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Learning to ski at Whistler

Whistler attracts skiers and snowboarders of all ability levels and it comes as no surprise that there are a great number of people who first learned to ski on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, or even on the nearby slopes of Rainbow Mountain.
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FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS The bell underneath the ski school sign called skiers to their lessons at the gondola base. Whistler Question Collection, 1978

Whistler attracts skiers and snowboarders of all ability levels and it comes as no surprise that there are a great number of people who first learned to ski on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, or even on the nearby slopes of Rainbow Mountain. On Whistler Mountain, formal instruction has been on offer since it opened in 1966.

Garibaldi Ski School was opened by Roy Ferris and Alan White, who persuaded Omulf Johnsen from Norway to manage the school. After two years Johnson moved on to Grouse Mountain and Jim McConkey was asked to take over instruction at Whistler. McConkey had taught skiing in Utah for 10 years before moving to Todd Mountain in Kamloops. He agreed to come manage the ski school in Whistler on the agreement that he would also handle equipment rentals and the ski shop.

McConkey described the ski school as being in a class of its own due to there being limited beginner terrain. The ski school grew to have a few salaried instructors and more than 25 regular instructors who worked on commission. Joe Csizmazia and Hans Mozer had started using helicopters for skiing in 1966 and McConkey took over helicopter operations in 1968 for six years. He, along with a couple of his top instructors, acted as guides for heli-skiing off of the regular runs on Whistler Mountain.

Ski lessons were a bargain at $18 for six two-hour classes. In 1969 the mountain introduced adult summer ski programs in addition to children's camps. The adult summer lessons combined skiing with apres and summer recreation. After a few hours of skiing in the morning, the group would have lunch at the Roundhouse and then go swimming, canoeing, horseback riding, or McConkey, who was an avid golfer, would take groups to the Squamish Golf Course. Each week's camp ended with a slalom race and an evening barbecue. McConkey also began holding instructor courses where weekend skiers could learn to become ski instructors.

Students at Whistler Mountain were called to their ski lessons by the ringing of a bell at the base of the gondola. McConkey had heard that there was a bell in Pemberton that belonged to the Lil'wat Nation. The bell had been installed in the steeple of a church in Mount Currie in 1904 but had been unused since the church caught fire in the late 1940s. McConkey asked for permission to use the bell and had a picture drawn to show what it would look like at the base of Whistler. The council was consulted and agreed to lend the bell to the ski school. McConkey and Dick Fairhurst brought the bell to Whistler and installed it at the gondola base, with a plaque to tell the story of its origins.

McConkey left the ski school in 1980, at which point Bob Dufour took over as its director. When Blackcomb Mountain opened in 1980 they made their own ski school called Ski-ed. It was advertised as a chance to ski with a pro on Blackcomb. In 1985 Ski Esprit was opened as a dual mountain ski school with six instructors.

Since the 1980s, Whistler and Blackcomb mountains have combined more than just their ski schools, and thousands of skiers, and now snowboarders, continue to learn on the slopes of Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.