilian reports of the crash were made. Two pilots, Flight Officer Gerald Stubbs, 32, and Flight Officer James Miller, 23, went missing on March 22nd while conducting a regular training flight after departing from Comox, British Columbia, intending to fly across the Georgia Strait and then return back.

In March of 2026, the Whistler Museum received photographs and correspondence associated with an August 1997 military recovery mission of the aircraft’s fuselage, which was spotted by a private helicopter pilot fighting fires near Callaghan Lake.  At the time, the Royal Canadian Navy stated publicly that despite four decades having passed since the plane’s disappearance, “aviators have kept a watchful eye over the known flight route throughout the years.” This more substantial 1997 recovery added clarity to a 1974 discovery of the jet’s canopy approximately two kilometers from the original crash site. 

A military helicopter flying over a forested area with mountains in the background.
A military helicopter hovers will conducting recovery operations near Callaghan Lake.

Sergeant Edith Cuerrier was a military photographer dispatched alongside a Flight Crash and Salvage Crew who were flown to Callaghan Lake, about 20 km southwest of Whistler Village, in the first week of August 1997. The lake then served as a base point for military search and rescue helicopter recovery flights to and from the crash site; after initial site inspection of the fuselage it was established that in the absence of ejected aircraft seats, there was no likelihood of finding remains. 

The photography collections donated by Cuerrier encompass a wide array of images, including  technical crash site documentation, salvage crew members actively reviewing flight paths, takeoffs and landings of aircraft, and activities partaken during downtime. The Whistler Museum additionally possesses a fragment of the aircraft’s canopy, some of the plane’s metal tubing, and a helmet of one of the pilots, all of which we received through donation from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 2010.  However, for the two pilots’ families, obtaining information on the crash has been a more tedious and complicated process.

In 1987, the late widow of Flight Officer James Miller, Mary Ford, filed a request under the Access to Information Act with the Federal Government, seeking additional closure on her husband’s disappearance. At the time, neither she nor the family of Flight Officer Gerald Stubbs held knowledge of the plane’s canopy being recovered. Ford received a response that included the T 33’s serial number and record that the canopy had indeed been recovered in September 1974, with no further recovery action being warranted at the time. A friend of Gerald Stubbs’ widow noted after the fuselage’s recovery in 1997 that “the history of this has not been one where the family is advised.”

In light of these circumstances, the acquisition of Edith Cuerrier’s work is an important step for our collections in enabling public access to a variety of crash records. With a combination of physical artefacts from the crash site, and newly acquired photographical and textual material; these records will facilitate increased transparency on investigations into the crash.

As a community museum and archives, we endeavour to foster an open collection policy in building knowledge bases and to impartially maintain records. This has aided us in gaining custody of collections surrounding the crash’s history since the early 2000s from a diverse set of donors including both law enforcement agencies and private individuals. These acquisitions  also tie into our broader institutional mandate in considering certain relevant regional history beyond Whistler’s municipal boundaries. 

We further recognize how a historic absence of answers has negatively impacted the lost pilots’ families, and hope that our stewardship of these records can serve to preserve the memory of Flight Officers Gerald Stubbs and James Miller.

Oliver Matisz is one of two Collections Coordinators at the Whistler Museum this summer, supported through the Young Canada Works Program.

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The Whistler Town Crier

The Whistler Town CrierThe Whistler Town Crier

September 10, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

By Anna Donaldson

Since Whistler became a Resort Municipality in 1975, the community has had a handful of newspapers, from the Whistler Question to the Whistler Answer, and of course the Pique Newsmagazine. One of these was The Whistler Town Crier, a biweekly newspaper first published on September 7, 1994. Edited and published by Jacquie McCarnan, with Peter O’Donnell as assistant editor, the paper ran for just one volume of approximately 17 issues.It was edited and published by Jacquie McCarnan, with Peter O’Donnell as the assistant editor.

Jacquie and Peter moved to Whistler in 1992 near the end of the recession that hit Canada in the early 1990s. They quickly secured jobs in Whistler, but noticed that there was a “gap in the reporting”. The Whistler Answer closed down not long after they moved to Whistler in August of 1993, and the only news was coming from the Whistler Question. McCarnan herself remembered the Whistler Question being more of a “corporate” newspaper. McCarnan and O’Donnell saw an opening for a newspaper that covered the news McCarnan believed the Whistler Question was neglecting, and that focused on different aspects of the local community. McCarnan had a degree in Political Science with a minor in English, and O’Donnell had a History degree. They had no experience running a newspaper, but were determined to try. In an interview, McCarnan, stated that they “wanted to put something out there that was positive and reflective of the community that we were living in.” In 1994, Whistler had about a third of its current population, and McCarnan and O’Donnell aimed to make a newspaper that connected with the locals. Most of the articles and columns in The Town Crier focused on local issues no matter how small.

The Whistler Town Crier had a few local columns, but one of the newspaper’s most notorious columns was “Ask Uncle Willie”. This was a satirical column where readers could write in about problems in their lives and ask Uncle Willie for advice. Readers would write under silly pseudonyms, and Uncle Willie would respond with ironic answers. McCarnan revealed that Uncle Willie was written by Bill Pauline, whom she worked with at Wild Willies. McCarnan stated that Bill was her own ‘Uncle Willie’ in a sense, giving her advice that didn’t need to be taken seriously. When she was looking for more contributors to The Town Crier, he was happy to write his own regular column.

