Tag: Garibaldi’s Whistler News

Poop or Chaos? A Whistler Sewer StoryPoop or Chaos? A Whistler Sewer Story

January 10, 2023 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

As we have recently learnt at the Whistler Museum, maintenance problems can pop up at the most inconvenient times and create quite the disruption. The same was true when a truck came down on power lines in Whistler one New Year’s Eve.

Disposing of human waste was an ongoing challenge for residents of Alta Lake and Whistler until the wastewater treatment plant opened in 1977. Prior to the sewer system, residents had private septic systems or outhouses, which posed environmental and practical problems for the growing community. On the weekends Brian Leighton, who lived in Creekside, regularly had to knock on the door of the upstairs units asking if they would hold off from flushing the toilets, as the septic system would back up through his toilet when all the units were full.

According to Garibaldi’s Whistler News, in 1977 Whistler had a permanent population of 800, but this swelled to nearly 7000 during the peak season and a reliable sewer system was required before the town could grow further. The importance of the sewer was not understated by Mayor Pat Carleton during the grand opening of the wastewater treatment plant, which included lunch, tours and much fanfare, when he said, “The foundation of Whistler’s future is this plant and sewer system.”

The sewer system was an important step before construction of Whistler Village could begin. Garibaldi’s Whistler News.

Despite initially being built to accommodate a growing community, the wastewater treatment plant could not keep up with the rapid and relentless increase in the population. Cliff Jennings was originally in charge of water distribution and sewer collection for the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) before becoming the superintendent of the wastewater plant. According to Cliff, every two years the wastewater treatment plant was having an expansion. However, with the economy slowing in 1981 there was no money to improve the plant coming from the Provincial or Federal Governments despite the population increasing. “We were pretty much always three years behind until just very, very recently. It was always just [cross your fingers].”

Continual construction of the plant during this time had its own challenges. Timing had to be perfect because it could only be powered down for short periods, around 90 minutes, before the waste had to be diverted, which meant raw sewage would be pumped directly into the river. “We never had to purposely divert but we got awfully close,” said Cliff.

Mayor Pat Carleton hands Cliff Jennings the keys to the municipal truck, August 13, 1978. Whistler Question Collection.

On the fateful New Year’s Eve, the power company had been working on the lines at the intersection of Highway 99 and Nesters when the hydraulic lift broke, landing the lift on the power lines. To get the lift off and the lines restored the power would have to be turned off to the entire Valley while it was fixed. This included the Village, which relied on floodlights as the main security measure on New Year’s Eve. Bringing down the lights would have meant total chaos in the busy Village, and would be questionable for safety. However, without turning the entire power grid off the line could not be fixed, and power to Whistler Cay and Nesters would be off all night until BC Hydro could fix the truck on the line. That would mean that the wastewater plant for these areas would also have no power for far longer than the 90 minutes, and without power, diversion of wastewater into the environment.

Due to safety concerns in the Village, the decision was made to keep the power off to Whistler Cay and Nesters for the night, rather than turn all the power off to the entire Valley to fix the line. Thankfully Cliff Jennings and the wastewater team were instead able to keep the treatment plant going with a diesel generator. The lucky team got to ring in the New Year’s with the sewage in the dark, but kept it going long enough that the lines could be fixed without any diversion, while revellers could continue as normal in the Village.

Revellers setting off fireworks on New Year’s Eve in Whistler Village, 1985. The Village was still busy but there were fewer security measures in place. Whistler Question Collection.

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Whistler Mountain’s Mighty Rope TowWhistler Mountain’s Mighty Rope Tow

December 27, 2022 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Though often overshadowed by new gondolas, colourful chairlifts, and T-bars that open up exciting new terrain, rope tows are an important part of the history of skiing in Whistler. Requiring no towers, rope tows can be relatively easy and inexpensive to build and move around and have often been used to service slopes for beginners and small hills. The first ski lift operated in the Whistler valley was a tope tow built by Dick Fairhurst in 1960 using an old Ford V8 motor under the power lines along Alta Lake Road, where the Fairhursts owned Cypress Lodge. Rope tows were also used by the Rainbow Ski Area, Blackcomb Mountain, and Whistler Mountain.

