Category: Profiles

Profiles of Alta Lake and Whistler residents.

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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Keep on Pushin’… the Man behind the Skatepark

Keep on Pushin’… the Man behind the SkateparkKeep on Pushin’… the Man behind the Skatepark

August 19, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Photo: VHS screengrab of Monty Little skating the newly opened bowl. 1990. Little collection.

The 79-year-old man who designed the original Whistler Skatepark first came here when he was 17. On a motorcycle, by himself. He got run off the road by a logging truck. Rattled, but unphased, he carried on to Alta Lake, enjoyed a swim, then rode back to Vancouver.

He would return to Whistler four years later, in 1968. “I drove up to the Gondola Barn [in Creekside], as it looked like the place to go, and the first guy I ran into was Jim McConkey.” Monty Little became McConkey’s first-ever employee.

Little ran McConkey’s rental shop. “I would start early on Saturday morning at the top of Taylor Way in West Van with my thumb out hitchhiking a ride to Whistler. … After I got the rentals out, about 10:30 I would head up to the Roundhouse where I ran the little ski shop up there.”

Little usually “would go all the way back to West Vancouver, hang with my friends. On Sunday morning, I’m back out there thumbing a ride all the way back up.”

Though never a resident of Whistler, Little would later develop the Blackcomb Discount Lift Program in 1982 in conjunction with SuperValu: “a big bonus for Blackcomb who were the new guys on the block. They needed help.”

When talking mountains, Little was a skier-turned-snowboarder. In the city, he was a ‘sidewalk surfer’-turned-skateboarder – a man at the genesis of the sport. “The best compliment I’ve ever received was the United States had Frank Hawk and Canada’s got Monty Little.”

“I made my first board in 1963” with steel wheels “slapped onto a two by four.” In ‘65 he upgraded to clay ones with Chicago trucks for $12.50.

50 years ago, Little organized the first skateboarding competition in BC in Stanley Park. “CBC’s award-winning TV show W5 came out, covered the event for part of their documentary they were doing on this fad called skateboarding.” The contest was a huge success.

In 1977, Little helped form the Canadian Pro-Am Skateboard Association. That same year, Little was responsible (with the YMCA) for the creation of the “first skatepark in Canada” in West Vancouver. However, the municipality, claims Little, said there were too many interested kids showing up – so they instructed the builder to change Little’s plans from one run to two. Away at the time, when Little returned and saw the “disaster,” he almost cried. “The top of the park [wasn’t] even functional. I don’t take any credit for designing the West Van Park as they strayed from my plans.” It was buried in 1984.

Little’s reputation remained intact and subsequently co-designed the legendary Seylynn and William Griffin Parks in Greater Vancouver.

“And this is where we come to Whistler…” Little begins tearing up.

Blueprints for Fitzimmons Creek Park Skate Board Bowl. May 3, 1990. Little Collection.

“I remember the call. … ‘We’d like to build a skate park along the banks of Fitzsimmons Creek. Would you come and take a look at it?’” Little jumped in his car, early Spring 1990, came and viewed the site covered in cottonwoods and agreed to the project.

Enlisting the help of builder Terry Snyder, on August 11th – mere months later – the first skaters were allowed in the park. “The reservoir, the snake run of the bowl all happened at once.” The official opening would happen a few weeks later. This week, the first phase of the Whistler Skatepark celebrates its 36th birthday!

Little’s design for the Whistler park was inspired by the snowboarding and skiing culture – “They’re going to come down from the snowboard camp and want to play, and they’re going to want to carve just like they’re used to. So I made it a bigger park, bigger hips, so you can go way up this wave of this hip and then across … and pump your way back up.”

Skateboarder displays his talent for the many onlookers at the Skate Bowl. July 1992. Whistler Question collection.

