Tag Archives: Nancy Greene Raine

This Week In Photos: August 2

1978

Pictures taken last week of the unsightly mess left by the receding waters of Alpha Lake.

Mud, water and more mud threaten to engulf this worker at the bottom of the new sewer line. Casano Construction ran into difficulty last week when an old creek hidden underground was unleashed.

The heavy equipment preparing the site for the Whistler Vale Condominium site. Approval for this 36-unit development was given on Monday night, July 31.

Stella and Murray Coates’ party over the weekend produced a fine turnout of locals in the balmy weather.

1979

The largest ballroom in town! – the completed A building of the Town Centre parking structure.

The group at the Sailer Fischer Ski Camp party catered by the Keg. (L to R) Wayne Wong, Wayne Booth, Schultz, Nancy Greene, Toni Sailer, Rookie, Alan White.

Some of the headlines recently appearing in the Vancouver newspapers about Whistler.

Gulf Oil truck pumps gas into the Husky tanks during the gas shortage due to Trimac dispute.

Vicki Vogler and Laura McGuffin with the new Whistler hiking book they produced – now on sale at the Information Centre for 75 cents.

Four excited kids take part in the 3-legged race at the Summer Recreation sports day. P. Hocking photo.

1980

Mountain Inn – as it’s been for two months. New construction should start soon.

Blacktop was laid along the Blackcomb Mountain access road from top to bottom. Reports are that a skateboard contest may be held there.

Pacific Blasting is currently at work carving out the rock in the Bayshores subdivision. Whoever buys this lot will have a magnificent view of the valley all year long.

1981

Alta Lake Beach is crowded with sun-seekers on Sunday, August 2.

Don Wildfong, project manager of Pemberton airport, takes a moment off work to pose in front of sign that welcomes recreational fliers to Pemberton.

The Ham/Murphy residence in Alpine Meadows that was damaged by fire on July 30.

Axes fly at Squamish Logger Days.

Sails flapping, windsurfers in the first heat of the men’s Triangle races skim away from the starting line during the BC Windsurfing Championships.

Ms. Sue Christopher, the new teacher at Myrtle Philip School who will be teaching the primary grades, replacing Mrs. Alexia Turner. Ms. Christopher previously taught for 5 years at Signal Hill Elementary in Pemberton.

Elisa Wilson, Anton Deduluc, Melanie Busdon and Samantha O’Keefe test out the new playground equipment at Myrtle Philip School. Built by Industrial Arts students at Howe Sound Secondary School with lumber donated by Garibaldi Building Supplies, this structure is just the first phase of the facilities. The Whistler Parent/Teacher Group has raised the funds which will raise the equipment.

ON YOUR MARKS… GET SET… and the 90 participants in the Whistler Rotary Fun Run were off. Men and women, boys and girls of all ages took part in the race on a sunny August 2nd, Sunday. The Rotary Club hopes to make it an annual event.

1982

They’re off and running at the Rotary Fun Run which started at Myrtle Philip School Saturday, July 31. Runners registered for a 2.5km or 7.5km run around the Lost Lake area.

Willie Whistler strikes up the band to celebrate their third-place ribbon received in the Squamish Logger’s Sports Parade held Sunday, August 1.

These three answered the question of the week: Jenny Busdon, Housewife, Whistler Cay resident; Larry Gunn, Whistler Courier, Alpine Meadows resident; Dave Kirk, Alta Vista resident.

They were swingin’ in the rain throughout the slow-pitch tourney, but Chris Streatham, with his dry sense of humour, came up with this catchy solution.

Andrew Stoner, owner of Whistler Windsurfing, now has to take a definite step up in the world to jump the gap between his docks on Alta Lake. The two docks, one floating and one stationary, were at equal levels one month ago.

Dave Phillips and Doug Hoy go through one of their routines during the Great West Ski Show in Village Square Saturday, July 31st. Phillips executes a somersault – one of many freestyle manoeuvres he displayed for appreciative audiences.

A grader sets to work levelling roads in the Alpine Meadows subdivision, where paving operations will begin shortly.

1984

Steve Martin? No, this wild and crazy guy is parks worker Ted Pryce-Jones who was out last week painting arrows and yellow lines on Valley Trail curves and bends. The new lines and arrows are designed to give cyclists and pedestrians warning and keep users to one side.

Swimmer Shelley Warne was one of 36 swimmers who participated in the Sixth Annual Molson’s Fun Swim on Alta Lake Sunday. Warne swam from Wayside Park to Alta Lake Inn and back under the watchful eye of Marilyn Moore, who dusted off her bathtub derby craft for the occasion. Fun swim organizers report the event went off without a hitch. Other competitors in the swim included Sharon Daly, Joan Parnell, Mike McCroden, Leslie Bruse, Molly Boyd, Shawn Hughes and Daryl Stone. Men’s and women’s winners were John Puddicombe and Shirley Fay, who completed the three-mile course in times of just over a half-hour.

