Category: Ski-Town Stories

From Whistler to Blackcomb to Whistler Blackcomb.

Mountain Washrooms: BlackcombMountain Washrooms: Blackcomb

October 14, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Though Whistler Mountain opened for skiing in January 1966 with no Roundhouse and few on-mountain amenities, when Blackcomb Mountain began its operations in December 1980 the Rendezvous Lodge and the daylodge at Base II were both already up and running. Over the years, as Blackcomb gained more customers, these facilities were added onto and more were added, including the Glacier Creek Lodge in 1993.

In 1980, both the Rendezvous and the daylodge offered food services run by the Parsons family and were fulling equipped with running water and washroom facilities. According to Hugh Smythe, president of Blackcomb Ski Enterprises, his experiences with washrooms at Whistler Mountain led him to believe that these facilities were not going to be enough. He recalled discussions with the architects where he tried to convince them to add more washrooms to the plans but both the design of the buildings and the budget prevented adding more facilities. As Blackcomb skier visits increased, more washrooms were added to the Rendezvous through the addition of construction washroom trailers that were bolted to the bottom floor. When the building was expanded and Christine’s Restaurant was added, the bottom floor was also expanded and more washrooms were included in the building, replacing the trailers.

Blackcomb Mountain didn’t just advertise its women’s washrooms, it also took promotional photos of the men’s room. Blackcomb Mountain Collection, Randy Lincks

Blackcomb Mountain decided to take no chances when it came to planning the washroom facilities for the Glacier Creek Lodge, though the building itself did come close to looking entirely different than it does today. Smythe remembers that the team at Blackcomb, then owned by Intrawest Resort Holdings Inc., originally asked the architects for a shed roof design, similar to the Bugaboo Lodge and the daylodge at Sunshine Village. Situated at the bottom of the Jersey Cream Express and the Glacier Express, the 1,000 seat restaurant was designed to look up the lift lines and capture as much sunlight as possible and featured industrial elements such as metal beams. As they neared the construction window, however, Blackcomb asked for an architectural rendering that they could put on display. According to Smythe, despite having seen all of the plans and being involved in the process, one look at the rendering was enough to realize that the design was all wrong.

Glacier Creek Lodge on Blackcomb Mountain. Insight Photography Collection

Blackcomb engaged new architects, a husband and wife team called Lutz & Associates, and got to work on a new design. Smythe recalled one presentation at which the architects had something under a sheet in the middle of the table. Throughout the presentation, Smythe kept getting distracted by the mysterious object until finally they pulled the sheet off to reveal a model of Glacier Creek Lodge. Like with the architectural rendering, one look was enough for Smythe to say, “That’s what we need.” Metal beams were switched for large log posts and there was even money in the budget to commission root chandeliers from Eric Skragg.

By October 1993, the 30,000 sq ft Glacier Creek Lodge was nearing completion. It included 1,000 seats spread out over two levels, an additional 600 seat patio, and ten food court stations. According to the Whistler Question, the building also included “one of the largest washrooms in North America, complete with 38 stalls.” The size of the washrooms was even used in the marketing for the new facility. In November 1993, the Question featured an image captured by photojournalist Bonny Makarewicz showing a line of toilets before the partitions were installed and captioned “OK! Who left the seat up? Toilets in the ladies room sit awaiting stalls in the new Glacier Creek restaurant, Tuesday. The women’s can will feature 38 toilets.” A similar image and caption was also used in a ski magazine.

A line of stalls in the Glacier Creek Lodge washroom. Blackcomb Mountain Collection, Randy Lincks

Whistler Mountain renovated Pika’s restaurant that same season, doubling the size and increasing the women’s washrooms from nine to 26 stalls. By the 1990s, both mountains had come a long way from the amenities and outhouses offered to early skiers on Whistler Mountain.

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Mountain Washrooms: WhistlerMountain Washrooms: Whistler

October 7, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

When Whistler Mountain opened for skiing in the winter of 1965/66, it wasn’t known for its on-mountain amenities. Even after the Roundhouse was built in the summer of 1966, the only facilities on the top of the mountain were nearby outhouses.

