Tag: Dave Murray

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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Cooking Up WhistlerCooking Up Whistler

December 26, 2023 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

While food may not be the first thing that many people associate with the Whistler Museum, the abundance of baking and celebratory meals this time of year recently had us looking at three cookbooks that are kept as part of the Museum’s reference section. Whistler Recipes, Festive Favourites, and The Whistler Weekend Cookbook all contain recipes, as expected, but they can also tell us about what businesses were operating in Whistler, who was working in the valley, and what was being eaten at the time of their publication.

Whistler Recipes is the first of two cookbooks published as fundraisers by the Whistler Museum & Archives Society’s Cookbook Committee. Published in 1997, it includes recipes gathered from past and then-present residents of Whistler and Alta Lake, as well as a few recipes from a cookbook published by The Vancouver Sun in 1940. Whistler Recipes included recipes like Yorkshire Puddings from Ann Bright, Myrtle’s Muffins from Myrtle Philip, Granny Cosgrave’s Scones from J’Anne Greenwood, and Lemon Loaves from Elaine Wallace, which we even tried making when the museum was closed in 2020.

The Whistler Museum and Archives cookbook committee, April 1997: Janet Love-Morrison, Florence Petersen (founder of the Whistler Museum and Archives Society), Darlyne Christian and Caroline Cluer. Whistler Museum Collection

The second book published by the Cookbook Committee in 2001, Festive Favourites, tells us less about the individuals who contributed recipes, but makes up for it by including food trivia and tips throughout. Many of the recipes and festive tips appear to focus on the December holiday season, with instructions for preparing The Scent of Christmas, Spiced Yule Cake, and more alongside a short history of Christmas trees and stockings, though there are also some recipes for other holidays, such as Halloween Spicy Hot Chocolate.

Festive Favourites also suggested different ways to share meals with friends, proposing a “Dine Around Party,” which is “great for a small group of friends who live close together” as the group walks over to a different residence for each stage of the meal, and providing ideas for entertaining and involving children for “When Adults and Children Party Together.”

For anyone interested in the history of restaurants in Whistler, The Whistler Weekend Cookbook compiled by Diane Nicholson in 1987 is a very useful resource. It begins with a list of all restaurants and delicatessens in Whistler at the time, of which seven are still operating under the same name today. For every recipe contributed by a chef at one of the restaurants, their name and place of work are credited. For example, Rolf Gunther of the Rimrock Cafe supplied his version of Mahi Mahi with Bourbon Pecan Cream while Toshi Saito of Sushi Village provided his Tempura Toshi.

A sunny game of volleyball outside the Highland Lodge, today the location of the Highland Lodge. Whistler Question Collection

It is made clear by the sections of the book, such as “Mid-day & Apres Ski” and “Goodies & Supplies for Your Pack etc.,” that the book caters to a population that spends quite a bit of time on the mountain. Each recipe is also accompanied by a difficulty rating in the form of a circle, a square, or a diamond, symbols that could easily be interpreted by most skiers.

The recipes and their contributors also reflect the prevalence of sports in Whistler. Dave Murray provided instructions to make his Breakfast of Champions (oatmeal with nuts and apples) while Leanna Rath and Richard Kelly of Lifestyles Adventure Company included their Mountain Bike Greek Salad and Rob Boyd supplied his recipe for World Cup Granola Bars (cooking must a family affair, as his mother Molly Boyd’s Sunshine Pie can also be found in this book).

Molly Boyd receives the plaque honouring her as the Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year Saturday. Brian Walhovd, 1983’s winner, announced to the crowd that Boyd was the 1984 winner for her involvement and extra commitment to the community. Whistler Question Collection

Like the cookbooks published by the Cookbook Committee, The Whistler Weekend Cookbook was also a fundraiser, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Whistler Public Library to purchase New Age/Self Help books. Today, the books produced for such fundraisers can tell us more about the people and food in Whistler at that particular time. They can also be very helpful if you’re trying to recreate a meal you once had at your favourite restaurant, whether you miss the Southside Hot Antipasto Hero from the Southside Deli or the wings that you used to get at Dusty’s Cantina.

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Connecting PhotographsConnecting Photographs

November 21, 2023 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

In 2018 we began a weekly blog post featuring a selection of photographs and captions taken during that week from each year that was represented in the collection of negatives from the Whistler Question Collection. “This Week In Photos” has become a useful starting point to learn more about what was happening in Whistler at any given time (between 1978 and 1985). When looking into the stories behind the photographs, we often find connections to other images. Some of these connections are unexpected, such as crowds of cars outside the Myrtle Philip School in November and ski racer Dave Murray sawing through a ski at the opening of a sports store in Vancouver in August.

Cars crowd outside Myrtle Philip School as hundreds of attendees sell, swap and buy ski equipment and clothing inside. Whistler Question Collection, 1979

The photograph of a crowd of cars was captured at the Whistler Mountain Ski Club’s (WMSC) fourth annual Ski Swap in 1979. The first Annual Ski Swap in Whistler was held on November 13, 1976, when skiers of all levels were encouraged to bring in their extra or outgrown equipment and clothing to sell or trade. A percentage of the proceeds made from the sales went to support the WMSC junior racing program. The gear brought in by local skiers was supplemented by leftover articles from the Vancouver Ski Swap and, with prices ranging from $2 for some of the clothing to $200 for boots, the WMSC was able to raise about $500. According to WMSC spokesperson Hugh McLennan, the sale “was an overall success, with very little theft of the merchandise on display.”