George Kelly of Seattle was the 10,000th golfer to tee off at the Whistler Golf Course this year. Kelly, a food service distributor, played his round July 24. Bookings on the course are at 100 per cent most weekends and 80 per cent weekdays. Numbers are up considerably from last year when the 10,000th player came through in the second week of September. The only problem the course is having now is that players are having a hard time getting tee times.

Members from the Alta Lake Community Club officially opened one of its five benches last Wednesday that it recently donated to the municipality. The club donated $1000 and parks planner Tom Barratt used the money to build the benches located along the Valley Trail. Trudy Gruetzke cut the ribbon opening the benches with other ALCC members, Heather Gamache, Nancy Treiber, Louise Zinsli, Evelyn Cullen, Marg Fox and Suzanne Wilson.

This Week In Photos: April 12

The photos we share through This Week In Photos are only a very small part of the Whistler Question Collection.  The full collection can be viewed online here.  If you see a photo you love, photos from our collections can be purchased, either online or by contacting us, and certain sizes can even be printed for you at the museum!

1980

A bird’s eye view of Creekside.

And a fly-over view of the Whistler Village, or what there is of it so far.

Somebody was spending a lot of time in a helicopter this week – here they flew over Cheakamus Lake amid the mountains of Garibaldi Provincial Park.

BC Tel and BCR towers on the west bluff of the Black Tusk.

WORM’S EYE VIEW of the new drugstore and office building in the town centre. This building should be one of the first to be finished this summer.

Question Editor’s Assistant BJ (Brad) Cooper.

1981

Nancy Greene-Raine takes to the polls April 11 with help from Pat McMillan.

Joe Cannon, with his personality-plus, gave the Question this comment on life during his April 10 show at the Brass Rail. His flexible voice worked its way masterfully around tunes from Bob Dylan to Gordon Lightfoot to Elvis the Pelvis. Cannon has quite a remarkable way with audiences, not to mention photographers.

The Municipal Hall on a snowy, windy day.

Mrs Turner’s class thanks Mr Strathers after their field trip to the drugstore.

A class also took a trip to visit the local RCMP detachment.

1982

Michell Brown and Doug Smith hold up the Price Waterhouse Trophy, which they won in junior skiing competition at Blackcomb Mountain on Sunday.

Some Whistler residents could do with a few lessons in tidiness and cooperation. This scene at the Mons garbage compactor tells a story.

The latest development in the Cheakamus Canyon project is the diversion which carries vehicles through the rock cut rather than around one of the most dangerous corners on Highway 99.

The Mountainside Inn has come a long way from the pouring of its foundations,

A friendly game of charades is played out in someone’s living room.

1983

A gift of two mountains was presented to Washington Governor John Spellman (right) by Mayor Mark Angus (second from right) during his tour of Whistler last week. Washington hopes to develop its Early Winters Resort. Governor Spellman was accompanied by Senator Alan Bluechel (left), Mrs Jeanne Erlichmann Bluechel and Mrs Irene Spellman.

Mountain Square buildings in various stages of construction. Some hotels are missing, giving a clear view through to Sundial Crescent.

First place winners in the Mouton Cadet Spring Festival held April 9, 10, 11 on Whistler Mountain. (l to r) Dave Murray, Nancy Smith, Jim Parsons, Toby Shale. Back row Xavier deEizaguirre of Mountain Rothschild and Werner Schonberger, president of Featherstone & Co.

An innovative storage system for the Mouton Cadet atop the mountain.

This Week In Photos: March 8

One of the best part of the Whistler Question Collection is that it shows different sides of Whistler as a developing resort, including skiing, contests, parties, school events, construction and scenes of everyday life.

1979

Toni Sailer runs the Molson World Cup Downhill course on Tuesday.

Toni Sailer and Nancy Greene-Raine on the World Cup Downhill course.

A Beetle is carted out of Creekside.

One of the Tantalus Creations seamstresses at work on a vest, part of a line of custom ski wear.

1980

Construction continues in Whistler Village despite the snow on the ground.

The new Public Service building has its finishing touches added and new cells installed, currently unoccupied.

Myrtle Philip pays a visit to a class at Myrtle Philip School, sharing photos and tales of her early days in the valley.

‘Downhill’ Bill Gregory leads a group of cross country skiers down the water town hill in the Fischer Cup.

Myrtle Philip teachers & parents prepare the climbing apparatus for the PE workshop on March 8.

1981

The lineup at the bottom of Whistler Mountain looks like it could use a little more snow, or any snow at all.

It’s not the usual slalom course you see in Whistler, but that didn’t stop this group of kayakers.

The crowd gets out onto the dance floor at Club 10.

Mayor Pat Carleton (centre) congratulates Michel Segur (left) and Jean-Jacques Aaron on the opening of their new club.

How many people can you fit in one hot tub? Looks like we’re going to find out.

1982

Guide Mike Jackobson heads the pack as the powder skiers make tracks on an open slope near Bralorne.

