Tag: Dag Aabye

Running WhistlerRunning Whistler

October 1, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

From World Cup downhills to IronMan triathlons to the annual October Turkey Trot, Whistler has been the host of countless athletic competitions and events featuring many different sports. The Alta Lake Sports Club was founded in 1975 and, though a lot of their efforts went to organizing cross-country ski trails and events, the group soon began organizing running events in the Whistler area. It was not until 1982, however, that Whistler hosted its first marathon.

Whistler’s first marathon and half-marathon took place on August 29, 1982 and drew 131 entrants, though Race Coordinator Tom Sutherland had earlier expected only 50 to 75 participants to sign up. A couple of weeks before the race, the course was carefully measured by Sutherland and Wayne Fisher using a Jones Counter, a bicycle odometer, after the pair rode a measured kilometre that was certified by local surveying company Brown & Associates.

Runners (mostly) stick to the shoulder of the road during the first Whistler Marathon and Half-Marathon. Whistler Question Collection, 1982

The 13.1 milo or 21.1 km course took runners from the bus loop in the Whistler Village, north along Highway 99, through White Gold Estates, back to the highway, into Alpine Meadows and down Rainbow Drive, along Alta Lake Road, back up the highway, through Brio, and then back onto Highway 99 and into the Village to finish at the bus loop. Those who chose to run the full marathon then ran the entire loop a second time.

While measuring the course, Sutherland and Fisher carefully placed milage markers to indicate distances and aid station locations. Unfortunately for them, two days after they marked the route, Alta Lake Road was sealcoated and all of their markers were gone. The process also left the road less than smooth and Highways District Manager Ron Winbow told organizers that crews would not be able to sweep the road until it had rained and the surface was damp, making it safe for the operators of the sweeping equipment. Thankfully for the race, Art Den Duyf of Sabre Bulldozing Ltd. agreed to use his equipment to water the stretch of road, allowing highways crews to follow behind with the sweeper.

Runners keep their heart rate up while the waiting for the train to pass through. Whistler Question Collection, 1982

Despite being described by many as a difficult course, most participants appear to have had a positive experience, including Stephanie Greenall who at fourteen was the youngest runner. She ran the half-marathon alongside her father Dave you, having completed the course, spontaneously decided to run it again and finish the full marathon. Former Whistler resident Dag Aabye who in 1982 was living in Squamish told the Whistler Question, “I’ve run in five marathons, and this one is great!” According to Murray Coates, the only full-time Whistler resident to register for the full marathon, “To say it was good would be an understatement. Everybody – the spectators, organizers, volunteers and runners – put all they had into it. It was mind-boggling how great it was.” Because it was the first time the event was held, winners of each category set new records, including Loreen Barnett, a member of the ALSC, who came first in the women’s marathon.

Runner Murray Coates eats his post-race watermelon while Myrtle Philip watches the festivities. Whistler Question Collection, 1982

The marathon and half-marathon event returned the next summer as part of the Whistler Fitness Festival held in July 1983 that also included the Whistler Molson Bicycle Race, a Windsurfing Regatta, and the Mr. Mountain Contest (the summer of 1983 also saw Whistler’s first triathlon). This time, almost 250 runners were registered, including local residents, repeat racers, and one couple from New York who decided that the race would be a great addition to their honeymoon.

In 1984, the half-marathon returned but the full marathon did not and, despite early hopes to establish the Whistler Marathon as part of a marathon circuit, the event appears to have stopped altogether in 1985. Today, Whistler hosts a variety of running events, including the Whistler Half-Marathon that began in the mid-2000s.

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Dag Aabye in WhistlerDag Aabye in Whistler

March 8, 2022 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 4 Comments

Many of the names of runs on Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains pay homage to skiers and, slightly less often, snowboarders who made a mark on the mountains, whether as an employee, an investor, or an athlete. Some of these names, such as Franz’s Run, McConkey’s, and Arthurs’s Choice are fairly easy to trace back to their source, while others like Bushrat, Jam Tart, and Jolly Green Giant require a bit more knowledge of their namesake. During a 2019 speaker event, however, it was pointed out that there is one skier who, despite making quite an impression during his time in the Whistler valley, has no official namesake on Whistler Mountain: Dag Aabye.

Dag Aabye shows off his skills on Whistler Mountain. Cliff Fenner Collection.

When Roy Ferris and Alan White opened the Garibaldi Ski School in 1966, they asked Ornulf Johnsen from Norway to come manage it. Johnsen persuaded the lift company to bring over fellow Norwegian Dag Aabye to work for him. Aabye had previously been working as a ski instructor in Britain and as a movie stuntman, including working as an extra in the 1965 James Bond film Goldfinger, and he soon arrived to begin instructing on Whistler Mountain.

Dag Aabye runs with his skis as part of the Great Snow Earth Water Race. Whistler Question Collection, 1981.

According to Lynn Mathews, Aabye was “tall, lanky, quiet,” a “really nice guy who would do these most unbelievable things.” Mathews described him as “a cat on skis” and remembered watching him ski down the Red Chair lift line, “touching lightly from side to side as he went down these cliffs.” Jim McConkey, who took over the management of the ski school in 1968, described Aabye as “just a phenomenal skier” and recalled watching him jump off a cornice on the Whistler glacier, land, and ski straight down.

