Category: Whistler: A Town

As well as being a resort, Whistler is town (kind of) like any other.

Starting Up Whistler’s CourierStarting Up Whistler’s Courier

June 3, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

When Cherie Chaffey took part in the Great Snow Earth Water Race in 1979, she was not expecting it to lead (in a roundabout way) to starting her own business in Whistler.

The Great Snow Earth Water Race was a relay race founded by Bryan Walhovd that included skiing, cycling, canoeing, and running. Cherie was the cyclist for Ken Hunter’s “Nearly Normal Racing Team,” which meant she met the running skier at the bottom of Whistler Mountain and then had to cycle along the highway to the north end of Green Lake, where the baton was handed off. Unfortunately, when Cherie reached Emerald Estates she was hit by a car coming out of the neighbourhood. While she doesn’t remember much about the aftermath of the accident, in a recent interview she recalled waking up to see Chuck Blaylock standing over her and that the driver of the car was an off-duty ambulance driver, which meant that he was able to provide assistance before she was taken to Squamish Hospital. Instead of finishing the race, Cherie returned to Ontario to recuperate.

A cyclist races along the highway while traffic follows behind. According to Cherie, helmets became mandatory in the race the following year. Whistler Question Collection, 1979

Cherie had first moved out from Ontario three years earlier with a friend from school, Cathy Jewett. Despite the slow start to the 1976/77 season that year, the two got jobs with Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. working for Ron Johnson on the lifts. According to Cherie, on her first time up Whistler Mountain, she managed to make it to the top of the Red Chair where she asked the lifites where she could find the T-bars, where she was supposed to be working. They pointed her in the right direction and she asked, “Ok, how do you ski?” She was told, “Go straight until you fall, get up, and do it again.” Although she soon switched to working the gondola, she did get better at skiing with more practice.

Over the next few years, Cherie worked on various lifts and at different jobs for the lift company, though her favourite was that of lift supervisor during the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camps. She would drive up to Midstation in an “old army truck” to start up the gondola and the Red Chair and was usually done her shift by about 2 o’clock, when it was time for windsurfing on Alta Lake. During the day, she and a small team would do jobs such as painting lifts or removing rocks from runs.

Just before Cherie returned from Ontario in the summer of 1979 following her recuperation, her father gave her money to buy a car as he didn’t want her riding her bike on the highway anymore. She bought a Honda Civic in Vancouver and, after thinking about what she wanted to do upon returning to Whistler, decided that she would start a courier service and Whistler Courier Service was born.

Cherie when she answered the Whistler Question’s Whistler’s Answers Question in 1983. Whistler Question Collection, 1983

On Friday, August 10, Cherie began offering delivery and pickup services in Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler three days a week. She charged customers $15 for a delivery to Vancouver (with an additional $2 for each additional stop) and $7 to Squamish (extra stops were only $1). According to her advertisement in the Whistler Question, there was “No job too big or small” and she offered to drop off bank deposits, mail, tools to be repaired, groceries and more. She even took dogs to the vet in Squamish and remembered all of the dogs being very well behaved in the car.

According to Cherie, as the Whistler Village was developed her jobs became more professional and she had more work delivering documents such as plans and drawings between Whistler and Vancouver. By spring of 1981, she was operating two runs five days a week and even hired another driver, Brian McPherson, and moved from her own landline into an office.

Cherie continued to run Whistler Courier until she was approached by Jeff Wuolle, the owner of Twin Peaks property management company, who offered to buy part of her company in exchange for part of his. After that, Cherie was no longer involved in the operations of the courier service as she began to learn more about property management and later moved away from Whistler.

You can learn more about the Great Snow Earth Water Race, which Cherie took part in, at our temporary exhibit now on display at the Whistler Museum through June 19.

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Planning for Adventures on Alta LakePlanning for Adventures on Alta Lake

May 27, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

When we hear stories about Adventures West at the Whistler Museum, most of them tend to centre on the Keg Restaurant and the memorable hours that people spent there. The restaurant, however, was just one part of a much larger plan for the area that began development in the early 1970s.

Construction began on the Adventures West Village (AWV) development in mid-September 1971, though planning started much earlier. According to a 1972 article in The Vancouver Sun, Richard Street and Alta Lake Ltd., the company that was developing Adventures West, spent years researching the Alta Lake area and potential markets before taking seven months to select the site for the project. They reportedly chose the 52 acre site at the north end of Alta Lake because of its location along the shore of the lake and the banks of the River of Golden Dreams. Finally, they drew up plans and started the first phase of the proposed $5 million complex (just under $40 million today when adjusted for inflation).

Concept drawing for the Adventures West Village. Adventures West Collection

The original plans for AWV were grand, including 250 condominium units, a playpark for children, sports fields, tennis courts, a swimming pool, beach, boat harbour, novice ski hill, toboggan chutes, skating ponds, snowmobile course, and the Adventure Inn, which would include a sports shop, equipment rentals, “groceteria,” bar, lounge, and administrative offices. The first phase, which they expected to have completed by December 1971 and operational in January 1972, included the first 30 units, utilities and roads, and the ski hill, beach and playpark. The rest of the units and facilities were planned to be constructed over the following three years.

