Whistler Museum and Archives Society

Before the Fitzsimmons ExpressBefore the Fitzsimmons Express

October 25, 2022 Whistler Museum 2 Comments

With a new eight-person chair announced to replace the four-person Fitzsimmons (Fitz) Express chairlift (pending approvals) we take a look back at how mountain access from Whistler Village has changed.

The first lift from Whistler Village opened for the 1980/81 season, around the same time the Town Centre opened and lifts on Blackcomb started turning. Prior to this, everyone accessed Whistler Mountain from the area known today as Creekside. When Garibaldi’s Whistler Mountain officially opened in January 1966, it had a four-person gondola, the original double Red Chair and two T-Bars.

*Whistler Mountain trail map from 1966 or 1967. Whistler Mountain Collection.*

Trees were eventually cleared on Whistler Mountain for the aspirationally-named Olympic Run, however skiers who skied down the north side of Whistler Mountain were only met with a garbage dump where the Village now sits and had to catch the bus back to Creekside. Olympic Run generally only opened on weekends when the bus was running, otherwise skiers had to hitchhike back to Creekside.

Janet Love Morrison described being a rebel and skiing the closed run on a school trip. “I remember we went under the rope to ski the Little Olympic Run and we were really cool until we got to the bottom and had absolutely no way to get back to Creekside. Suddenly we were super scared because we knew we had to get back to get to the bus, because we went to school in Port Coquitlam.” Finding no cars or people at the base of the mountain, the grade eight students followed a gravel road to Highway 99 where they were picked up by a tow truck driver. They proceeded to get a dressing down by the driver and then their teachers, a first-hand experience that helped when Janet was writing Radar the Rescue Dog.

*The garbage dump at the base of Whistler Mountain, where the Village is today. Whistler Question Collection.*

When the lifts from the Village finally went in for the 1980/81 season multiple chairlifts were required to make it to the top. To get to the Roundhouse from Skiers Plaza, skiers first took the Village Chair, which finished slightly higher in elevation than today’s Fitz, and then skied down to Olympic Chair. Olympic Chair is still the original chair from 1980, however it was shortened in 1989 to service strictly the beginner terrain. Originally Olympic Chair met Black Chair at the bottom of Ptarmigan. If you wanted to continue on to the Roundhouse or Peak, Black Chair dropped skiers where the top of Garbanzo is today, then skiers would ski down and take Red or Green Chairs to the top. Four lifts to get to the Roundhouse and they were all slow fixed grip lifts, not the high-speed lifts that service the mountains today. (Olympic Chair, Magic Chair and Franz’s Chair are the only remaining fixed grip chairs in Whistler.)

*Before Fitzsimmons Express and the Whistler Express Gondola, skiers could upload on the Village Chair. Whistler Mountain Collection.*

Uploading from Whistler Village was simplified in 1988 when the Whistler Express Gondola replaced the four chairlifts, taking skiers and sightseers straight from the Village to the Roundhouse, in a gondola (apparently) designed to hold ten people.

The four-person Fitz that we know and love was built in 1999 and, together with Garbanzo, eliminated the need for the Black Chair. Prior to 1999, the biking on Whistler Mountain was predominately run by private enterprise, notably Eric Wight of Whistler Backroads, who mostly used the Whistler Express Gondola to access terrain. When the Bike Park was taken over by Whistler Blackcomb in 1999 and further developed, Fitz began to be used to access the Bike Park throughout summer, as the sport rapidly grew. These days the Bike Park sees way over 100,000 riders a year, most of whom who access the terrain from Fitz Express.

If Fitz is upgraded next summer it will be the start of a new era, greatly increasing the number of riders and skiers arriving at midstation.

Whistler's Answers

Whistler’s Answers: October 20, 1983Whistler’s Answers: October 20, 1983

October 20, 2022 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

In the 1980s the Whistler Question began posing a question to three to six people and publishing their responses under “Whistler’s Answers” (not to be confused with the Whistler Answer). Each week, we’ll be sharing one question and the answers given back in 1983. Please note, all names/answers/occupations/neighbourhoods represent information given to the Question at the time of publishing and do not necessarily reflect the person today.

Some context for this week’s question: When construction began on the Whistler Convention Centre, plans included a swimming pool, an ice rink, saunas, racquetball and squash courts, a restaurant and more. By 1983, when it had been taken over by the Crown corporation Whistler Land Co. Developments and redesigned under Chester Johnson, most of the extra facilities had been eliminated. Find out more about the early plans for the building here.

Question: Is the new Whistler Convention Centre design adequate?

Doug Greenwood – Hotel Manager – Whistler Cay

From the beginning the centre was designed wrong. It should be just a convention centre. It would be nice to have an ice rink, but that wouldn’t stimulate jobs. I don’t understand why it can’t be ready sooner (before April ’85). There’s men available and 24 hours in a day.

Ron McCready – Restaurant Manager – Whistler

I think it’s great. The vast majority of people at the meeting were pleased. My only disappointment is that the convention centre won’t be open in time for next winter. The design is great, it’s exactly what’s needed.