Aabye became known for his first ski descents on Whistler Mountain, including areas of Whistler’s peak that are permanently closed today such as Don’t Miss and the Weekend Chutes, sometimes waiting days for the right conditions before hiking up from the top of the t-bar. In some cases, it would be another twenty to thirty years before the next person made the same descent.

Norwegian hot-shot Dag Aabye jumping off the roof of the Cheakamus Inn, 1967. Walt Preissl, who took the photo, recalls the occasion: “We were in the Cheakamus Inn Hotel at Whistler, sitting in the bar with Marg Egger, when we saw this pile of snow go swiftly by the window, including a body with it , we ran out and it was Dag. Ornulf was taking some pics, he asked him to go back up and do it again so that he could get a better shot. And so he did go back and jump off the roof of the Cheakamus Inn [again]. He was a match for Jim McConkey who used to do things like that.” Photo courtesy of Walt Preissl.

Aabye could be seen skiing in films by Jim Rice, including a short 1968 film featuring Aabye and Cliff Jennings skiing the glaciers around Whistler by helicopter. Off the mountain, he also became known for his willingness to ski off man-made structures, such as the Cheakamus Inn. According to Mathews, this was done mostly “for fun. Cause doesn’t everyone ski off the roof and land 50 feet down?” Aabye also built his own jump for his efforts to land a backflip on 215 cm skis and could often be found walking on his hands with his skis still attached to his feet. In summers, Aabye worked as a coach at the summer ski camps alongside ski celebrities such as Toni Sailer and Nancy Greene.

The staff of the 1969 Summer Ski Camp, including skiing legend, Dag Aabye. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection.

In his 80s today, Aabye is still known as an athlete, competing annually in ultra marathons prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Though he long ago left Whistler and ended up outside SilverStar (where the run Aabye Road bears his name), Aabye is still talked about in the valley and on the mountain.

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A Visit with the Tyrol Ski & Mountain ClubA Visit with the Tyrol Ski & Mountain Club

May 5, 2012 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

This past week the Museum had the pleasure to head down to the North Vancouver home of Rolf and Lotti Frowein to discuss the history of the Tyrol Ski & Mountain Club with the Froweins and fellow Tyrolians Jim Brown and Walter and John Preissl.

The Tyrol Ski & Mountain Club was formed in 1952 by a small group of Vancouver skiing and hiking enthusiasts, most of whom were recent immigrants from German-speaking Europe. From the start, the Tyrol Club’s main purpose was to encourage people to get outside and take advantage of the beautiful mountains surrounding Vancouver. Many were North Shore ski instructors, and they were big promoters of the sport during the post-WW2 boom days of skiing.

Even though the Tyrol club’s membership has always been centered in Vancouver their Whistler roots run deep, and the club and its members have played a surprisingly important role in Whistler’s rise as a ski resort. Rolf Frowein, along with a group of Tyrolians, first came up to Alta Lake in 1959 and instantly began exploring the surrounding mountains, winter and summer.

Walter Preissl, Al Preissl and Erwin Kasiol ski down towards Glacier Bowl on Whistler Mountain, early 1960s. The days of skiing in shorts will soon be upon us again, too! Photo: Frank Grundig.

A few years later the club bought some land near Nita Lake and by 1966 construction was complete on Tyrol Lodge, which stands on that spot to this day.

A recently completed Tyrol Lodge, winter 1967. Photo: Frank Grundig.

That first winter after building the lodge the Tyrol Club decided to move their annual ski race, the Tyrol GS, from Seymour to Whistler. It was the first organized ski race ever held on Whistler Mountain. The race became a Whistler institution, running every winter until 1995.

Onlookers watch an early Tyrol GS race on Whistler Mountain, late 1960s. Photo: Frank Grundig.
Countless “ski-racer brats,”(to use John Preissl’s term) came up through the Tyrol Club’s racing league. Here is John’s brother Andy competing on Whistler Mountain in the late 1970s. Photo: Frank Grundig.

In addition to taking the time to talk to us about the Tyrol Club’s history, the Preissl’s have generously donated an impressive collection of documents relating to the Tyrol Club and skiing history generally, and hundreds of photos from their personal collection. Most of these were taken by their family friend  Frank Grundig, a professional photographer and ski journalist, so the images are of  consistently high quality.

Norwegian hot-shot Dag Aabye jumping off the roof of the Cheakamus Inn, 1967. Photo: Walt Preissl.
When club member’s like John Planinsic (pictured here) hiked up Whistler Mountain in the early 1960s, they looked down upon a very different valley than today. Photo: Frank Grundig.
Tyrol Club members conquer an “iceberg” in Lake Lovely Water, in the Tantalus Range. Mid-1970s. Photo: Frank Grundig.

Their large collection of photos leaves one with the impression that the more the valley has changed, the more the people stay the same!

We’ve only acquired a small portion of the photos so far, but already we’ve got some great shots that will help us to tell the history of our local mountains in greater detail, both inside and beyond the ski resort. Look forward to more stories from the Tyrol Club collection in the weeks and months to come.

Coincidentally, this evening the Tyrol Club celebrates their 60th anniversary in Richmond. We are excited to be partnering with such a great group of people, and we feel a congratulations are in order!

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