When Cherie Chaffey took part in the Great Snow Earth Water Race in 1979, she was not expecting it to lead (in a roundabout way) to starting her own business in Whistler.
The Great Snow Earth Water Race was a relay race founded by Bryan Walhovd that included skiing, cycling, canoeing and running. Cherie was the cyclist for Ken Hunter’s “Nearly Normal Racing Team,” which meant she met the running skier at the bottom of Whistler Mountain and then had to cycle along the highway to the north end of Green Lake, where the baton was handed off. Unfortunately, when Cherie reached Emerald Estates she was hit by a car coming out of the neighbourhood. While she doesn’t remember much about the aftermath of the accident, in a recent interview she recalled waking up to see Chuck Blaylock standing over her and that the driver of the car was an off-duty ambulance driver, which meant that he was able to provide assistance before she was taken to Squamish General Hospital. Instead of finishing the race, Cherie returned to Ontario to recuperate.
Cherie had first moved out from Ontario three years earlier with a friend from school, Cathy Jewett. Despite the slow start to the 1976–77 season that year, the two got jobs with Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. working for Ron Johnson on the lifts. According to Cherie, on her first time up Whistler Mountain, she managed to make it to the top of the Red Chair where she asked the lifties where she could find the T-bars, where she was supposed to be working. They pointed her in the right direction and she asked, “OK, how do you ski?” She was told, “Go straight until you fall, get up, and do it again.” Although she soon switched to working the gondola, she did get better at skiing with more practice.
Over the next few years, Cherie worked on various lifts and at different jobs for the lift company, though her favourite was that of lift supervisor during the Toni Sailer Summer Ski Camps. She would drive up to Midstation in an “old army truck” to start up the gondola and the Red Chair and was usually done her shift by about 2 p.m., when it was time for windsurfing on Alta Lake. During the day, she and a small team would do jobs such as painting lifts or removing rocks from runs.
Just before Cherie returned from Ontario in the summer of 1979 following her recuperation, her father gave her money to buy a car as he didn’t want her riding her bike on the highway anymore. She bought a Honda Civic in Vancouver and, after thinking about what she wanted to do upon returning to Whistler, decided that she would start a courier service and Whistler Courier Service was born.
On Friday, Aug. 10, Cherie began offering delivery and pickup services in Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler three days a week. She charged customers $15 for a delivery to Vancouver (with an additional $2 for each additional stop) and $7 to Squamish (extra stops were only $1). According to her advertisement in The Whistler Question, there was “No job too big or small” and she offered to drop off bank deposits, mail, tools to be repaired, groceries and more. She even took dogs to the vet in Squamish and remembered all of the dogs being very well behaved in the car.
According to Cherie, as the Whistler Village was developed her jobs became more professional and she had more work delivering documents such as plans and drawings between Whistler and Vancouver. By spring of 1981, she was operating two runs five days a week and even hired another driver, Brian McPherson, and moved from her own landline into an office.
Cherie continued to run Whistler Courier until she was approached by Jeff Wuolle, the owner of Twin Peaks property management company, who offered to buy part of her company in exchange for part of his. After that, Cherie was no longer involved in the operations of the courier service as she began to learn more about property management and later moved away from Whistler.
You can learn more about the Great Snow Earth Water Race, which Cherie took part in, at our temporary exhibit now on display at the Whistler Museum through June 19.
