Tag: Whistler Mountain Ski Club

Maximum ExposureMaximum Exposure

April 2, 2024 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

It’s often the case that some weeks are busier than others, whether they’re planned that way or brought about through unexpected changes. In late March and early April 1980, Whistler Mountain had a very busy week of events, only some of which they had planned to host.

The Labatt World Cup Freestyle Championships were scheduled to take place on Grouse Mountain from March 28 to 30. However, by March 20 it was announced that warm weather meant that Grouse would be unable to host the competition. According to Peter MacKay-Smith, spokesperson for Grouse, “It’s unfortunate but we had to face the fact that we would have to move an enormous amount of snow to provide a safe and adequate ballet and mogul course.” Instead, the three day event featuring around 100 skiers from around the world was shifted to Whistler Mountain.

The Labatt World Cup Freestyle Championships on Whistler Mountain. Whistler Question Collection, 1980.

Canadian skiers were looking strong heading into the competition, with Stephanie Sloan and Greg Athans leading the women’s and men’s divisions. Along with ballet, aerial, and moguls competitions, a pro-am mogul bash was also planned for March 26 to help set up the bumps ahead of the mogul competition on the upper T-bar headwall. Teams of three were made up of one professional and two amateaur skiers and the event was used as a warm up for both competitors and the lift company.

As with many events held on Whistler Mountain, the weather was not all that cooperative. Conditions for the World Cup Ballet Championships held on Friday, March 28 were described as “somewhat unfriendly with blowing snow and high winds,” even blowing out the fencing and banners that lined the course near the top of the Little Red Chair. The mogul event scheduled for Saturday, March 29 had to be postponed after 35cm of snow fell on the course. Both the moguls and the aerials took place on Sunday, March 30, making for a busy and tiring day for competitors. All of this was followed by a presentation ceremony at the base of the lifts where, having both held onto their leads, Greg Athans and Stephanie Sloan were crowned as World Cup Freestyle Champions. Sponsored by Labatts, there was also $30,000 in prize money given out.

Downhill racing on Whistler Mountain while the freestyle events go ahead. Whistler Question Collection, 1980.

Though running the World Cup Freestyle might seem like enough for one week, there were also downhill races running on Whistler Mountain Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday (March 30 to April 2). While freestyle skiers demonstrated their acrobatic abilities, a Nancy Greene Ski League GS race was held on part of the Orange Chair downhill (today part of Upper Dave Murray Downhill). About 50 skiers aged 6 to 14 from the Whistler Mountain Ski Club (WMSC) and the Red Mountain Ski Club of Rossland raced to earn points for their clubs. In the end, Red Mountain came out ahead with 197 points against Whistler Mountain’s 154. The top placing WMSC racer in 7th place was Willy Raine (son of Nancy Greene and Al Raine).

Jill Warland and Jamie Parsons, winners of the first Bob Parsons Memorial Downhill. Whistler Question Collection, 1980.

Even as the freestyle competitions went on and young skiers raced down the GS course, slightly older junior racers trained on the Back Bowl course for two downhill races held Monday and Tuesday (April 1 and 2). These races made up the first Bob Parsons Memorial Downhill race, named for one of the founding Weasel Workers and Chief of Course for many downhill races on Whistler Mountain before his death in 1979. These races were restricted to racers who were “up and coming” with “100 FIS points or more.” Unlike the freestyle events, both downhill race days were cold and clear and the event went smoothly. Over the two days, Jill Warland of Kimberley and Jamie Parsons (fittingly the son of Bob Parsons) came in first in both downhills and the Bob Parsons Memorial Trophy was awarded to Jamie by his mother Lee.

According to the Whistler Question editorial following all of these events, Whistler Mountain came through this period with “a minimum of confusion and a maximum of exposure,” leading to a lot of positive publicity for the growing resort.

Connecting PhotographsConnecting Photographs

November 21, 2023 Whistler 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.

Volunteers of 2010: The Weasel WorkersVolunteers of 2010: The Weasel Workers

March 10, 2020 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

This past month, the Whistler Museum opened a temporary exhibit on the Sea to Sky volunteers of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The exhibit will run through March as Whistler continues to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Paralympic Games. One of the groups included in this exhibit is a group that formed well before the Games ever came to Whistler.

The Weasel Workers formed in the 1970s when Bob Parsons bad his crew of six prepped the course for the first World Cup Downhill races in Whistler. Most of the early volunteers were parents of Whistler Mountain Ski Club members, but membership grew over the years as Weasels continued to work on the courses for large races on Whistler and began sending volunteers to help build courses for World Cups, World Championships, and Winter Olympics on other mountains. When the Games were awarded to Whistler and Vancouver in 2003, the Weasel Workers began recruiting and building their team well in advance of the alpine events held on Whistler Mountain.

Weasels on the course with no sign of the sun. Photo: Lance the Ski Patroller

During the 2010 Games, the number of Weasel Workers swelled to about 1,500 volunteers. Volunteers came from across Canada and other nations to join a core group of 400 to 500 volunteers from Vancouver and the Sea to Sky area. About 300 volunteers worked specifically for the Paralympics, and a couple hundred Weasel Workers volunteered to work for both the Olympics and Paralympics. Weasel volunteers began their work for the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) on Whistler Mountain as early as mid-November 2008 and continued to clean the courses well after the Games had left town.

Even during the Games, the Weasels continued to be a family affair. Bunny Hume, who began volunteering the with Weasels with her husband Dick in the early 1980s when their grandsons began ski racing, volunteered alongside multiple family members. She handed out and collected race bibs, her son Rick was the Chief of Course for the women’s course, and her grandsons Jeff and Scott worked on the dye crew. Rick’s wife Lynne also worked as a Weasel during the Paralympics.

Weasel Workers working on the downhill course for the Olympics. Photo: Lance the Ski Patroller

Some of the Weasel Workers who began volunteering as ski club parents even had children competing in the Games. Long-time Weasel Andrée Janyk, who could often be found working on a course with a smile, saw two of her children, Britt and Mike, race in the Olympics in their hometown.

Karl Ricker, also a long-time dedicated Weasel Worker, was on the mountain trying to prevent people from crossing where the winch-cats were working when he received the news that Maëlle Ricker, his daughter, had won a gold medal in snowboard-cross on Cypress Mountain and become the first Canadian woman to claim an Olympic gold on home soil. He went down to Vancouver to attend her medal ceremony, but was back at work on the course early the next morning.

Despite rain, wet snow, and warm weather over the first few days of the Games, and the postponement of three races, the Weasel Workers created and maintained courses for the men’s, women’s, and Paralympic alpine races that were seen around the world in 2010, and those who came to Whistler to work with the Weasels became just as much a part of the team as the long-time volunteers. Patrick Maloney, then the Weasel president, told The Whistler Question that, “Anybody that’s on that track is a Weasel Worker.” This sentiment was echoed by Weasel Worker Colin Pitt-Taylor, who claimed that, “as soon as you started working on an alpine course, you became a Weasel Worker, whether you like it or not.”