During Whistler Mountain’s early seasons, rope tows were also essential to providing beginner terrain but, because they often moved around, they were not included on trail maps and can be hard to trace today. In a small, one paragraph article in November 1967, Garibaldi’s Whistler News announced the installation of a new beginner lift on Whistler Mountain, a 900-foot surface cable lift manufactured by Mighty-Mite near the upper terminal of the Blue Chair. Not finding any other information in our records, we asked around and were able to find out more about this lift, including its role in selling season passes (thank you to Lynn Mathews, Renate Bareham and Hugh Smythe for your help!).

This Mighty-Mite lift was installed for the 1967/68 season, the second full season of operations on Whistler Mountain. According to Mathews, the lift company faced two difficulties: a limited budget for building runs and lifts over the summer, and limited beginner terrain except for at the gondola base at the valley. At the time, Whistler Mountain would open on weekends as soon as there was enough snow in the alpine, but no snow in the valley meant that beginner skiers would “stand in the area around the top of the Red Chair not knowing what to do or where to go.” To alleviate this problem, the Mighty-Mite was installed around what is now the top of the Emerald Express and the Whistler terminal of the Peak to Peak Gondola. Beginners could easily ski from there to the Roundhouse and were able to download via the Red Chair and gondola. When there was more snow in the valley, the Mighty-Mite was moved down to the beginner terrain at the gondola base.

A youngster makes their way up the Mighty-Mite lift on the beginner terrain in today’s Creekside area. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection.

In late Octobers and into Novembers, the Mighty-Mite was used by Jim McConkey and the ski school to assess and train instructors for the coming season. The Mighty-Mite was also used to entice skiers to buy season passes. As Mathews recalled, the lift company needed to sell season passes in the fall in order to fund the winter operations and so the Mighty-Mite was installed at the top of the Red Chair very early one season so the lift company could take photos of people skiing at the top of Whistler Mountain. These photos were used to advertise early season skiing in newspapers in Vancouver and Seattle. People were encouraged to “buy early, ski early” and ski enough by New Year’s Day to pay off their ski pass. The campaign worked and hundreds of people bought their season passes.

The Mighty-Mite continued to be used at the top and bottom of Whistler Mountain into the 1970s until it was replaced by a Harusch Handle Tow manufactured in Squamish. Over the next decades, various forms of rope tows could be found on both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. Today, however, beginner terrain is more likely to be serviced by a magic carpet and rope tows have become much harder to spot in the Whistler area.

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Building the BootBuilding the Boot

November 9, 2021 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Visitors coming to Whistler today have a variety of accommodation options, from campsites to luxury hotel suites, but in the 1970s there weren’t nearly as many choices. In 1972, Garibaldi’s Whistler News described the situation as: “There are no big, fancy resort-type hotels in the area offering everything under the sun. Instead, scattered around the base of the lifts are numerous inns and restaurants offering a good selection of accommodations and dining facilities.” Most of these establishments, such as the Cheakamus Inn, Highland Lodge, and Christiana Inn, were located around the area now known as Creekside. The Ski Boot, however, was a little further away.

Ski Boot Hotel, later the Shoestring Lodge and Boot Pub

In 1966, David and Irene Andrews purchased a ten-acre site along Highway 99 and Fitzsimmons Creek for $10,000, about 5 km north of the newly opened gondola base. Over the next year, they began construction of the Ski Boot Motel, a “modern” motel expected to open during the 1967/68 ski season. The Andrews offered a variety of accommodations in their 32 units, from private rooms to suites that slept eight. During its first season, the Ski Boot Motel provided reasonable rates, sometimes as low as $5/night, and even offered a “ski week” that included five nights accommodations, meals, and lift tickets for just $67.50.

Over the next few years, more development was planned and built north of the ski lifts, though the majority of the lodges and nightlife continued to be found around the gondola base. In 1971, the Andrews announced a major investment of $100,000 (today about $1.35 million) in their Ski Boot property, now called the Ski Boot Lodge Hotel, to turn it into “Whistler’s Largest and Most Complete Tourist Resort.” They proposed to add a full-service dining room, cocktail lounge, beer parlour, convention facilities, laundromat, Finnish sauna, and additional accommodations, along with plans for live entertainment and a bus to transport skiers between the lifts and the lodge (the purple bus became known to some as the “Purple People Eater,” no double from the 1958 song). The beer parlour opened to the public (guests and residents alike) in January 1972, with the dining room following that March. The lodge also introduced two new members of staff that season: two St. Bernard puppies named Ski and Boot. While rates did increase during the period, the Ski Boot continued to be known for reasonable prices.