Laurie Vance – Hotel Employee – Alpine Meadows

I think it’s wonderful I’m sorry they’re not putting in a swimming pool, that would have been nice. But it wouldn’t help Whistler if everyone complained about it. The time frame is as fast as they can do it.

Framing WhistlerFraming Whistler

October 18, 2022 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

Today you are less likely to come across and A-frame in Whistler than you would have been a few decades ago. However, the once widely popular structure can still be spotted throughout Whistler’s older neighbourhoods and found in many photographs of Whistler’s mountain resort past in the Whistler Museum’s archival collections.

While A-frames have historically been used for various purposes around the world, the A-frame did not become widespread in North America until after the Second World War. It then became a popular vacation home for affluent middle class households, especially in the mountains. A-frames were relatively simple to build and were soon available in prefabricated kits. This popularity continued through the 1960s when Whistler Mountain was first being developed as a ski resort, so it is no surprise that A-frames began to appear throughout the area soon after development began.

*The Whistler Skiers’ Chapel at the base of Whistler Mountain. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection.*

Some of the A-frames built in Whistler at the time were constructed right at the base of the Whistler Mountain lifts, including the Whistler Skiers’ Chapel, the first interdenominational chapel in Canada. The Whistler Skiers’ Chapel was constructed in 1966 after the first shortened season of skiing on Whistler Mountain. It was inspired by the memories of lift company president Franz Wilhelmsen who recalled small chapels in the ski villages of Norway where he had skied as a child. The lift company donated land near the gondola base and the A-frame design of the Chapel was provided free of charge of Asbjorn Gathe. Like Wilhelmsen, Gathe had been born in Norway. He studied architecture at the Federal Institute of Technology at the University of Zurich and then immigrated to Vancouver in 1951, where he worked as an architect. The Chapel was easily identifiable at the gondola base thanks to both its A-frame structure and its stained glass windows designed by Donald Babcock.

*One of the A-frames built by the lift company to house their managers. Wallace Collection.*

In 1966, the lift company also built two A-frames at the gondola base to serve as staff housing for its manager and their families (at the time, the Bright and Mathews families). The houses were situated right on the hill and Lynn Mathews, whose husband Dave was operations manager, recalled that their A-frame had seventeen steps up to the deck in the summer but only three in the winter when snow built up around them.

*The Burrows’ A-frame on Matterhorn, where the first editions of the Whistler Question were created. Burrows Collection.*

A-frames were popular away from the gondola base as well. When Don and Isobel MacLaurin built what at the time was their holiday home in the 1960s, they chose to build an A-frame themselves with help from local residents such as Murray Coates and Ron Mackie and beams from a 1915 school in Squamish that was being torn down. Similarly, when Paul and Jane Burrows moved to Whistler full-time in the 1970s they decided to build an A-frame in Alpine Meadows. Like many of the A-frame homes in Whistler, both these A-frames and the managers’ houses at Whistler Mountain later had extensions added onto them, changing the A-frame shape.

These are just a few of the A-frames pictured in the museum’s collections and while they may no longer look quite like the classic A-frame, some of them are still standing in Whistler today.

Whistler's Answers

Whistler’s Answers: October 13, 1983Whistler’s Answers: October 13, 1983

October 13, 2022 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

In the 1980s the Whistler Question began posing a question to three to six people and publishing their responses under “Whistler’s Answers” (not to be confused with the Whistler Answer). Each week, we’ll be sharing one question and the answers given back in 1983. Please note, all names/answers/occupations/neighbourhoods represent information given to the Question at the time of publishing and do not necessarily reflect the person today.

Some context for this week’s question: On October 6, 1983, Dave Barrett, NDP MLA for Vancouver East and former Premier of BC from 1972 to 1975, was forcibly removed from the Legislative Assembly chamber by the Sergeant-At-Arms staff after repeatedly disregarding the authority of the Speaker during a debate on the Social Credit government’s Public Sector Restraint Act, 1983. The bill proposed major cutbacks in social services, education, and labour and had led to demonstrations and work stoppages throughout the summer and fall. Barret, who had announced his resignation as leader of the NDP in May 1983 but agreed to stay on until the end of the year, was serving as Opposition Leader. This was the first time that an MLA had to be forcibly removed from BC’s Legislative Assembly. The bill received Royal Assent on October 12, 1983.

Question: What do you think of recent activities in the legislature?

Marilyn Willoughby – Mom – Alpine Meadows

To be quite honest, I don’t pay much attention. People love to complain. It seems that whoever gets in, there’s the same problem.

Mike Litwyn – Developer – Victoria

It’s politics. Two parties fighting for space in the newspapers. I wasn’t suprised to see what happened (Barrett’s ejection from the house). BC has been that way for years. I think the legislation will get through, but watered down a little.

Jim Tabrett – Log Builder – Emerald Estates

I think it’s typical of Bennett’s whole attitude toward his mandate to rule by any means he sees fit. They’ve opened the door to a lot of political ballyhooing. These people are supposed to be our guides.