In the 1980s the Whistler Question began posing a question to three to six people and publishing their responses under “Whistler’s Answers” (not to be confused with the Whistler Answer). Each week, we’ll be sharing one question and the answers given back in 1984. Please note, all names/answers/occupations/neighbourhoods represent information given to the Question at the time of publishing and do not necessarily reflect the person today.
Some context for this week’s question: Whistler’s 1984 Musicfest was a two-day series of free concerts in the three village squares (Village Square, Mountain Square and Sundial Place) over August 11 & 12 put on by the Whistler Resort Association (today known as Tourism Whistler). The acts booked included folk musicians, African drum groups, brass bands and more and featured different genres, rather than focusing on jazz as the 1983 festival had.
Question: What did you think of the music festival?
John Bartosik – Photographer – Whistler Centre
It was good music and attendance, but I think for a world class resort it was too mediocre. I’ve been to music festivals and concerts held in farmers’ fields that attract thousands and give people something to remember and talk about for years.
Barry Johnson – Carpenter – Alpha Lake Village
Very poor. It’s not something people would drive here for. They could have this kind of stuff every weekend. When you have a jazz festival you draw in people who wouldn’t come here otherwise. Even though organizers are aiming for business, they should try for some real quality events as well. They’re just dealing with dollars and cents.
Robert Bishop – Realtor – Whistler Village
I much prefer this music festival because of the variety. The appeal of jazz is limited. With this, you get a lot more people who are going to enjoy it. Six hours of jazz, for instance, is way too much. My favourite type of music is plain rock and roll.
In 2016, we wrote an article on Jim McConkey where we mentioned him bringing in his collection of 16mm ski films. At the time, we were unfortunately unable to view them as we did not have the necessary equipment. Well, it has been a long time since 2016 and in the at time we were able to acquire the right equipment for digitizing 16mm film thanks to the support of the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation and have now gone through and digitized Jim McConkey’s collection, finding some very interesting videos.
“Diamond” Jim McConkey was an accomplished ski instructor for many years before he came up to Whistler. Born in Barrie, Ontario in 1926, he quickly fell in love with skiing and moved out west in 1948 to ski the bigger mountains in the Rockies. He worked as the first ski school director in Park City, Utah, and eventually moved to Tod Mountain (now operating as Sun Peaks) to run the ski and rental shop at the mountain. In 1968, he was invited to open his own ski and rental shop in Whistler, as well as running the ski school. He ran the Whistler Mountain ski school until 1980, and the ski and rental shop until 1985. Jim also ran the second heli-ski operation, through Okanagan Helicopters, where he could take clients skiing on the glaciers around Whistler Mountain.
Jim McConkey is shown posing for his official Whistler Mountain Ski School portrait. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection
Throughout his career, Jim made lots of ski films in places all over North America, with accomplished filmmakers such as Warren Miller and Douglas Sinclair. In 2016, Jim stopped by the museum and brought with him his collection of old 16mm films, which we were then unable to view. However, the museum recently acquired the RetroScan, a piece of equipment that allows us to scan these 16mm films into a 4k video format and, using some other software as well, we were able to get both the video and the audio off these 16mm films and finally take a look at them.
Jim collected a wide variety of ski films over the years and has films from all over the world. As of right now, we have 12 films digitized from his personal collection, films such as “Marker Ski,” which is footage of the 1977/78 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup that took place in Austria and Germany, specifically at ski resorts such as Garmisch and Kitzbühel, and includes some of the skiing greats, such as Ingemar Stenmark, Phil Mahre, Klaus Heidegger, and Franz Klammer. Other films in his collection range from a Japanese ski team skiing Barbeau Peak, the largest mountain in eastern North America, in a film called “Brilliance of Fantasy,” to instructional ski films such as “Ski the Outer Limits,” “Invitation to Skiing,” and “Ski Total.” He, of course, also left us with some of his ski films that he starred in throughout his career.
Jim McConkey and Charles Graziano ski down a steep, powdery slope during the filming of “Ski Crazy” in Alta, Utah. Whistler Mountain Ski Corporation Collection
Jim personally starred in quite a few ski films but the ones we have digitized are “Alpine Ski Technique,” “Ski Nanny,” and “Snows of Garibaldi.” “Alpine Ski Technique” is an instructional ski video that was filmed at St. Jovite and Whistler, where Jim is the high mountain expert ski instructor and gives tips on jumping on skis, as well as showing off some great skiing accessed from a helicopter. Earlier in his career, when Jim was still at Tod Mountain, he starred in an episode of journalist Bob Cram’s television show “Ski Nanny,” where Jim takes Bob skiing in some deep powder at Tod Mountain. And finally, we have “Snows of Garibladi,” a Doug Sinclair film, which, according to Jim in a 2022 oral history conducted by the museum, was one of his favourite films to make. In this film, Jim goes heli-skiing with one of his instructors, Guy Barvoets, and it isn’t hard to imagine why this was one of his favourites – the high mountain skiing looks incredible and the aerial shots of Jim and Guy skiing unmarked glaciers are breathtaking. Jim is and always will be one of Whistler’s greatest icons and the footage we’ve seen so far certainly backs this statement up.
