Tag: Garibaldi’s Whistler News

Whistler Mountain’s Spring CarnivalWhistler Mountain’s Spring Carnival

May 28, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

In the early years of lift operations on Whistler Mountain, the end of the ski season was sometimes determined not by the conditions or lack of snow but by a lack of skiers. For some skiers, the end of the Easter holidays marked the time to put away their skis and start pulling out tennis rackets and golf clubs, even if the chairlifts were still running. In order to keep people coming to the ski area through May, Whistler Mountain hosted a Ski or Spring (the name depended on the year) Carnival over the May long weekend.

According to Hugh Smythe, who began working for the lift company in its first season, this effort to keep skiers in the area was driven in large part by Jack Bright. Bright arrived at Whistler Mountain as the new area manager in early 1967. While the mountain manager Dave Mathews was responsible for everything that moved on the hill, Bright was responsible for everything else, including marketing.

Jack Bright, Mountain Manager for Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection.

The first Carnival took place in 1967, though there is little information about it in the archives apart from a mention in the April 22, 1967 edition of Ski Trails advertising “a razzle-dazzle weekend lined up that will include queen candidates, races and a variety of hijinks.” By the spring of 1968, however, the publication of Garibaldi’s Whistler News (GWN) provided much more detail about the event.

The Ski Carnival of 1968 began on Friday, May 17 with a “ski cruise” from Vancouver to Squamish up the Howe Sound with entertainment and refreshments. From Squamish skiers were transported by bus to Whistler Mountain to prepare for the events of Saturday, which included an obstacle race, a gelandesprung contest (while gelandesprung in a type of jump in skiing, it was described in GWN as “people on skis will be jumping off things”), a fashion show, and a Carnival Ball in the Roundhouse. The Ball had a dress code of “informal apres ski wear,” with attendees having to make their way over from the top of the Red Chair. On Sunday the World Championship Inner Tube Race was followed by a “fairly legitimate, though easy” slalom race and a barbecue at one of the lakes in the valley. After a morning of skiing on Monday, skiers were encouraged to attend the rodeo in Mount Currie hosted by members of the Lil’wat Nation. The schedule for the Spring Carnival of 1969 was very similar, though the cruise would appear to have been replaced with sail boat races.

Jack Bright skiing with Margaret Trudeau on one of her visits to Whistler Mountain. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection.

Hosting events like the Carnival was just one of the many ways skiing on Whistler was advertised during Bright’s tenure. He and Lynn Mathews published GWN three to four times a year and distributed it as widely as possible. Bright also attended and sent employees to meetings with ski clubs and tour operators, as well as ski shows across North America. He even hired Jim Rice to make a ski movie on Whistler Mountain so that they had something to show at these meetings and shows. On Sundays, ski instructors would put on their uniforms to show ski films in Roy and Jane Ferris’ living room at the Highland Lodge so that guests could see what the coming week might look like and in 1968, convinced that the ski school needed a big name to attract more skiers, Bright and Smythe went to Tod Mountain (today Sun Peaks) to persuade Jim McConkey to be the new ski school director at Whistler. In the mid-1970s, Bright and his wife Ann developed the Whistler Inn and JB’s Restaurant (today Roland’s), which they continued to operate after Bright left the lift company.

Four-year-old Justin Adams advertises for JB’s while skirting the municipal sign bylaw. Whistler Question Collection, 1982.

Although there is no official Ski or Spring Carnival hosted on Whistler Mountain today, decades of marketing efforts, beginning with those of Jack Bright and other early lift company employees, mean that few skiers or riders are unaware that ski season goes into May.

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Getting Ready for the 1973/74 SeasonGetting Ready for the 1973/74 Season

November 7, 2023 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

It’s not unusual, as we approach the reopening of the lifts each November, to hear conversations about the coming winter – what to expect, what will be new, and what will be different. In their Fall 1973 issue, Garibaldi’s Whistler News (GWN), the publication put out by Garibaldi Lifts Ltd., tried to anticipate such questions and provide some answers. So, what could could skiers (it would be another sixteen years before snowboarders were welcomed on Whistler) expect of Whistler Mountain fifty years ago?

GWN began with the announcement that all lift rates would remain the same as the previous season. This meant that an adult skier could expect to pay $155 for an annual pass (just over $1,000 when adjusted for inflation), while day rates ranged from $5 half to $7 weekend days. Annual passes could be purchased by cheque if accompanied by two passport size photographs or in person at the ticket office, where photographs for passes were taken free of charge. With this pass, skiers could access over twenty runs and eight lifts.

