Dave Murray – Page 8 – Whistler Museum and Archives Society

Stephanie Sloan – Freestyle SuperstarStephanie Sloan – Freestyle Superstar

January 29, 2016 Whistler Museum 3 Comments

Whistler is home to an exceptional number of ski champions, media stars, and otherwise accomplished athletes. One of the most under-appreciated is Stephanie Sloan. Many people know Stephanie as the wife of the late ski racing legend Dave Murray of Crazy Canuck fame, or perhaps as the mother of Olympic skier-cross competitor Julia Murray. Fewer realize that Stephanie is actually a more decorated competitive skier than either of them, combined!

Stephanie competing in the bumps, Whistler, late 1970s. Greg Griffith Photo.

From 1976-1981 Stephanie competed on the World Cup freestyle circuit, earning 57 podium finishes and claiming the overall world championship 3 times. Moguls was her strongest discipline, but as the overall title combined results from aerials and ballet as well, she was definitely no one-trick pony!

Getting upside-down in aerials. Laax, Switzerland, 1979.

She and husband Dave both retired from the World Cup scene around the same time, and transitioned into post-competitive life as coaches and mentors for the sport. While Dave is well-remembered for his namesake ski camps, Stephanie made a huge contribution to the sport as well through the women’s-specific camps which she launched during the 1982/83 season.

While teaching skiing to women was nothing new, there were few, if any, women-only programs focused on all-mountain techniques and able to cater to advanced skiers. As this newspaper clipping from The Province indicates, these were well-rounded clinics for serious skiers. StephSloan024 - Province article Nov 1986 Women on the March

Stephanie Sloan (left) leading a group of ladies at one of her 7UP sponsored women’s skiing camps.

With their winter programs established, the next step was to operate year-round carrying on Whistler’s heritage as a premier destination for summer glacier skiing. Stephanie and Dave launched hugely successful summer skiing camps, with friends and colleagues from the Canadian National teams making up a large portion of the coaches. While lots of serious and high-performance training happened on the Whistler Glacier during the summer, Stephanie couldn’t resist a little fun and did photo shoots while skiing in a bathing suit nearly every summer.

We were fortunate enough to have Stephanie into the museum this past week, sharing her many stories and photos from her life, both competing on the world tour, then growing the sport of skiing with Dave here in Whistler.

To learn more about her storied career, make sure to swing by the Whistler Museum on Sunday February 21st for our next Speaker Series event. The topic will be “Celebrity Athletes and the growth of modern skiing.” Speaking alongside Stephanie will be John Smart, former Olympic freestyle skier and founder of world-renowned Momentum Ski Camps, and Rob McSkimming, VP-Business Development and former Snow School Director for Whistler-Blackcomb. See you there!

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When: Sunday February 21st; Doors at 6pm, show 7pm-9pm
Where: Whistler Museum (4333 Main Street, beside the Library)
Who: Everyone!
Cost: $10 regular price, $5 for museum members

We expect this event to sell out, so make sure to get your tickets early. To purchase tickets stop by the museum or call us at 604.932.2019.

Dave Murray: Whistler’s First Home-Grown HeroDave Murray: Whistler’s First Home-Grown Hero

January 3, 2015 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

Dave Murray is one of the most well-known names and highly adored athletes in Whistler’s history. Thought of as Whistler’s very first home-grown hero, Murray grew up skiing on Whistler Mountain, and is originally from Abbotsford, British Columbia.

Dave-Murray-ACCESS-WMA_P95_006_027_Murray

Murray had a late start in his ski racing career, as he didn’t start racing seriously until he was 16 years old. This, of course, did not stop him from achieving great professional heights. In 1974, at 21 years old, Murray became a member of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team. He spent the following eight years as a founding member of the Crazy Canucks, the downhill team that captured our hearts in the 1970s and 80s with their “crazy” racing style. In Murray’s best season (1975-76) he had four top-ten finishes. In 1979, he was overall Canadian Champion and was ranked third in the world in downhill. He also represented Canada at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic games.

The Crazy Canucks. WMA_P95_006_124 Murray

After 10 years on the competitive ski racing circuit Murray retired to become the director of skiing at Whistler Mountain, as well as the organizer and lead instructor of the summer ski camps. In 1984, the name of Whistler’s most popular summer ski camp was officially changed to Atomic Dave Murray Whistler Summer Ski Camp, and its fame grew to attract many skiers from Europe and Japan. Murray also organized masters ski racing for adults (an idea he imported from Europe).

On Tuesday, October 23^rd, 1990, Dave Murray passed away after battling skin cancer. He was just 37 years old, leaving behind his wife and best friend Stefanie Sloan, and daughter Julia Murray. Stephanie was a pioneer in freestyle skiing and a world champion, and Julia became a member of Canada’s Ski Cross Team, and competed at the 2010 Olympics. Both continue to call Whistler home.

Dave Murray had a major influence on the world of ski racing, but perhaps what is most inspirational about his story is that he had a genuine love for skiing. His free time was spent free skiing. He took any chance he could get to explore and carve down obscure, off-piste runs, exuding pure joy on his descends. “It’s that unbelievable sense of freedom you get when you’re free-falling through the powder,” he tells friend Michel Beaudry. “It’s like nothing else on earth.”

Dave-Murray-ACCESS-WMA_P95_006_047_Murray

Peak to Valley Race & FundraiserPeak to Valley Race & Fundraiser

January 16, 2014 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

This year marks the 30^th anniversary of the Peak to Valley race, taking place January 31^st and February 1^st 2014.