The Ski Boot Hotel and Bus, with additions under construction. WMSC Collection

The Andrews reportedly sold the Ski Boot Lodge Hotel for $350,000 in 1973, though not much is known about this period. Over the next few decades, the property was sold numerous times and went by various names, including the White Gold Inn (during which time exotic dancing was first introduced), Fitzsimmons Lodge, Bavarian Inn, and the Shoestring Lodge. The term “Boot,” however, continued to be associated with the property and specifically the Boot Pub.

Despite being located outside of both the gondola base and later the Whistler Village, the Andrews’ early commitment to reasonable rates and additions to the original lodge laid the foundation for the Boot to grow into an institution as the Whistler area continued to develop and grow. Though it closed its doors in 2006 and was then demolished, many residents and visitors still fondly share their stories of times spent at the Boot, whether they stayed there when they first arrived in Whistler, ate at Gaitors as a child, or spent memorable evenings at the bar.

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Reporting on Alta LakeReporting on Alta Lake

March 30, 2021 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Last Thursday (March 25, 2021) the Whistler Museum’s second virtual Speaker Series took a look at journalism in Whistler since the 1970s. Our guests Paul Burrows, Charlie Doyle, Bob Barnett, and Clare Ogilvie, have worked on and founded some of the best known publications in the valley: The Whistler Question, The Whistler Answer, and Pique Newsmagazine. Before we explored recent journalism, we took a look back at earlier sources of news in the area.

The entire Alta Lake School student body, 1933.  Some these students were the ones to start the Alta Lake School Gazette. Back row (l to r): Wilfred Law, Tom Neiland, Helen Woods, Kay Thompson, Bob Jardine, Howard Gebhart; front row: Doreen Tapley, George Woods, Jack Woods.

The first source of news published in Alta Lake came from the Alta Lake School in 1939. Older students at the school created the Alta Lake School Club, which sponsored The Alta Lake School Gazette.  The Gazette published six issues from February 11 to June 5, 1939, and was staffed by names that may sound familiar: Bob Jardine, Tom Neiland, and Helen, George and Jack Woods. The stated purpose of the Gazette was “to give a current account of happening each month as seen by its editor and his staff.”  Its column “Local News of Interest” included a mix of opinions, observations, and gossip about the residents of the Alta Lake area and their comings and goings. The Gazette also included a few pieces about news outside of Alta Lake, such as a boxing match and an editorial on the Canadian Navy, which were most likely put together with information from the radio or The Vancouver Sun, which was available at the store at Rainbow Lodge.

First Alta Lake Community Club picnic on the point at Rainbow.  Philip Collection.

In 1958, the Alta Lake Community Club (ALCC) began publishing a newsletter to which members and friends could subscribe. The newsletter went by various names between 1958 and 1961: The Alta Lake Reminder, Community Weekly Sunset, the Alta Lake Echo, and the Alta Lake Owl. As a community newsletter, it wasn’t necessarily known for its serious reporting but did keep people up-to-date on the travels of residents and frequent visitors to the area, community events such as dances and clean-ups, and the weather. The newsletter also included a series about the local environment by then-club president Bill Bailiff and an abridged version of Hamlet (sadly, the museum does not have a complete retelling of Hamlet from the ALCC, which appears to be far more humorous than Shakespeare’s version).  In 1961, the newsletter was taken over by the Alta Lake Ratepayers Association and then ceased publication.

Garibaldi’s Whistler News advertises spring skiing in their Spring 1969 issue.  The entire publication was meant to promote Whistler Mountain.

A lot changed in the area between 1961 and 1967, when Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. began publishing Garibaldi’s Whistler News (GWN) in November.  Early editions of GWN were put together by Jack Bright and Lynn Mathews, who described the publication as a “good news” newspaper meant to promote Whistler Mountain.  GWN reported on developments in the valley, such as new lodges and businesses, and some years included a column by Ray Gallagher of Brandywine Falls Resort similar to the community news reported in earlier newsletters. However, as the purpose of GWN was, as Lynn stated, “to get people up that road,” few stories said anything negative about the area and the development happening around Whistler Mountain.

Outside of the Alta Lake area, local news could be found in the newspapers of Squamish. The Squamish Times, owned by Cloudesley Hoodspith from 1957 to 1992, and the Squamish Citizen (also published by Hoodspith) included Alta Lake/Whistler news, but their primary focus was not on this area.  It was not until the 1970s that the newly formed Resort Municipality of Whistler would be represented by an official local newspaper.

To learn more about journalism in Whistler from the 1970s to the present, you can find the video from last week’s event here.

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