Tag: Blackcomb Mountain

Building a Fortress: Part IIIBuilding a Fortress: Part III

July 29, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

When Dave and Lynn Mathews and Hugh Smythe arrived at Fortress Mountain in September 1974, their goal was to turn the ski area around and make it saleable. Snowridge, as it was called at the time, had declared bankruptcy in 1973 and been put up for judicial sale by the Federal Business Development Bank (FBDB). Over the 1974/75 ski season, Dave, Lynn, Hugh and their employees turned Fortress into a successful ski resort, which meant that the time had come to sell the operation for the FBDB.

When Dave and Hugh met with Ken Miller of FBDB about selling Fortress, they suggested that they approach Aspen Skiing Corp (later Aspen Ski Co), then the largest ski company in North America and considered “the top of the pecking order.” A small ski area in Alberta seemed like an unlikely investment for Aspen, but a series of events in Colorado made it a surprisingly good time to approach the company.

According to Hugh, they had heard that Darcy Brown, the president of Aspen, was having trouble getting some approvals for developments they wanted to do at Snowmass and so was looking at other potential projects. He was even reported to have made a statement at a public meeting about taking Aspen’s money out of not just the county but the country, which made it seem like an ideal time to approach the company. They traveled to Colorado to pitch Fortress to Darcy and in 1975 Aspen decided to buy half of the ski resort, leaving the other half with the FBDB.

Aspen President Darcy Brown, Mayor Pat Carleton and Aspen’s Jerry Blann at breakfast in Whistler. Whistler Question, 1979

Once the sale was completed, Dave and Lynn took a bit of time off and then returned to Whistler to manage the Whistler Inn and Resort for Jack and Ann Bright. In June 1975, Aspen asked Hugh to continue managing Fortress. He decided to stay and, like he had while working for Garibaldi Lifts Ltd., began taking night school classes to learn more about the business side of skiing, this time at SAIT in Calgary.

Over the next few years at Fortress, Hugh got Aspen to invest in the resort’s first triple chair (Aspen needed some convincing that with mazing, singles lines, and clear instructions, triple chairs could be fully loaded) and Fortress began to make a profit. Then, in 1977, a couple of things happened that would influence Whistler’s development; Paul Mathews contacted Hugh and suggest that they work together on a development proposal for Blackcomb Mountain and 20th Century Fox made a lot of money off of the success of Star Wars merchandising.

Jerry Blann and Hugh Smythe from Fortress Mountain Resorts present the Blackcomb development to the public in November 1978. Whistler Question Collection, 1978

Though the official call for proposals for Blackcomb had not yet been put out by the province of British Columbia, Paul and Hugh, along with engineer Ken Farquharson, began putting together a bid. To secure financing, they decided to pitch it to the Aspen board of directors. While that pitch didn’t get very far with the board, Al Raine, then in charge of provincial ski area coordination, reached out to Jerry Blann, who worked in planning for Aspen. Aspen then became interested in Blackcomb and Hugh had to make what he described as “a critical decision in [his] career,” whether to continue with Paul and Ken or stick with his employer. Like at Fortress in 1975, he decided to stay with Aspen.

Skiers head up on Blackcomb’s opening day, December 4, 1980. Greg Griffith Collection

In 1978, 20th Century Fox used the profits from Star Wars to diversify and bought Aspen. Also in 1978, the province chose the bid from Aspen and development began on Blackcomb Mountain, meaning Hugh returned to Whistler as competition for his previous employer, Garibaldi Lifts. The opening of Blackcomb Mountain on December 4, 1980 was part of an era of huge change and development in Whistler when, with the construction of the Whistler Village, Whistler began to look more like the resort you see today. It is possible, however, that Whistler would be quite different if Dave, Lynn and Hugh hadn’t decided to reopen a “derelict ski area” in Alberta back in 1974.

READ MOREREAD MORE

Before Whistler KidsBefore Whistler Kids

April 22, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

For many kids who grew up skiing on Whistler or Blackcomb Mountains in the 1980s and ’90s, attending ski school could be an important life experience that formed unforgettable childhood memories. Whether you attended Kids Kamp or Ski Scamps depended on which mountain you (or, really, your parents) skied and, though it wasn’t something that most students noticed, the two schools were part of the competition between the two ski hills.

Ski Scamps was introduced on Whistler Mountain for the winter of 1983/84 in response to Blackcomb’s Kids Kamp, a ski school designed specifically for children. According to Mike Hurst, who began working for Whistler Mountain as a marketing consultant by 1982, Blackcomb was “a very competitive entity” from its early operations. This meant that if Blackcomb had a program targeting families, Whistler had to have one too. Whistler was able to find space and reorient some of their existing instructors with the help of ski school director Bob Dufour while Hurst secured sponsorship for the program from 7-Eleven.

