Tag: Blackcomb Mountain

Blackcomb Mountain: The Summer of ’89Blackcomb Mountain: The Summer of ’89

June 4, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

While we might be used to busy summers in Whistler these days, in the 1970s and into the 1980s visitor numbers would drop dramatically after the ski season ended in the late spring. As Whistler grew, the Whistler Resort Association and other businesses and groups worked to make summers busier and transform Whistler into a four-season resort (you can learn more about the activities of the WRA on June 12 when the museum will be joined by Al Raine and Drew Meredith to discuss the origins and early years of the WRA). By 1989, it appears that their efforts had been somewhat successful, at least when looking at the summer season on Blackcomb Mountain.

Hikers and bikers meet on a trail during the summer months. Blackcomb Mountain Collection, 1989

According to the Blabcomb, Blackcomb Mountain’s employee newsletter, the summer of 1989 got off to a chilly start and, though there were good days, the colder than usual weather continued throughout the season. During the previous summer, Blackcomb had received 30,107 skier visits and 61,598 non-skier visits. In 1989, however, they expected the numbers to be slightly lower as the season would be a couple of weeks shorts and Whistler Mountain would be competing for visitors (the construction of the Whistler Express gondola meant that Whistler Mountain had not been operating as usual over the summer of 1988).

Along with sightseeing and hiking, Blackcomb offered various activities and events from June through September 4 when summer operations ended. Ski school programs continued on the glacier with beginner lessons for $35 (including lift ticket, lesson and rentals) and private lessons ranging from $80 to $210. There were also various camps throughout the summer that operated on the glacier. The Labatt’s Blue Summer Challenge Ski Race Series ran throughout July and the Canadian Summer Snowboard Championships took place on Blackcomb from July 13 to 15.

Competitors head up Blackcomb Mountain next to the giant Labatt’s can during the 2nd Annual Labatt’s Can-Am Mountain Bike Challenge. Blackcomb Mountain Collection, 1989

Skis and snowboards were not the only equipment transported up lifts that summer. Though the Whistler Mountain Bike Park is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, bikes were transported up lifts well before 1999. The summer of 1989 was at least the second year that mountain biking played a large role in Blackcomb’s operations. Bikes were uploaded via the Wizard and Solar Coaster Chairs (and, later in the summer, 7th Heaven, though that was for expert riders only) from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. $5 tours ran twice daily from the Rendezvous Lodge, though riders could also purchase a sightseeing pass and try out the Blackcomb bike trails on their own. If you had your own bike and seasons pass, it could cost as little as $5 to head up the lifts.

Like the Ski Race Series, the BCR Mountain Bike Race Series ran throughout July and into August. This was followed in mid-August by the 2nd Annual Labatt’s Can-Am Mountain Bike Challenge, which included the World Mountain Bike Polo Championship, and later by the Kokanee Glacier Light Prestige Biathlon, which featured running and biking.

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performed to thousands by the Rendezvous Lodge. Blackcomb Mountain Collection, 1989

The biggest event to happen on Blackcomb Mountain that summer did not involve skiing, riding or biking as almost 6,000 people attended the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s performance 4,000 feet above Whistler Village on August 12. The performance featured conductor Peter McCoppin and violinist Patricia Shih as well as some familiar pieces such as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. According to the Blabcomb, the concert went smoothly, though the line up to download at the end was quite long.

Though Blackcomb stayed open until September, the T-bars stopped running by August 20 and events began to wind down. By August 31, Blackcomb had received around 42,000 non-skier visits (well up over the expected 35,000) and 24,100 skier visits (slightly lower than expected due to the earlier closure) and the Blabcomb declared the summer season a success.

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WSSF: The BeginningWSSF: The Beginning

April 9, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

April is the last month for our temporary exhibit Off the Lip: The Rise of Snowboarding in Whistler. If you haven’t had a chance to see it, make sure you stop by before it closes to allow for the installation of another new exhibit. Although Off the Lip is the first exhibit dedicated to snowboarding in our current facility, the museum’s first snowboard display took place in April 1996 and was developed to coincide with the very first World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF).

According to festival director Doug Perry, the organizers of the WSSF had two goals when they began planning: to increase activity in the resort at a traditionally quiet time of year and to attract as much media attention as possible. To this end, they planned 22 events over ten days with 1,500 athletes participating.

Insight Photography Collection, 1996

The 1996 festival brought together established events that already took place in the spring such as the Couloir Ski Race Extreme, the Whistler Cup, and the WestBeach Classic and added more events both on the mountain and throughout the Whistler Village. These included family events, related arts and culture events such as the snowboard exhibit at the Whistler Museum, industry displays and demos, more ski and snowboard competitions, and performances by nearly a dozen bands in various venues over three days with Vancouver’s 54•40 closing out the festival. By the end of the ten days, Perry had head the festival described as “the single most important happening in the ski and snowboard industry” and organizers were already looking ahead, promising an even bigger and better festival next year.