Liam McCrorie is one of two summer students working at the Whistler Museum this summer through the Young Canada Works Program.
In the 1980s the Whistler Question began posing a question to three to six people and publishing their responses under “Whistler’s Answers” (not to be confused with the Whistler Answer). Each week, we’ll be sharing one question and the answers given back in 1984. Please note, all names/answers/occupations/neighbourhoods represent information given to the Question at the time of publishing and do not necessarily reflect the person today.
Some context for this week’s question: At the beginning of August 1984, the provincial government closed the Pemberton conservation office as the result of a decision by Environment Minister Tony Brummet to streamline the conservation service. Small one-person zone offices were replaced by bigger zone offices in larger centres; in Pemberton’s case, this meant that Pemberton would be included in larger zone covered by the office in Lillooet. Instead of having a local office, members of the public would contact conservation officers by a special telephone hookup. Bob Lawrence, who had worked as the conservation officer in Pemberton for ten years, would stay in Pemberton into the next year before receiving a posting somewhere else.
Question: What do you think of the closure of the Pemberton conservation office?
Pat Seipp – Physiotherapist – Mission
My initial response is that it’s another move by the Socreds that will in the long run cost us more money. In this particular circumstance I don’t feel well enough informed to say one way or another.
Narain B Sajnani – Counsellor and Yoga Teacher – Nesters
I would say that the Pemberton people should make a really good case to show that posting a man in Pemberton is really worthwhile. I personally feel patrols from Lillooet could be intensified. It would be more efficient to have people in one place and have them on call.
Marc Bombois – Student – Emerald Estates
It’s typical Bennett stupidity. It’s a money diversion from something that’s really important to something like Expo ’86 or Tumbler Ridge.
The Spearhead traverse, a popular ski-touring route, was first undertaken by four members of the University of British Columbia’s Varsity Outdoor Club, Alistair MacDonald, Karl Ricker, Bert Port and Chris Gardner, in 1964. The four were approaching the head of the Spearhead Range by the fifth morning, breezing across both the Ripsaw and Naden Glaciers and arriving at Couloir Ridge where their easy progress was halted by difficult terrain. At this point, the group had reached Mt. Macbeth and Naden Pass, considered to be the limit between the Spearhead and Fitzsimmons Ranges. Falling back to their original position, the party utilized their crampons to descend onto Iago Glacier and get around the head of the valley.
A panorama taken at the groups’ camp on “platform” glacier from the Varsity Outdoor Club Journal. Karl Ricker Collection
Despite their extensive preparations, the group’s map of the region from 1928 falsely rendered the south side of Mt. Iago as too steep to traverse up, when in reality the slope had not only one, but two, skiable slopes. This cartography error led the party astray and forced them around the Mt. Diavolo icefall, before ascending and setting up camp on the newly christened “detour ridge.” In retrospect, the group proposed that for future expeditions, a couple of days could be shaved off by following a different route along Nanden and Macbeth Glaciers.
The next day, the group descended onto Diavolo Glacier, before proceeding to the col between Mt Benvolio and Mt Fitzsimmons and adopting their strategy of splitting the party to bag both peaks before reconvening at the top of Fitzsimmons Glacier. From there a slow ascent up the slopes of Mt. Overlord and onto Overlord Glacier ended with the group settling down at Panorama Camp.
Due to heavy clouds, the group set off at noon the next day, splitting up for the third time and bagging both Whirlwind and Fissile Peaks before meeting up again at the col. The weather began to worsen and the party quickly skied down to Russet Lake. In later years, the BCMC would build one of the first gothic arch huts in the region, the Himmelsbach Hut, which was completed near the shores of Russet Lake in 1968 and was just recently relocated and replaced by the Kees and Claire Memorial Hut in 2019. At this point, the group had gotten below the clouds, allowing them to continue beyond the Singing Pass onto the flanks of Mt. Whistler.
Despite being so close to their goal, the weather conditions worsened and halted any progress for a day and a half. The party finally managed to set off at noon the next day, making their way up onto Whistler Mountain and bagging the peak, before hastily skiing down in heavy snow in order to barely catch the train departing Rainbow Station to Squamish. The first Spearhead Traverse expedition was able to complete the trek in nine days, and concluded that the route would serve future backcountry skiing well from years to come. The Spearhead has remained a popular route, and can now be routinely completed in a day, with most parties opting to complete the route between two to three days. In 2013, speedsters Erick Carter and Nick Elson completed the traverse in a blistering three hours and ten minutes.