Ski Scamps on Whistler Mountain in the program’s first season, 1983/84. Greg Griffith Collection

Though Whistler already had a ski school and offered lessons, Ski Scamps was a bit different. Instead of a private or small group lesson, it offered a full-day program throughout the season with different levels based on ability and special events, and included lunch. It was designed for children aged three to twelve and season pass holders could even buy a $190 Scampers Pass that, along with their lift pass, offered unlimited access to Ski Scamps programs and lessons. Parents could drop their young skiers off in the morning and pick them up again at the end of the day after a full day on the hill.

One of those young skiers was Mercedes Nicoll, who began attending Ski Scamps in 1986 at the age of three. Though her family lived in Toronto at the time, her parents had had a place in Whistler since the 1970s and they would always come back for Christmas holidays and spring break. Whenever they came back, Mercedes would go skiing in Ski Scamps. According to an oral history interview in 2024, Mercedes loved Ski Scamps, though apparently her parents and babysitters might remember it a little differently. As hard as it might have been to get her there in the morning, Mercedes recalled coming home with a huge smile on her face.

A Ski Scamps skier shows off her green circle bib. Whistler Resort Association Collection

Ski Scamps had different difficulty levels through which skiers would progress but, because her family did not stay for the entire season, Mercedes remembered she was “a red star forever, there was no getting rid of that bib.” She fondly recalled the structure at the learning area where they would eat lunch, often grilled cheese or hot dogs. According to her, “I remember it just smelling of sweaty gloves, but we were all in it together and it was amazing.”

One of Mercedes’ memories from her Ski Scamps days happened (as many do) on Pony Trail one Christmas Eve. She couldn’t remember exactly how it happened, but she knocked out one of her front teeth with her pole, leaving blood everywhere on the run. Luckily for her, her next door neighbour in Whistler was a dentist who told her family that they had to go to the dentist in Squamish as she had knocked it back to the nerve and could feel it every time she breathed. As Mercedes put it, “There’s little bits of the mountain where I have childhood core memories from, good or bad.”

Halpipes like this one built on Blackcomb’s Horstman Glacier in 1994 were a great training ground for new snowboarders. Blackcomb Mountain Collection, Randy Lincks, 1994

This incident and her time spent as a red star didn’t hold Mercedes back on the mountain. After her family moved to Whistler permanently in 1995, she began snowboarding with some of her friends. She started entering local competitions and doing well, leading to a long career as a professional snowboarder and a four-time Olympian competing in the half-pipe.

After Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains merged under Intrawest in 1997, Kids Kamp and Ski Scamps came together to form Whistler Kids. Mercedes still sees some of her Ski Scamps instructors out on the mountain and, when she sees classes of kids skiing or snowboarding, can’t help thinking, “Oh, they’re living their best lives, they don’t even know it yet.”

READ MOREREAD MORE

It’s a Small WorldIt’s a Small World

April 1, 2025 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

Last month we shared a story about Whistler residents encountering each other while traveling when, in 1984, Inge and Jens Nielsen discovered Chuck Blaylock was piloting their flight back from Europe. It’s also not uncommon for visitors or residents to come across someone in Whistler who they know from outside the valley, often long before they moved to the area. In the 1990s, this phenomenon happened to Karen Vagelatos when she dropped her kids off at ski school.

Karen grew up in the Vancouver area and first visited Alta Lake as a teenager in the summer of 1963 when she, her cousin Bob Calladine, and their racing coach Lorne O’Connor were part of a group that climbed up Whistler Mountain and were filmed skiing Whistler Bowl. Karen learned to ski at the age of three (not surprising as her father had a popular ski shop in downtown Vancouver for many years) and was a member of the Canada National Ski Team from 1964 to 1968, competing in two Olympic Winter Games.

Karen is seen next to Nancy Greene during the 1969 Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection

After retiring from racing, Karen coached for the Whistler Mountain Ski Club and the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp and even when living in Vancouver continued to visit the area regularly, first staying with friends and then buying a cabin. Her family moved up full-time in 1995.

By 1995, Karen and her family had moved over to Blackcomb Mountain and were members of the Blackcomb Ski Club. When asked why she made the switch after such a long history on Whistler, Karen explained that is was not as much about the terrain as it was the chairlifts; Whistler was still running double chairs while Blackcomb had triples, which meant that she and her husband could each take two of their four young kids instead of sending them up with other skiers.

A Kids Kamp lesson on Blackcomb Mountain. Blackcomb Mountain Collection

This switch meant that her children attended Blackcomb’s Kids Kamp and when taking them in one she came across none other than Florence Petersen at reception. Karen happened to be with someone she went to high school with who pointed out Florence as “Flossie,” their PE teacher in Burnaby for grades 11 and 12.

It might seem strange to some to call a teacher by a nickname, but Florence was known to quite a few of here students as Flossie. Florence attended Burnaby North Secondary School before doing her teacher training at the Vancouver Normal School. At the time, most new teachers would spend a few years teaching at a one-room school after completing their training before they applied for positions in the larger city schools. However, there was a shortage of trained PE teachers in the late 1940s. Florence was one of only a few in her year who completed the extra course to be qualified, meaning she went straight into teaching at city secondary schools.