The WSSF returned in 1997 from April 4 to 13, including many of the same events. Additional events were planned as well, including two biking events meant to take place on the mountains. The Grinders Cup Dual Eliminator Mountain Bike Snow Race was scheduled to run on Blackcomb Mountain under the Magic Chair but was canceled due to lack of interest by competitors. The Norco Challenge did go ahead and featured Norco factory riders trying to gain as much speed as possible down Whistler Mountain’s Saddle.

WestBeach events were incredibly popular during the World Ski and Snowboard Festival. Insight Photography Collection, 1997

Some of the snow events also raised money for various causes, such as the Backbone Enduro Vertical Challenge coordinated by Chris Kent. Teams and individuals competed to see who could finish the most runs over an eight-hour period while uploading only the Creekside Gondola and the Red Chair. Competitors collected sponsorships and the money raised went to a rehabilitative medical research centre proposed by BC Rehab and to the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre.

This appears to be the only photo we have found of Heaven at the Conference Centre so far. Insight Photography Collection, 1997

Other organizations also got involved in the festival through partnerships and by creating their own tie-in events, increasing the number of arts and culture events within the WSSF. The Whistler Resort Association (WRA) offered a new “Stay for Free” promotion where buying three days of dual mountain skiing got you two nights in a hotel for free. Heaven, advertised as a “full-on all-night interactive rave,” planned to turn the Conference Centre ballroom into a dance club with DJs from Toronto and Los Angeles. 23 bands were scheduled to play throughout the festival and, for the first time, film was introduced as a component of the festival with the Moving Pictures film festival featuring “some of the hottest and most controversial Canadian films from the past year.”

The Air Canada Whistler Cup was incorporated into the WSSF from 1996. Though no longer part of the festival, the Whistler Cup continues to run each year. Insight Photography Collection, 1997

According to statistics gathered just after the WSSF finished, the festival was a great success for the resort. Over 2,000 athletes came out that year to participate in the various events and the audiences for most events also increased, with over 8,000 spectators gathering at the base of Whistler Mountain to watch the WestBeach Invitational Big Air competition. Both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains reported their highest single-day skier numbers for the month of April on April 5 and the WRA reported bookings exceeding the 1996 WSSF by about 80% and an increase in package bookings of 200%. Though not all businesses reported their numbers, the Longhorn and McDonald’s both reported record sales days during the WSSF.

The WSSF is back again this year from April 8 to 14 and, though it has changed in many ways since it first began in 1996, will still include some familiar aspects.

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Off the Lip: The Rise of Snowboarding in WhistlerOff the Lip: The Rise of Snowboarding in Whistler

January 30, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

What’s your favourite mountain, Blackcomb or Whistler? As many know, this has been a hot debate since Blackcomb’s opening in 1980. It amped up even further when snowboarding was welcomed with open arms on Blackcomb Mountain in the winter of 1987/88. Whistler Mountain proceeded with caution before they allowed boarders to shred the slopes a season later.

According to Dave Murray in 1988 interview, “The mountain doesn’t have any problems with snowboards on the mountain in the long term, but in the short term Whistler is very concerned with looking ahead and planning relatively slowly when new innovations come into play.”

Unidentified rider shredding Blackcomb Mountain. Do you know the rider or photographer? Blackcomb Mountain Collection, Unknown Photographer

Whistler Mountain waited to see how the sport did on Blackcomb before snowboarders were invited to Whistler, largely due to the popular perceptions of snowboarders at the time. Snowboarding was already booming in the United States by the time it reached Canada in the early 1980s. The sport attracted a younger crowd and a few black sheep would come off as reckless and rude. Many skiers believed it was dangerous for them to be allowed on the mountain, that it would result in injuries and constant issues. And some skiers didn’t act too kindly toward them, as Ken Achenbach, Dano Pendygrasse and Doug Lundgren recall they were spat on and sworn at, and one skier even threw a shovel at them. There were even fist fights between boarders and skiers in the Blackcomb terrain park, which was run by snowboarders at the time.

But, snowboarding was in its early days – it needed time and space to innovate, integrate, and evolve.

On Blackcomb, Dave Perry, VP of Marketing, recalled that they did extensive research of how it was going in the States before allowing snowboarders on the mountain. Their research showed there was not actually a problem. He said:

We’ve got a considerable number of snowboarders on the mountain, they tend to congregate in certain areas, they’ll find a spot with a tube shape with a big winddrift or something and play there. They don’t mix on the main runs as some people think.

Blackcomb’s support, and later Whistler’s, was crucial to the boom snowboarding had in Canada, with many crediting the resort as the centre of Canadian snowboarding.

A snowboarder cruises across the slushy and chilly water at the 1994 Slush Cup. Whistler Question Collection, Dianne Whelan

For anyone that thought this was a fad, well, they were wrong.

A lot has happened in the last 30+ years, but snowboarding is still a relatively young sport, meaning the museum does not have as much information or as many records of it as we do for sports like skiing. In the last decade, however, the museum has received some great content about snowboarding, along with cool artifacts, and will be using these to recognize the sport and a few of the riders involved.