Its affordability was one of the main selling points featured in articles and advertisements for AWV. The tagline on a promotional booklet proclaimed it as “the possible dream” and claimed that “Adventures West condominiums are the complete family vacation home package… offering carefree vacation living at low cost.” Along with low purchase prices beginning at around $12,000 (about $96,000 today), AWV offered a rental program that owners could choose to take part in to recoup some of the cost. AWV would handle all of the administration, supplies, marketing and cleaning and units would be rented out while not in use by the owners; revenue would be split between the company and the owner.

The site plan for Adventures West Village covered a lot more property than was developed. Adventures West Collection

The first units of Phase I were completed on schedule and available for owners and visitors in early 1972. To encourage mid-week visitors, AWV, like quite a few of the lodges in the ski area, offered a ski-week package. For $75, the ski-week included five nights accommodation at AWV, lift tickets for Whistler Mountain, two meals each day, transportation to and from the ski hill, and apres ski activities such as a wine-cheese-pizza party, singalongs, and moonlight snowmobiling, all kicked off on Sunday night with a “get-acquainted party” open to guests and Alta Lake residents. Jim McConkey, who ran the ski school at the time, would even make an appearance at these parties with some of his ski instructors. They would show ski films and answer any questions guests might have. A $65 ski-week was almost the same, except that the ski days were divided between Whistler Mountain and the small novice ski hill beside AWV.

Adventures West’s location on Alta Lake also made it a popular summer option and in 1972 it also began serving as the accommodation for the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camps, which had previously been housed at the Highland Lodge, Cheakamus Inn and Christiana Inn. Though the development was not complete, they had built a beach area from which campers and other guests could go swimming, windsurfing, and more. As a resort, AWV offered various summer excursions, including trail rides up Rainbow Mountain, lift rides up Whistler Mountain and lunch at the Roundhouse, and boating down the Green River.

Over the next few summers, AWV announced plans to build more units and some of the other promised features, such as the boat harbour and swimming pool, as part of Phase II. The Adventure Inn building opened in the summer of 1974, including Whistler’s first Keg ‘N Cleaver restaurant. While some more units were built, the entirety of the AWV development was never realised.

One section of the Keg Restaurant building is moved from Adventures West up Lorimer Road to its current home on Blackcomb Way. Whistler Question Collection, 1981

The creation of the Resort Municipality of Whistler in 1975 and the subsequent planning of the Whistler Village focused development at the base of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains and over time the rest of AWV’s 52 acres were sold off. In May 1981, the Keg building was broken into three parts and moved to its current location on Blackcomb Way, where it still serves today as Municipal Hall.

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Moving Up to WhistlerMoving Up to Whistler

May 20, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

When we hear stories of people coming to the Whistler area and staying past a season it is not often that we hear of someone who first lived in the Whistler valley not because of the snow or the natural beauty, but because of the affordable housing.

In the early 1970s, when summers in the area were quiet and many people left town, Bert Melsness was working in heavy construction in the Squamish area. The company that he worked for was obligated to pay for accommodation for employees from outside of the area, either by paying for a hotel or by providing an allowance. Bert and another employee decided to use the allowance to rent a place together. They discovered that it would be cheaper for them to rent a house on Matterhorn Drive (in Alpine Meadows) for the summer than it would be to rent a house in Squamish.

Whistler Mountain’s grooming fleet in the 1980s. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection

Apart from the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp on Whistler Mountain, it was a quiet time in the area recreationally. Bert recalled that there were a few houses being built, but a lot of the activity was forestry related and concentrated around tow logging camps, one in Function Junction and another at Mons.

A few year later, Bert moved to Whistler permanently and took a job with Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. fixing and maintaining the lift company’s grooming equipment. Bert got his start as a “basic grease monkey” working on the delivery fleet for Woodward’s in Vancouver, learning as he worked. According to him, the truck shop’s foreman was an “ex-airforce type” who ensured that all scheduled maintenance was done correctly and as required, with no cutting of corners. He spent six years working on the groomers before switching to lift maintenance for a year. He was also part of the group from Whistler Mountain in 1980 that, along with a group from Blackcomb Mountain, provided some of the labour to install Whistler’s first northside lifts and Blackcomb’s first lifts. As well as working for the lift company, Bert worked for the contractors working on the Whistler Golf Course, the crews building the roads in Bayshores, Sabre and more.