Cover page of 'The Town Crier' newspaper featuring an illustration of a person with a globe and shopping bag, promoting internet access and classifieds, dated March 1995.
March 21, 1995 issue of The Whistler Town Crier Vol. 1 No. 14.

While the “Ask Uncle Willie” column was satirical, the rest of the newspaper was sincere. Even when writers covered topics that didn’t focus on Whistler, they always managed to tie in a local perspective. For example, Peter O’Donnell’s article “What The Hell Is the Internet” explained how citizens would benefit from the newly incorporated invention of the internet (in 1995). The article highlighted Armchair Books as a local business where residents could pick up the Canadian Internet Handbook. It also referenced how people moved to Whistler from all over the world, and that the internet could help keep them connected to their friends and family, as well as news from home.

When The Town Crier was only four issues in, the Pique Newsmagazine started. The Pique had Bob Barnett, former editor of the Whistler Question, and other financial resources that the Town Crier lacked. Funded largely from McCarnan and O’Donnell’s own pockets, the Town Crier struggled to compete for advertising dollars with the Question and the Pique, eventually forcing it to close. “When you’re in competition, like in a small town, the stores … [and] the restaurants aren’t making a ton of money and they have three different people asking them for money for the same thing. They’re going to pick the one they think is going to get the most eyeballs,” McCarnan stated.

Though The Whistler Town Crier was short-lived, its impact on McCarnan lasted longer. She recalled that the paper “informed the way that [she] lived the rest of [her] life,” allowing her future projects to be “positive and reflective of the community” around her. Looking back more than 30 years later, McCarnan felt that despite the paper’s limited resources, “we did a great job for what we did.”

Anna Donaldson is the Summer Program Coordinator at the Whistler Museum through the Young Canada Works Program.

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The Woman behind Whistler Windsurfing

The Woman behind Whistler WindsurfingThe Woman behind Whistler Windsurfing

September 4, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

It was amazing to be in on the beginning of the sport, which eventually led to winning four Canadian Windsurfer Championships” reflects longtime resident Jinny Ladner. Learning on one of the first two windsurfers imported into Canada, Ladner and friend Mike Gadd started on Alta Lake in 1975. “I sat on the back of the board and then when he got up on a plane I’d crawl up between his legs and stand there inside and figure out how to steer.” 

Ladner first came to Whistler in 1965. Her parents were shareholders in Garibaldi Lift Co. and part of Alpine Village in Creekside, “the first condominiums ever built in Canada.” At age 20 – in 1973 – Ladner moved here fulltime. 

Ladner and Gadd were at the genesis of the sport. “We would chase the crazy wind shifts on Alta Lake and then in 1976, we went to the North American Championships in Berkeley, California.” The Whistler duo met all the big names in the sport hailing from the year-round American sailing hubs. “We met Hoyle Schweitzer,” inventor of the Windsurfer. “That was the beginning of the height, and everybody who was anybody was there,” including Gadd and Ladner.

“In those days you had to hang on to bamboo booms and you had huge calluses on the palm of your hands from trying to hang on because everything would get ripped out of your hands in big wind,” demonstrates Ladner. “Once the body harness was invented, you just hooked into loops hanging from the booms which was much more relaxing.  And you could go for miles.” However, it remained illegal for quite a few years to race with a harness.

Jinny Ladner July 1980. Whistler Question Collection

In the beginning, women and men raced together. “The women were thrown into the

lightweight class.  We had to race with the men and so mostly the men were winning. It

wasn’t until about 1979 that they created [a] women’s class.”

In 1980, a team representing Whistler went to the Canadian Championships in Magog Quebec and won every weight class – Ladner and Gadd along with Andrew Stoner and Chris Janeway.

Jinny Ladner and Andrew Stoner outside Whistler Windsurfing 
July 6, 1982. Whistler Question collection. 

Ladner’s training was limited to half the year being based in Whistler. In 1977 she opened a retail location at the Alta Lake Inn called Whistler Windsurfing. “I had spare parts for Windsurfers, but mostly I just put a sign on the door and said if you need anything I’ll be in the bar.”  Dave Murray was one of her first customers. Ladner was kept busy teaching lessons, including the Toni Sailer Ski Camp campers and the odd rental.

Wednesday night racing began with a local crew of about 15. Starting at Lakeside, “we would sail down to the youth hostel [now The Point Artist-Run Centre], and then across to the Christiana Inn and back up.” Ladner explains, “yacht racing is a triangle race with a downwind loop and back.”

The Wednesday race nights “attracted many more who became interested in the sport.”

Everyone who learned on Alta Lake ended up taking the “Keg Express” downwind at some point, ending up at Adventures West, going to the Keg for a drink, barefoot with their bathing suit and harness, while waiting for a ride to pick them up.

Ladner did not operate her storefront for long, trying to juggle her full-time job (balancing the books for the old Keg) along with competing. She would race in several World Championships, placing an impressive 5th in 1979. Ladner is quick to point out, however, that these were termed ‘the Split Worlds,’ as the Europeans did not attend. The feat remains noteworthy, nonetheless.

Andrew Stoner took over Whistler Windsurfing, re-opening lakeside in the Christiana Inn.

Ladner would win the Canadian Windsurfer Championships from 1978-1981. She retired the same year as her final win. She would continue to judge and run races, including the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Windsurfing’s popularity waned locally with the evolution of sailing in surf, hydrofoils, batwings and parasailing. By the mid-1980’s Whistler’s colourful windsurfing scene simply “faded away.

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