Whistler’s Skatepark – and Little’s contribution – holds an important part in Canadian Skateboarding history. The park remains one of the country’s largest. It has been expanded (Phase II designed by Jim Barnum). It is also one of the featured stops of the second-oldest skateboard contest in Canada: ‘The Bowl Series’ and houses such inspiring initiatives as those facilitated by the Real Wild Kittens. Meanwhile, Monty Little “keeps on pushin’”!

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Whistler Weasels into Business: Mink, Marten and Mountain Movers 

Whistler Weasels into Business: Mink, Marten and Mountain Movers Whistler Weasels into Business: Mink, Marten and Mountain Movers 

March 23, 2026 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Feature Image: Nita Lake Fur Farm owner Russell Jordan moved to the area in 1915. Photo: Whistler Museum Collection.

One hundred-and-one years ago, the first fur farm was established in Whistler. One hundred years ago, the local industry doubled, with a second business setting up shop. 

The currency of furs was always one of the mainstays of early residents. The hills were set with traplines extending into the surrounding ranges, however the establishment of farms where animals were raised in captivity – not caught in the wild – began in 1925.

The Lineham Mink Farm was developed on Green Lake – a half mile from where the Pacific Great Eastern Railway ran past the 40-mile post (signifying 40 miles from the Squamish station). P.D. Lineham was a retired businessman from Vancouver who sought out a simpler life in the vast outdoors. His answer to his wilderness quest-for-quiet was to start farming wily weasels.

Lineham’s breeding animals were registered stock – imported from Québec – that had been bred in captivity for generations. By the following spring, the farm had 40 mink and this number was expected to steadily increase.

“The climate of this district is particularly suited to mink and the best pelts are taken from here. They are very little trouble to raise and the losses among the pups are practically nil,” Alex Philip (of Rainbow Lodge renown, the first visitor destination in the valley, established in 1915) reported to Country Life in B.C. magazine. The year this statement was published was 1926. That same year, The Nita Lake Fur Farm began: the first and only marten farm in the province. 

Marten are relentless chewers and diggers. Owner-operator Russell Jordan had his work cut out for him. He rose to the challenge posed by the notorious beasts by constructing pens with 16-gauge wire mesh. The cages were built on the rise of land between Alpha and Nita Lakes and filled with miniature trees. He started with eight pairs of marten, described as being ‘the finest stock that have ever been obtained through careful selection during two trapping seasons.’

Russell first moved to the community of Alta Lake in 1915 with his wife and two children. He worked as a logger and the family purchased the Alta Lake Hotel. In an unusual move for the time, Russell was soon divorced by his wife – and she left for Vancouver with the children. The divorcé continued to operate the hotel (which later burnt down in 1933) while venturing into the pelt-rearing business.

Meanwhile, the Lineham Mink Farm began doing business throughout Canada and Europe. Furs were worth $39 each, while his breeding stock could fetch between $150-$200 a pair. This was a lucrative business at the time.

Both Whistler weasel ventures were proving to be worthy investments…but, their prosperity was short lived. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the end to both local businesses and times turned suddenly much leaner in the valley.

Fast forward to the 1970s and, locally, the name ‘Weasel Workers’ suddenly takes on a much different meaning. No mink, no marten, no furs, no pelts … but, behind every major ski race held on Whistler, it has been said, ‘there was a pack of Weasels’.

The Whistler Weasels were a volunteer organization that began as a group of six, led by Bob Parsons, who prepped the courses for the first World Cup Ski Races on the mountain. The crew earned their moniker  – not for being ‘deceitful or treacherous’ as the name implies when referring to a person – but, rather due to their work on the ‘Weasel’  section of the Dave Murray Downhill which was too steep for the snowcats of the time to make it up. These weasels would flatten the course by foot. The organization was formally registered as the Coast Alpine Event Club in 1984, but the name didn’t stick.

What did stick around was the continued volunteer efforts of the group. The Whistler Weasel numbers soared into thousands during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, proving the polecats to be a vital and invaluable component for the execution of the Games. 

Weasels, simply put, form an integral part of the historical, community-sustaining efforts of this place. 