The maintenance of these outhouses fell under the purview of Whistler Mountain’s paid ski patrol. John Hetherington, who joined the patrol in the 1967/68 season, remembered shoveling out and cleaning the outhouses as an “ugly job.” According to fellow patroller Hugh Smythe, Hugh gained quite a lot of experience cleaning and restocking the facilities in his first year on the patrol, often using rescue equipment such as ice axes. He described these duties as “the glamour of being a ski patroller.”

The Roundhouse before the balcony and the lower level were enclosed. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection

One of the first major renovations of the Roundhouse involved digging out and enclosing a lower floor which would include indoor washrooms. According to Garibaldi’s Whistler News, this was done in part due to skier demands. Doing so presented a couple of problems as at the time, the Roundhouse did not have water and some high points of rock beneath the Roundhouse made the space more a crawlspace than another level.

The first problem was solved by hiring a professional water dowser from Vancouver Island. He arrived with a willow stick and was able to find running water near enough to the Roundhouse that the lift company was able to install a pump and have enough water for the newly installed kitchen and for washrooms. The second problem involved removing some of the rock that the Roundhouse was built on.

Smythe had a blasting ticket because of his patrol work doing avalanche control but, as he recalled, “no experience blasting rock.” He drilled some holes and covered the area in sheets of plywood, then added explosives. Luckily, only one piece of rock went through the main floor of the Roundhouse, though others were embedded in the ceiling. Once the debris was cleared out, washrooms and additional seating were added to the space.

A new building that included additional washrooms under construction in front of the Roundhouse. Whistler Question Collection, 1979

While the addition of indoor washrooms was a big step for Whistler Mountain, the lift company continued to experience washroom woes. The Roundhouse now had four stalls in the women’s washroom, two stalls and two urinals in the men’s washroom, and the pre-existing outhouses. The facilities, however, were still not sufficient for the number of skiers on the mountain on a busy day and Smythe recalled that the lineups for the women’s washroom would be “horrendous.” At one point, season pass holders signed a petition for additional women’s washroom facilities, as the women had gotten tired of waiting in the line and the rest of their group had gotten tired of waiting for them, sometimes for over half an hour. Mirrors were moved from the washroom to the hallway to discourage any lingering, clips were installed to keep the sleeves of one-piece ski suits off the ground, and there were even staff stationed at the washrooms with stopwatches. None of these measures were particularly effective and Smythe remembered some skiers, tired of waiting in line, decided to “just storm the men’s.”

The Roundhouse after renovations. Whistler Question Collection, 1980

In 1979, a new building was installed beside the Roundhouse that included extra washrooms, a new ski school office, a ski repair shop, and a sewer plant. When the Roundhouse Lodge was completely rebuilt in 1998, the new building boasted much larger washroom facilities than the original structure. His experiences with both the outhouses and the Roundhouse facilities left a lasting impression on Hugh Smythe that would inform future developments in his career.

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Binty was hereBinty was here

September 29, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Operating from 1965 to 1992, the first gondola installed on Whistler Mountain was a hard working lift that brought skiers (and later snowboarders) from the valley base at today’s Creekside to the bottom of the Red Chair. Gondola cars from this lift can still be found today throughout the valley and beyond, including in the Whistler Museum. They often show signs of their years of use, from dents to scratches to added stickers. If you look closely at some of the gondola cars, you might even find a name or two scratched into the surface. One name that could be found on many of the cars over the years was Binty, also known as Vincent Massey.

The original Whistler Mountain gondola. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection

The Massey family began visiting in the early 1960s when Geoffrey Massey, the well known architect, became involved in the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association. He and his wife Ruth brought their four children, including Binty, up to ski regularly. Looking back at his childhood visits to Whistler Mountain, Binty recalled a low of snow, slow lifts, and long line ups. According to him, “It was such a cold ride up, it would take about 40 or 50 minutes to get up out of the valley to the Roundhouse because the lifts were so slow.” By the time they reached the Roundhouse, they would be so cold that they would go straight inside to warm up. Despite this, to Binty, Whistler was “a big deal, it was a big mountain.”

According to Hugh Smythe, who began working for Whistler Mountain soon after it opened in 1966, Binty and his “mischievous look” became well known to lift company employees, especially after his name started appearing on more and more gondola cars. As Hugh saw it, “his goal was to carve his name in the plastic of the gondola cars in every car.” Unfortunately, this made lift company president Franz Wilhelmsen “apoplectic” and one of Hugh’s assigned tasks was to try and catch Binty in the act.