Garibaldi’s Whistler News was used to promote the ski area to potential skiers by sharing the good news and offerings of Whistler Mountain. Garibaldi’s Whistler News, Fall 1973

Skiers who were familiar with the terrain on Whistler Mountain would notice changes to some of the runs after a major summer works program. On Upper and Lower Franz’s, $10,000 had been spent widening over 2km from 15m to 45m. Blasting on the Downhill run had completed the leveling and grooming of certain pitches. Around the Green Chair, the lift line had been widened in anticipation of installing another parallel lift for the 1974/75 season. The lift company had also enlarged and upgraded the kitchen facilities at the Roundhouse, as well as installing a concrete floor.

For skiers who were new to the Whistler Mountain area, GWN provided a guide on “How to Handle a Big Mountain.” According to the guide, “Whistler is a huge, friendly, thoroughly enjoyable ski mountain, but for some skiers, seeing it for the first time, it’s overpowering,” and so they provided “hints” and tips to make it more approachable.

The view of the top of Whistler Mountain, sure to encourage skiers to visit. Garibaldi’s Whistler News, Fall 1973.

According to GWN, the first thing to do was to check the weather conditions on the weatherboard located next to the ticket office. Then, it was recommended that skiers familiarize themselves with the international trail marking signs to indicate the difficulty level of a run (the same green circle, blue square and black diamond that you’ll see today) before heading up the Gondola or Olive Chair to the Red or Orange Chairs. GWN suggested Whiskey Jack, Ego Bowl, Pony Trail, and Olympic Run as the first runs to try out, though those who headed down Olympic Run needed to check the bus schedules at the Information Booth to ensure they got a ride back to the lifts.

The guide also provided tips on where to eat lunch (the Roundhouse or L’Après, both owned by the lift company), where to find information on the mountain, and which runs to take at the end of the day. One piece of advice they included, which is often repeated today, was to “bear in mind that most ski accidents happen late in the day – so don’t take that last extra run when you’re tired.” While GWN didn’t instruct skiers to expect long lineups, bad traffic, or less than optimal conditions (not surprising in a publication intended to promote the ski area), experienced skiers would have known that those were possibilities.

Skiers in line to take the gondola up Whistler Mountain in the early 1970s. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection.

Those who head up Whistler Mountain this winter will find that a lot has changed over the past fifty seasons, from opening new facilities to merging with Blackcomb Mountain to adapting to changing weather conditions, and might even find some changes since last winter.

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The first decade of grooming on Whistler MountainThe first decade of grooming on Whistler Mountain

March 21, 2023 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

Today Whistler Blackcomb has a fleet of 30 snow cats grooming the resort each night. This is a far cry from the limited grooming that occurred when Whistler Mountain opened in 1966.

Those lucky enough to have skied on Whistler Mountain in the 1960s may remember moguls the size of Volkswagens and ski runs covered in felled trees. Whistler Mountain had a single Thiokol and a bulldozer to maintain the ski runs in the early years. The Thiokol was essentially a van on tracks, which was useful for knocking the air out of powder and breaking up ice crusts, but it could not do anything about icy moguls. These machines could turn ice crust into sugary snow at the rate of half a run per night, so it took two days to groom one run.

Watching cornice blasting from the Thiokol groomer in 1968. At this time the Thiokol was one half of the grooming fleet on Whistler Mountain. Photo courtesy of Cliff Jennings.

Cliff Jennings spent two winters working as a groomer on Whistler Mountain when there were only the two machines. He remembers track packing the steep section of the downhill course known as the Weasel. (Track packing involves grooming the run by packing the snow down using only the bulldozer tracks.) “You would go over the edge and the snow was coming over the cab. You put your feet almost on the dash and put it into fourth gear so that the tracks were traveling as fast as you were otherwise you could lose the track. When the snow stopped coming over the top you knew you were on the road below midstation and you’d go back up around again.” Skiers’ side-slipping would then smooth the finish for race days.

Fixing a broken track on the John Deere bulldozer in 1967. Photo courtesy of Cliff Jennings.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the method of flying blindly down the hill in a bulldozer did not continue as the permanent method for grooming the Weasel, and volunteer Weasel Workers began grooming the slope entirely by ski.

The fleet of groomers grew over time and in 1975 the Fall edition of Garibaldi’s Whistler News included an article on the grooming on Whistler Mountain. ‘At Whistler we use over-snow vehicles called Thiokols, towing various pieces of machinery to literally farm the snow, just as a farmer cultivates his field. At Whistler we have four Thiokol 2100’s. The equipment they tow consists of four rollers, two mogul cutters, a powder maker (with another also on order for this winter) and a harrow.’