The Whistler Museum’s current Special Exhibition is titled Building the Spirit: Whistler’s Volunteers of the 2010 Games. The Weasel Workers feature as part of the exhibit. We look forward to welcoming you! The exhibit runs until March 29. More info: www.whistlermuseum.org

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Bill Bailiff’s Records of Alta LakeBill Bailiff’s Records of Alta Lake

May 12, 2020 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Living in a place with such a beautiful landscape, where people spend a lot of time enjoying activities outdoors, environmental concerns are always relevant.  One of the first residents to voice concern for the environment was Bill Bailiff, back in the 1950s.

John William Bailiff moved to Alta Lake from England and lived in the area for 45 years.  Reportedly, his fiancé had died and left him heartbroken, so he picked up and moved to British Columbia.  Bailiff joined a construction crew for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, but in 1913 he had an argument with the foreman over the safety conditions of his work and ended up quitting.  He then moved to settle at Alta Lake permanently.

(L to R) Bill Holloway, Jimmy Fitzsimmons, Bill Bailiff, Bill MacDermott, Alex Philip Sr. and Tom Wilson prepare to head out to Fitzsimmons’ mine, about 1916. Philip Collection.

Bailiff kept a whitewashed log cabin near Mons Creek and Alta Lake, as well as additional shelters at each end of Cheakamus Lake.  He became an excellent trapper and would spend five weeks at a time out in the wilderness.  He also had trap lines in the Spearhead Range and Callaghan Creek areas that he tended to over the winters, snowshoeing between them.  The traps would catch wolverine, mink, marten, lynx, and weasel.  One continual nuisance was squirrels that continued to get caught in his traps.  In 1928, Bailiff caught 28 squirrels, so he froze them and stored them in his woodshed, where they were stolen by a marten and then hidden in a rockslide.

The summers were spent by Bailiff putting in railway ties and clearing trails around the lakes for the government.  He was also a prospector, looking for copper on the Fitzsimmons side of Whistler Mountain.  He and Bill MacDermott were looking for a vein that ran north from Britannia but, despite years of looking, they were never successful.

Bill Bailiff (far left) waits for the train at the Alta Lake Station with a group in 1937. Clarke Collection.

Surviving on subsistence living, Bailiff used any food available.  He was known to make the best bread using potato water and Pip Brock, whose family had property on Alta Lake, said he enjoyed his time with Bailiff “sharing his bottled beer and Blue Jay pie.”

Bailiff was often chosen to be Santa Claus at school Christmas parties and the descriptions people remembered him by explain why he was a clear choice for that position.  Brock said Bailiff “had a large belly which shook when he laughed,” and he was also described as a gentle man with round rose cheeks.

An active member of the Alta Lake Community Club (ALCC) and even president in 1958, Bailiff wrote an ongoing series about the history of Alta Lake and preserving the environment in the ALCC newsletter.  He dedicated his column, which included pieces on geography, forestry, topography and more, to the one room Alta Lake School.

This illustration accompanied Bill Bailiff’s article on black bears in the Community Weekly Sunset in July, 1958.

While describing the topography of the area, Bailiff wrote that “Before the advent of the Pacific Great Eastern Rly in 1914 the only access to [Alta Lake] was by pack horse trail which ran from Squamish to Pemberton through a virgin forest of magnificent timber as yet unspoiled by human hands.”  In the next issue, when discussing progress in the area, he described how the construction of the railway led to the “first despoilation (sic) of the forest.”  He also talked about the Hemlock Looper and other insects that attacked the local trees in the early 20th century, the dangers of human caused fires in the area (including a fire by Green Lake supposedly started by a cigarette butt “thrown carelessly into dry slash”), and the decrease in wildlife sightings as human activity began to destroy habitats.

Although he spent a lot of time on his own in the wilderness, Bailiff was a well known and well liked member of the Alta Lake community until his death later in 1958.

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