The Ski Swap continued to be a successful fundraiser for the WMSC, as well as a great place to find a deal on equipment. By 1979, the event drew hundreds of people to Myrtle Philip School, their cars filling the school parking lot and spilling over onto the street. Like in previous years, the equipment and clothing brought by skiers was added to by wholesalers, such as a Vancouver company that brought boxes of incorrectly-sized wool sweaters to sell at greatly discounted prices, and by store owners such as Casey Niewerth of Skyline Sports, who brought in any stock left from the previous winter.

Canadian National Ski Team member Dave Murray saws through an old wooden ski held by Casey Niewerth at the opening of the new Skyline Sports location. Whistler Question Collection, 1979

Casy Niewerth founded Skyline Sports in North Vancouver in the 1950s as Vancouver’s second ski shop. He began by selling the sample skis that wholesalers would bring to show department stores, ordering another pair once the first one was sold, and by the 1960s had expanded to include other sports and activities in a larger space, including a workshop for setting, repairing, an putting edges on skis.

In early 1966, when Whistler Mountain officially opened for skiing, Casey and his young family began skiing in the area, buying a lot in Alta Vista in the spring and moving into their newly completed cabin less than a week before Christmas that year. Like most stores at the time, Skyline Sports was closed on Sundays and during the ski season the family would drive up late Saturday evening in order to be at the base of the mountain for ski school on Sunday morning. Casey built up a loyal clientele at Whistler Mountain, in particular by offering free binding adjustments behind the bullwheel of the Red Chair.

The Skyline Sports set up behind the bullwheel of the Red Chair. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection

Just a few months before the 1979 Ski Swap, the Niewerths expanded Skyline Sports further by opening a new store in Vancouver’s Kerrisdale neighbourhood. The opening of the 6,000 sq ft space replaced the usual ribbon cutting ceremony with Crazy Canuck Dave Murray sawing through a 25-year-old ski, an event that was captured and reproduced in the Whistler Question. After the opening event, the new Skyline Sports location opened to the public with a “Super Ski Sale” were skiers could get the latest equipment ahead of the coming season. Like the Ski Swap raised money for the WMSC racing program, the Super Ski Sale was also a fundraiser for the Canadian National Ski Team and any donations made to the team over $5 during the sale would be matched by the store.

The exterior of Skyline Sports’ Kerrisdale location. Whistler Question Collection, 1979

There are many photos of Ski Swaps in the Whistler Question Collection, and even some more of events involving Skyline Sports. Though the retail locations of Skyline Sports closed in the 1990s, Casey Niewerth remains an important part of the community and the WMSC Annual Ski Swap continues to raise money for the club and its racing programs each fall.

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A Ski Coach’s R&RA Ski Coach’s R&R

June 20, 2023 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Before Whistler became a year-round destination resort there were few visitors and events throughout the summer. Residents made their own fun with regattas on Alta Lake, softball, fishing and hiking all popular pastimes. Along with mountain biking, today golf is a very popular activity in the summer with the local golf courses often booking up well in advance. However, before Whistler’s first 18-hole golf course officially opened in 1983, the Squamish Valley Golf Course was the closest place to tee off. Still, summer residents would make their way along the narrow and windy highway to have a hit.

Although skiing is not thought of as a summer sport, summer ski camps in Whistler have kept athletes on the snow year-round since the resort opened. The first summer ski camp was run by Roy and Jane Ferris and Alan White in 1966 with Art Furrer as a guest coach. Alan and Roy owned Highland Lodge and the summer camps were initially conceived as a way to bring visitors to Whistler during the quiet summer season.

The summer ski camps became known as the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camps in 1967, after Toni Sailer was recruited during a ski demonstration at the Seattle Center. Toni Sailer was an Austrian skiing superstar who had won gold in all three alpine events at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Toni would coach the Austrian ski team during the winter months then disappear to Whistler where he enjoyed living in relative anonymity, rarely being swamped for autographs like when he was back home in Austria.

Toni Sailer (right) and Tim Ferris on the t-bar in July 1978 during the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp on Whistler Mountain. Alex Douglas Collection.

A legend in his own right, Jim McConkey moved to Whistler the year after Toni Sailer to take over the Whistler ski school and ski shop. He became good friends with Toni, who said that he took the job in Whistler specifically so he could play golf in Squamish. Before Whistler had its own golf course Toni would coach each day until noon, then go to Squamish Valley Golf Course which also opened in 1967.

Jim McConkey still comes to the Sea to Sky to golf today; however, before there was the pick of local golf courses he was a member of the Capilano Golf Course. Toni Sailer was a big name in sport, and the Capilano Golf Course said everything would be on the house if Toni visited. Jim and Toni started golfing together at Capilano on the days between summer ski camps. One particularly memorable visit was a trip that they took with Earl Noble. Earl owned a big lumber mill in North Vancouver and had a helicopter. They golfed together at Capilano in the morning, then they flew to the Victoria Golf Club for another round in the afternoon. According to Jim, “Toni never forgot that, he just thought that it couldn’t get any better. 36 holes!”

Don McQuaid teaching tricks during the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camps in 1977. Alex Douglas Collection.

The Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camps were ahead of their time and quickly began to offer four types of instruction – Advanced Racing, Intermediate and Novice Racing, Recreational and Freestyle. Along with Toni Sailer and Jim McConkey, personalised instruction was offered by internationally renowned skiers, including Nancy Greene Raine and Wayne Wong.

In 1984, ski racer, Crazy Canuck and former camper, Dave Murray took over the summer camps and they became known as the Atomic Dave Murray Whistler Summer Ski Camps. Campers continued to be coached by internationally renowned athletes, having a blast and creating lifelong memories. This continues today with Momentum Ski Camps on Blackcomb Glacier, run by Olympic skiers John and Julia Smart and their talented coaches.

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