The article goes on to say, ‘The eight Thiokol operators work in two shifts to provide maximum coverage of the runs. The day shift starts up the Gondola run at 5:00 a.m. in the morning and begins grooming at midstation. Here they evaluate the snow conditions and decide what equipment to tow. Mogul cutters and powder makers and the harrow, if the snow is hard and heavily moguled, or if it is a typical deep powder day, rollers to make that fine packed powder skiing we all enjoy so much.’

A Thiokol grooming Whistler Mountain in 1974. Benjamin Collection.

Even with the improved technology most of the runs remained ungroomed and the machine tracks themselves would leave chunks of snow and ice along the runs. The corduroy that we know and love today would not come along until later.

Above: A groomer on Whistler Blackcomb in 2022. The machines grooming the mountain have changed slightly since 1966. Photo by Christie Fitzpatrick, courtesy of Vail Resorts.

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Gassing up in WhistlerGassing up in Whistler

February 7, 2023 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Most people will only visit the gas stations in Whistler today for gas. There was a time, however, when the gas stations offered many much-needed services to the growing community.

Looking south along Highway 99 in July 1979. The Gulf gas station sign is visible on the left, near the highway construction. Whistler Question Collection.

Before its closure, the Husky was the longest-standing conventional gas station in Whistler, but it was not the first. The B/A gas station opened not long after Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. declared Whistler Mountain open for business. In 1969, The B/A, or British American Oil Company, was amalgamated into the Canadian Gulf Oil Company and the gas station became a Gulf, easily recognised by the orange and blue circular logo. Located in today’s Creekside, where Coastal Culture and Tim Hortons are now found, the first gas station in Whistler was the place to go if you needed to buy groceries and it could get busy after skiing. Identifying a need in the community and a business opportunity they also installed a washing machine and dryer that was used as a public laundry.

The Gulf gas station, May 1978. Whistler Question Collection.

It was not long before there was competition for these services when the Union 76 gas station opened in 1970. Then, in July 1977, the Union 1976 rebranded to Husky, and the station remained a Husky until a fortnight ago when the longstanding Husky station became the Co-Op. Throughout that time the Husky went through many iterations, expanding multiple times.

The Husky gas station in October 1978. Whistler Question Collection.

Garibaldi’s Whistler News in 1977 advertised only two places in Whistler to buy groceries. According to the paper, they were, ‘FOOD PLUS, located on Highway 99 in the Husky Service Centre. Carries fresh and frozen produce, meat, pharmaceutical products, sundries.’ Along with the ‘MINIMART at Whistler-Rainbow Gulf Station stocked with a variety of foods. Open daily.’

With groceries only available at the gas stations, those visiting Whistler were encouraged to bring their food if they wanted to cook at home and most people we talk to remember buying candy at the gas stations but going to Squamish for grocery shopping. Bob Penner, a long-time Whistler local recalled, “You did have to go to Squamish for food because at the gas station there were two types of beans and a pound of sugar at the shop. We would pool our things and shop. Everything was out of cans, canned meat – spam was huge. Kraft dinner was great.”

Peggy and Pierre Merlin, owners of the Gulf in their grocery store in the early 1970s. Whistler Mountain Collection.

When The Grocery Store opened in the Village at the beginning of 1981 the competition ramped up. In January 1982, Jan Systad who previously ran the popular Cookhouse at Mons took over the operation of the deli, store, and laundry facilities at the Husky, where she continued to serve her “much-sought-after home-cooked goodies”. In 1983, the store at the Gulf was bought and renamed the Rainbow Grocer. Photos from The Whistler Question at the time show deli items for sale, including bacon for $2.19/lb and Coho Salmon steaks for $4.00/lb.

The Rainbow Grocer in the Gulf station in 1983. Whistler Question Collection.

In 1985, Petro-Canada acquired all of the Gulf gas stations in Canada and the Gulf station soon transitioned to a Petro-Can. In 2000 it was released that the Petro-Can underground storage tanks had been leaking, likely for several years, disrupting Intrawest’s plans for the redevelopment of Creekside. Remediation started to remove the petrochemicals and hydrocarbons from the ground and remediation efforts continued until 2006 with the Petro-Can open for business as usual. Then in 2006, Whistler’s first conventional gas station was demolished to finish the remediation works. While the flier to patrons said it was a temporary closure for redevelopment, the empty lot and large hole remained for many years and a gas station never did reopen on the site.

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