Binty Massey in his Whistler pottery studio. Whistler Question Collection, 1991

Binty, who grew up in Horseshoe Bay, moved to Whistler full-time after finishing high school. Unfortunately for him, the winter of 1976/77 is best remembered by those who there as the year that Whistler Mountain closed for skiing for three weeks in January. Warm rain after the holidays worsened already marginal conditions and then the weather got cold and dry, which made for great ice skating but no skiing. After working construction in Whistler for a year, Binty decided to go to art school.

A few decades late, after Binty and his wife Cheryl and moved back to Whistler and started a family, his labeling of the gondola cars appeared again in what might seem like an unexpected setting: a fundraising event of the Myrtle Philip Community School (MPCS) Parent Advisory Council (PAC).

Hugh Smythe reenacts his days working for the lift company as a lineup of parents look on. Whistler Question Collection, 1992

The Amuse Cruises of the 1990s were held to raise money for the MPSC, which opened in its Lorimer Road location in September 1992. They were held at the Fairmont Chateau and featured skits put together by the parents from different classes. One such skit at the event held in November 1992 featured a recently-decommissioned gondola car and Hugh Smythe reenacting some of the tasks that came up during his early days working for Whistler Mountain, including attempts to stop Binty from adding his name to the lift.

While the gondola car included in the skit made it a bit more obvious (“Binty was here” was painted on in large letters), it’s likely that if any attendees had examined it closely, they might have found the familiar name scratched into a window at least twenty years before.

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The Lifty OlympicsThe Lifty Olympics

August 26, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Thirteen years before Whistler and Vancouver hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Blackcomb Mountain began hosting a smaller, perhaps less prestigious, but likely no less competitive event called the Lifty Olympics.

The Lifty Olympics began in April 1997 as part of the second World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF). In its first year, WSSF had featured 22 events over ten days, including the Couloir Ski Race Extreme, the Whistler Cup, and the WestBeach Classic, along with performances by bands such as Vancouver’s 54•40. For its second year, additional events were included such as the Norco Challenge (Norco factory riders competed to see who could go the fastest on their bike down Whistler Mountain’s Saddle) and the Backbone Enduro Vertical Challenge. While most WSSF events catered to those who skied or snowboarded on the mountains, the Lifty Olympics featured those who worked in mountain operations.

Lifties are an integral part of keeping the mountain running smoothly, especially when working with fixed grip lifts. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection

According to organizer Jim Tutsch, the Lifty Olympics was “specifically designed to test the wiles of local lifties” and “demonstrate the activities of a lift operations specialist in the course of their daily duties.” Teams from both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains competed in four timed events. In one, they had to set up 36 maze gates in a standard pattern used to merge four lines of skiers down to one. Teams also had to transport garbage cans of snow up the mountain, perform a net drop rescue with a fireman’s net, and complete a full shut down procedure. Tutsch warned that these activities would be made a bit harder, such as by scattering rakes, shovels, ropes and gates around the bottom terminal that would need to be stacked when shutting down. The team that completed their duties with the fastest times won a keg of beer and year’s worth of bragging rights.

With space for six teams, all of the positions were reportedly filled within one day. Each team had four people, of which one member had to be female and one (though it is unclear if it could be the same one) had to be “an Australian or a reasonable facsimile.” A few days before the competition on April 7, Tutsch told the Question that staff members on both mountains were in training “polishing shovels, moving maze gates and counting down the days to the event.” This early enthusiasm for the Lifty Olympics had Tutsch thinking of expansion, whether to other mountain departments or to teams from other ski resorts.

A lifty needs to be prepared for anything, including a visit from a wizard. Blackcomb Mountain Collection, Greg Griffith, 1992

While the Lifty Olympics doesn’t appear to have spread to other departments, the Cascade Toboggan Ski Patrol Challenge joined the WSSF line up in 1999 and featured ski patrollers from across North America in five events such as the Dual GS Toboggan Challenge, Speed Packaging, and the Multiple Transceiver Search.

The Lifty Olympics at Blackcomb’s Base II continued as part of WSSF over the next few years, though it is not part of the WSSF line up these days. In 2000, Tutsch told the Question that the event was not just a competition, but also “a big thank you and formal recognition of the invaluable input of these unsung heroes.”

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