Blasting work is carried out on lots for Bayshores

Like many Whistler residents, Bert moved around a bit before ending up in a cabin right at the south end of Alta Lake. At the time, BC Rail owned much of the land along Alta Lake Road and the railroad tacks and properties were leased from the rail company. According to Bert, the cabin that he lived in had been built by Norman Fairhurst, who held the lease from BC Rail. Living on the lake afforded Bert easy fishing access and a friendly relationship with the “railroad guys,” especially as he was just down the track from the Stationhouse. He became very familiar with the rail schedule, remembering six heavy trains running each day along with passenger service on Budd cars. When Disney was filming a Depression-era movie in the area, they used an old locomotive that they would park not far from his cabin. One day, he heard the sounds of a steam engine and went outside to discover the Royal Hudson switching cars on the nearby siding. In conversation with the engineer, he was told that driving the Royal Hudson from North Vancouver to Squamish at about 35 mph was “like putting a taxi cab sign on a Ferrari.” The locomotive, which had been designed to cruise at a much higher speed, could not get up to its full potential on the winding track.

The Royal Hudson heads south towards Vancouver on one of its first runs of the 1981 summer season. Whistler Question Collection

By the early 2000s, BC Rail was looking to develop some of the land that it owned in the Whistler area and in exchange had transferred ownership of its property on the lakeside of the tracks to the RMOW, including leases such as Bert’s. His lease was ended and he was offered first pick at one of the RMOW’s new developments. Looking back, Bert said that living on the lake did have one major drawback: if he hadn’t had that deal on the cabin he might have gotten into the real estate market much earlier.

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When Wylie Came to WhistlerWhen Wylie Came to Whistler

May 13, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

When Doug Wylie first came to the Whistler area in April 1971, it was for just a short visit. He and his wife stayed at Doug McDonald’s Alpine Lodge in Garibaldi and enjoyed four days of skiing on Whistler Mountain before Doug reported to his new engineering job on Vancouver Island, which he remembers starting with an “absolutely sunburned face.”

Doug had grown up skiing in Ontario but after skiing at Sunshine in Alberta knew that he wanted to move west for the big mountains. After he finished grad school he took a job in Victoria (which he hadn’t fully realised was on an island) and soon after bought a lot at Forbidden Plateau where they built an A-frame and their daughters learned to ski.

Most winters, Doug would come over to ski on Whistler two or three times with the Victoria branch of the Alpine Club of Canada. The group would pile into a van and arrive on Friday night, hiking up to the club cabin from the parking lot. They would ski for the weekend and then return to the Island.

The Whistler Question’s official portrait of the newest RMOW employee. Whistler Question Collection, 1981

The Club Cabin area was located just next to Whistler Mountain in what is now Nordic Estates. When lifts were first planned for Whistler in 1964, planners for the area and the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) also planned to create a specific area where outdoor clubs could build cabins for their members to use. This would help ensure that the lift company had customers. By the time the provincial government officially granted permission for this use and sent out surveyors in late summer 1965, the first club cabin in that area, that of UBC’s Varsity Outdoor Club, was already under construction on a lot that they had surveyed themselves.

With no road access, Club Cabin users walked in with all of their things, just as UBC VOC members carried in their building supplies. Karl Ricker Collection

Other clubs (including SFU, BC Hydro and the Alpine Club) also began building cabins, though they were not accessible by road and shared a parking area next to the highway, near the current pedestrian bridge. The area was redeveloped beginning in 1982 and, in the mid 1980s, the area was renamed Nordic Estates.

Doug returned to Whistler in time to witness this redevelopment. After Vancouver Island, the Wylie family moved to Prince George for two years where Doug worked as a municipal engineer. As Doug recalls, he attended a staff meeting one day and somebody left an ad on the table for a municipal engineer in Whistler. When everybody left, the ad was still on the table and so Doug put it in his pocket and applied for the position.

Doug was interviewed for the job by Al Raine, then an alderman on the Whistler council. They walked along the railway tracks and Al pointed out the sewers and described municipal projects, and then Doug was invited to a party that Al and Nancy were throwing that evening. Doug had previously met Nancy at his university’s sports banquet when he was a member of the ski racing team and, when reminded of her attendance, Nancy was able to pull out the gift she had been given as guest of honour: a “sterling silver engraved box for putting cigarettes or cigars in.” After the party, Doug managed to lock the keys for his rental car inside the car and had to get Al to come help him get into the car at 2 o’clock in the morning. He was still offered the job.

Doug Wylie takes part in the Great Snow Earth Water Race (he did the water part). Photo courtesy of Doug Wylie

Doug started working for the Resort Municipality of Whistler in May 1981, just a few weeks before Muni Hall was moved to Function Junction and the Keg building was moved from Alta Lake. The RMOW had a very small staff and so over the next few years the engineering department was responsible for the sewage treatment plant, water systems, park construction and the early stages of the Valley Trail.

During his time with the RMOW, Doug was also part of founding the Blackcomb Ski Club, worked on the fire department, and became a Weasel Worker, even serving as “Chief of Transportation” for the 1984 World Cup Downhill. Though he left the RMOW in the late 1980s to work for West Vancouver, he continued to spend his weekends in the mountains and moved back full-time after retiring.

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