All that remained of the lower portion of the Blackcomb skiers bridge that collapsed Saturday, March 6 injuring two.

Action! Fitness instructor Sue Worden pedals her heart out for Action BC testing Saturday, March 6 while Kevin Ponnock, fitness consultant, records pulse rate. The government-sponsored program includes flexibility training and a diet analysis so that participants can asses their fitness level.

Don Armour (seated) and Peter Zandon give the new WRA computer system a workout. The computer is a major step towards co-ordinating reservations throughout Whistler.

1983

A new sound wafted through the air of Whistler Village Saturday, March 5 thanks to Otto Baumann and his Alp horn. The horns were originally designed to call cattle home or signal nearby neighbours. Baumann, 25, a native of Lucern Switzerland, made this horn himself. It measures 12 feet in length.

At it again! Blackcomb and Whistler Mountain staff squared off for the second round (actually there’s been far more than two rounds guzzled in this competition) of their boat races.

Doc Fingers and the Gortex Blues Band kept the crowd on their feet at the Canadian Telemark Team Benefit, Sunday March 6 at Bullets Cabaret. (L-R) Robin Ferrier, Doc Fingers and Jack Levin belt it out for the full house. Not shown is Ferrier’s crutch – supporting his ankle, broken March 4 scant days before the telemark racing season really gets underway.

Foot in the Door titillates the telemarkers at the Canadian Telemark Team Benefit held at Bullets Cabaret Sunday. (L-R) Mark Schnaidt, Craig Barker, Charlie Doyle and Rocco Bonito helped the team net $500 toward sending the team to races in Colorado.

M. Robert Gourdin, North American sales rep for Moet et Chandon and Hennessy Cognac, topped off this $24,000 tower of Baccaret crystal glasses with a few bottles of bubbly during a special presentation at Delta Mountain Inn March 3. And how to open a bottle of champagne on such a special occasion? Why, with a Napoleonic sabre, of course.

1984

A typewriter graveyard? No, these are just a small part of the many tons of equipment, from pencils to lasers, being used for Molson World Downhill coordination.

It was a tough choice for judges at Saturday’s air band contest. The contest, held at Stumps in conjunction with the Volvo Ski Show, featured four bands. The Energy Pals, a duo, eventually won and took home two pairs of Blizzard skis. In second place were The Superbs followed by the five-member Culture Club.

Celebrating Peak Chair’s 30th Birthday

To most non-advanced skiers Whistler’s Peak was completely inaccessible before 1986.

No panoramic view, no glimpse of the vast expanse of Garibaldi Park and no feeling of being on top of the entire mountain.  This past month marked the 30th anniversary of the Peak Chair opening on Whistler Mountain.  In 1986, the 1,000-metre lift was imported from Grand Junction, Colorado, at a cost of $900,000, costing $1.48 million overall.

Since 1980, Whistler Mountain had been struggling to make ends meet and part of the strategy behind adding the new lift was to broaden the appeal of Whistler to Lower Mainland skiers.  Additionally, Whistler Mountain intended to keep pace with Blackcomb Mountain, which had opened their new T-Bar System and 7th Heaven in the high alpine in 1985.  Just a year later, Whistler Mountain countered this opening of new high alpine terrain with their opening of the Peak Chair on December 22, 1986.

peak1.jpg

The first poster advertising the new Peak Chair.

The official opening of the Peak Chair was attended by a few big names: Premier Bill Vander Zalm, Mayor Drew Meredith, Female Athlete of the 20th Century Nancy Greene-Raine, Mount Everest climber Sharon Wood, Whistler Mountain president Lorne Borgal and the event’s master of ceremonies Jim McConkey.

“For years, people have been climbing and skiing off the peak and hiking to the peak in summer,” said Nancy Greene-Raine in the original December 24, 1986 Whistler Question article.  “It’s wonderful that now they’ll be able to ride up and ski it, with a little caution.”

The mayor cracked a joke at the idea of quick access to all those steep new runs: “I think this is something Lorne dreamed up while riding the Scream Machine at Expo (’86) last summer.”

As we know well today, there are some intense line choices available from Whistler’s Peak, some having gained legendary status in this town, like the cliff drop visible from Peak Chair known as “Air Jordan” and the Peak to Creek run, the longest groomer in North America at 5.5 km.

The chair was first opened only to advanced skiers due to the steepness of the terrain and the early season rock hazards.  More than 70 skiers eagerly awaited the opening of the chair that day.  Unfortunately, intermediate and beginner skiers still missed out on most of the runs coming down from the Peak; the only run accessible for non-advanced skiers was aptly named “Last Chance”.

Today we take for granted the opportunity to zip up to Whistler’s peak as easily as taking a seat on a chair.  Give a brief pause to take in the stunning panoramic vistas when you’re up on Whistler’s peak this winter, and perhaps remember the work that went into making those views possible for every skier and snowboarder to experience without a treacherous hike up.