Florence’s first position was as a PE teacher at a school in Coquitlam, where she was only a year older than some of her oldest students. After two years, she moved to Burnaby North, her alma mater, where she taught for the next fifteen years. When she first arrived back at Burnaby North, she found herself teaching former schoolmates who had been young students when she graduated. Looking back in 2007, she recalled “I have to thank them all for being very respectful” and calling her Ms Strachan in class and Flossie outside of school.

Florence and Don Gow on the Burnt Stew Hike in the 1950s where Burnt Stew Basin was given its name. Gow Collection

Florence later transitioned into counselling and went first to Moscrop Junior High and then Burnaby South Secondary School before retiring in 1983 after 36 years as a teacher.

In 1955, while teaching at Burnaby North, Florence and fellow teachers and friends Betty Gray (Shore), June Tidball (Collins), Kelly Forster (Fairhurst) and Jacquie Pope purchased Witsend, a cottage on Alta Lake that they would visit regularly until it was destroyed by a fire in 1965. Florence moved up permanently when she retired, joining her husband Andy Petersen who had already been living in their Whistler property full-time.

As well as becoming Whistler’s first marriage commissioner and a founding force behind the Whistler Museum, Florence could sometimes be found working in places such as the Kids Kamp building, where Karen Vagelatos came across her. Though Karen had not known about Florence’s connection to Alta Lake, after this first meeting she would regularly see her around Whistler. Looking back, she recalled Florence as a great but demanding PE teacher with high expectations of her students.

READ MOREREAD MORE

The Great 2×4 Race: Part IIThe Great 2×4 Race: Part II

December 24, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Last week we introduced “The Great 2×4 Race,” a ski challenge to Dave Murray from Whistler Question sports columnist Doug Sack in 1984. As a very new skier, Sack’s challenge to the Crazy Canuck was ambitious, even if Murray would be strapped to two 2×4 planks.

On December 13, 1984, Sack used his “Inside Edge” column to report on his first experience on the hill. According to him, his first bash at skiing last week could roughly be called a success in that I got back down alive off Whistler.” It wasn’t all bad and Sack was determined to continue, despite the steep learning curve, adding that “the scenery ain’t bad either.” Sack continued to report on his skiing progress over the next few months, building up interest in the coming race by exaggerating his failures, triumphs, and the developing worrylines of Murray.

Early in the new year, Sack got some professional help with his endeavour, beginning with a lesson on Skidder on Blackcomb Mountain from Nancy Greene and leading to his announcement on January 17 that we “the weekday King of Lower Gandy Dancer!” (Sack also, in the same article, addressed Greene to ask “What are the poles for?”) Continuing to practice on Blackcomb (specifically on Skidder for two weeks), Sack progressed to longer runs and longer skis, trying out blue runs and 190s in February and likening the experience to “driving a load of timber downhill with no brakes.”

Doug Sack shows off his “ski look.” Whistler Question Collection, 1985

In March, Sack finally got his own brand new pair of skis instead of the rentals he had been using. While attending the Volvo Ski Show, Sack got talking to Casey Niewerth, owner of Skyline Sports stores in Vancouver, Whistler’s Mountain’s original Jolly Green Giant, and, luckily for Sack, then the Canadian sales rep for RD (Research Dynamic) Skis’ new Coyote skis out of Sun Valley, Idaho. Niewerth arranged for a pair of 200 Coyotes for Sack as he set about learning the art of gates from Blackcomb Ski Club coach Dave Kerwynn.

Gate training began with a run down the GS course with no instruction, letting Kerwynn get an idea of what he was working with. From there, the pair worked to correct mistakes and improve Sack’s time. His first runs and wipe outs down a race course gave Sack a new perspective on ski racing, a sport that he had not previously spent much time following. On March 28, Sack wrote: “Ski racing very well could be the ultimate pinnacle of athletic challenge and satisfaction. The thin razor’s edge is so clearly defined: if you go too fast, you wipe out; if you don’t go fast enough, you struck out.”

Casey Niewerth holds a ski as Dave Murray “cuts the ribbon” at the opening of the Kerrisdale Skyline Sports in 1979, six years before he arranged skis for Doug Sack. Whistler Question Collection, 1979

Over the early months of 1985, plans for the race solidified. A date was chosen (April 22, 1985) and a format decided on. Though Murray nixed the anvil and anchor that Sack had originally proposed, he did consent to race on the two 2×4 planks that had been dubbed “Crazy Canuck Demos.”

Despite challenging a former national ski team member and current Director of Skiing to a race, Sack did not expect to become a highly proficient or technical skier in his first season, calling that goal “hopeless.” Instead, he reportedly wanted to claim bragging rights by being able to “ski gates fast enough to make Murray wipeout on his 2×4’s” and become a good enough skier to “cover the national championships on mountain and get back down to the bottom alive,” a reasonable goal for a sports reporter in a town that hosted World Cup races and took skiing and ski racing quite seriously.

We’ll be back next week with race results and a conclusion to the unique race on Whistler Mountain.

READ MOREREAD MORE