The Peak to Valley race is a very unique race that has a definite place in Whistler’s history. The brainchild of legendary ski-racer, Dave Murray, the race starts at the (almost) top of Whistler Mountain at the Saddle and finishes at Creekside.

Peak to Valley Race, ca. 1988.
Photograph by Greg Griffith
Griffith Collection, Whistler Museum

The average GS race has 35 gates and a vertical drop of 250 metres. The Peak to Valley race has a vertical drop of 1,443 metres, with 180 gates and a course that’s over 5 km long.

Judging by interviews with the racers a lot of the Peak to Valley is about overcoming pain. Whistler resident Sarah Lynch described the experience in 2010 “I was just trying to remember to breathe and then your legs are just burning.”

Alongside the pain however comes a lot of fun and camaraderie. The Peak to Valley is not just for professional racers; anyone can join in – if they dare! The fastest time on record is 4.52.03 – the longest – 29.03.50. Despite these discrepancies both record holders had an awesome time taking part.

The race is a team effort with four people per team. Teams must have at least one woman and all must be 19 or over. Two team members race on the first day and two more race on the second. Their times are combined and the winning team is crowned.

There have been some questionable conditions facing the racers over the years, but to date, no race has ever been cancelled. In 1991 the weather was so stormy that the entire mountain was closed, but the race still went ahead. Racers could upload on the Olive chair and then get a snowcat the rest of the way up, as the conditions were too dangerous for a lift to be run. One racer, Simon Wiruntene from the New Zealand National Ski Team even hiked up, as he knew he was one of the last to start, and actually managed to get the fastest time of the day!

Quilt up for auction: Made out of the race T-shirts spanning the entire history of the Peak to Valley Race

To mark the 30^th anniversary Whistler Blackcomb has commissioned a quilt made out of the race T-shirts spanning the entire history of the event. The result is an impressive memento of one of Whistler’s best-loved races. The quilt will be auctioned off to raise money for the Whistler Museum. To make a bid for this piece of Whistler racing history check out the Whistler Museum website (www.whistlermuseum.org) or call us on 604 932 2019. The quilt will be displayed at the Peak to Valley race itself and then afterwards at the Whistler Museum. Bidding will close on February 8th, 2014.

Link to auction here.

Summer Skiing? A Whistler Tradition.Summer Skiing? A Whistler Tradition.

June 29, 2013 Whistler Museum 5 Comments

Skiing in summer? In Whistler, that isn’t as crazy an idea as it sounds. With its year-round glaciers, everyone from pint-sized campers to larger-than-life ski stars have taken advantage of Whistler’s unique setting to squeeze in some turns during the “offseason.”

The sun-filled sky acts as a perfect balance to the chilled mountain air, leading to peak skiing conditions – pun definitely intended.

Since the first lifts were installed in the 1960s Whistler has always been was a popular ski destination. Perhaps a victim of its own success, long lineups during the Winter discouraged many impatient skiers, but during the summer this was not the case. Many become occupied with the variety of summer activities available in the Whistler area, such as canoeing on Alta Lake, so the mountain was left to the die-hard skiers.

Whistler’s Glacier Bowl was also the only permanent snowfield in Canada that was easily accessible by lifts, a convenience factor which trumped earlier summer skiing efforts powered by helicopters, or simply placing one foot ini front of the other with your ski gear on your back.

The first summer ski camps on the Whistler glacier were pioneered by Toni Sailer, a medal-winning member of the Austrian ski racing team. Sailer’s motivation behind developing the ski camp program on Whistler was largely driven by the need for competitive skiers to stay in shape and to improve their techniques between competition seasons, but as word of the camps spread recreational skiers also became active participants.

Four types of instruction (Advanced Racing, Intermediate and Novice Racing, Recreational, and Freestyle) became the norm, and accommodated skiers of all levels who received personalized instruction by internationally known skiers such as Nancy Greene Raine, Wayne Wong, and Jim McConkey.

These ski camps inspired many young skiers to enter the competitive world of ski racing, among them being Dave Murray, who attended his first Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camp at the age of 15. Murray quickly rose to fame as one of the Crazy Canucks – the Canadian ski racing team – who took the European-dominated ski racing world by storm with their reckless style of skiing.

After 10 years on the competitive ski racing circuit Murray retired to become the director of skiing at Whistler Mountain, as well as the organizer and lead instructor of the summer ski camps. In 1984, the name of Whistler’s most popular summer ski camp was officially changed to the Atomic Dave Murray Whistler Summer Ski Camp, and its fame grew to attract many skiers from Europe and Japan.

During the late 1980s the popularity of snowboarding on Blackcomb Mountain was also growing, prompting a need for the development of summer camps that catered to this new breed of mountain rider. The Snoboard Shop Camp of Champions (established in 1989) was one of the first summer camps to cater to snowboarders, and by 2008 60% of Whistler-Blackcomb campers were snowboarders, indicating a mass migration away from camps dedicated to the traditional snow sports.

Camps for all types of snow sport – as well as for the newer mountain biking market – have continued to grow in popularity in Whistler as the draw of the year-round glaciers continue to provide excellent conditions for Whistler’s summer ski and snowboard camps.

Tag: Dave Murray

Stephanie Sloan – Freestyle SuperstarStephanie Sloan – Freestyle Superstar

Dave Murray: Whistler’s First Home-Grown HeroDave Murray: Whistler’s First Home-Grown Hero

Peak to Valley Race & FundraiserPeak to Valley Race & Fundraiser

Summer Skiing? A Whistler Tradition.Summer Skiing? A Whistler Tradition.