On January 31 (from 6:30 – 9pm), the Whistler Museum will open our latest exhibit, Off the Lip: The Rise of Snowboarding in Whistler, where we go through the beginnings of snowboarding in Whistler and the impact it has had on the resort and the sport. Off the Lip will be on exhibit until April 30, 2024.

This is also a chance to showcase some of the amazing photographs we have from collections, including Greg Griffith, Blackcomb Mountain, and the Whistler Question. Over the course of the exhibit, we’ll be sharing several images of snowboarders that we were not able to display physically. For many of these photographs, we have little information on the riders and are hoping you might be able to fill in the gaps with names and other details.

Promotional card for Stephanie Sloan’s Women Only Oxygen Snowboard Clinic (1994). Stephanie Sloan Collection

As professional hoarders, we are always looking to expand our knowledge of subjects, so let us know if there is anything you are inspired to share or show us.

We hope to ignite memories through our exhibits. Two subjects around snowboarding that I’m particularly curious about are: did you take a snowboard lesson with world champion freestyle skier Stephanie Sloan? Were you part of the Rad Mad Mom’s Club, a group of women who hit the slops with Whistler Mountain’s first snowboard instructor, Greg Daniells?

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Getting Groceries to the VillageGetting Groceries to the Village

January 9, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

It is rare that any event goes exactly according to plan and, no matter how much you might attempt to expect the unexpected, there is almost always something that comes up. This was certainly the case for the opening of the Whistler Grocery Store, Whistler’s first dedicated supermarket, in January 1981.

The Grocery Store was scheduled to open on Thursday, January 22, 1981. At the time, there were few businesses open in the Whistler Village and, while the buildings around Village Square were recognizable to those familiar with the Village today, many of the other buildings were still under construction or yet to be started. The Blackcomb Lodge, the first major lodging to open in the Village, had opened on December 29, 1980, and its restaurant Russell’s opened in January, though the Brass Rail Lounge in the same building was still unfinished. Smaller businesses in the finished buildings had begun operating late in 1980 and Tapley’s Pub was slated to open in January, followed by Stoney’s Restaurant the following month.

Stoney’s Restaurant with a clear view to the mountains, where today there are buildings. Whistler Question Collection

Delays to the various openings in the Village began in December, when it began to rain on December 24 and kept raining. By December 26, flooding was occurring around the Lower Mainland and other areas of British Columbia and Highway 99 had been washed out around Culliton Creek and north of the Rutherford Creek junction, cutting Whistler off from the rest of the Sea to Sky. The road reopened by the beginning of 1981, but closed again on January 21 when the detour around the Culliton Creek washout was washed out.

The rain also caused problems on the mountains, particularly on Blackcomb Mountain, which had only begun operating on December 4. Higher elevations had good skiing and both mountains worked hard to make snow when possible and move snow around in order to get skiers to the lifts, but there was very limited terrain and there were long lines to download each afternoon (Blackcomb reportedly even began handing out lemonade to those waiting to download Lift 2). Whistler Mountain was able to continue operating in a limited capacity, but Blackcomb temporarily shut down operations and laid off staff.

One of two destroyed power lines when flood waters washed out footings south of the Tisdale Hydro Station. Whistler Question Collection, 1981

Both the Blackcomb Lodge and Tapley’s Pub delayed their openings for a few days to a week because of the weather and road closures. The Grocery Store’s manager Ted Pryce-Jones, however, decided to open as scheduled on Thursday, January 22, though not exactly as planned.

According to the Whistler Question, Pryce-Jones decided to open “when it became apparent that the Whistler and Pemberton residents were in danger of running out of certain foodstuffs.” Even though the Grocery Store had no fresh meat or produce, residents “flooded” the store to buy milk, bread, cereal, and other foods. In order to meet the demand for milk, Pryce-Jones organized daily Dairyland deliveries by rail, which was also being used to supply restaurants and other goods. Deliveries were limited by the availability of freight space and by the time the highway reopened on Monday, January 26, the Grocery Store and other stores that carried food had run out of fresh produce and milk.

Ted Pryce-Jones, manager, poses near the pop in the new grocery store soon to open in the Village. Whistler Question Collection, 1981

Because of the lack of supply, Pryce-Jones decided to delay the Grocery Store’s Grand Opening Sale until they could restock, but the store did offer various “In Store Specials.” By the end of the month, regular deliveries had resumed and the Grocery Store did very good business, especially in fresh produce, where Pryce-Jones reported “people buying the vegetables and fruit almost as fast as it could be put out.” The store was open seven days a week and, perhaps, unsurprisingly, was busiest between 4:30 and 6:30 pm, when skiers had come down from the mountains (it did begin snowing by the end of the month).

The Grocery Store was able to offer its Grand Opening Sale from February 5 – 8, just a little later than expected and continued to be busy as the only full-service grocery store in Whistler. Despite a somewhat shaky start, the Grocery Store continues to operate today out of the same space in the Hearthstone building over forty years later.

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