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A History of Whistler

If some people think Whistler, British Columbia isn’t "on the map" now, they'll certainly change their minds by 2010 when it plays host to sport and cultural events as part of the XXI Olympic Winter Games and the X Paralympic Winter Games. And it’s all thanks to the vision of a few alpine enthusiasts who recognized Whistler’s potential even before its mountains had chairlifts.

Less than 50 years ago the Whistler region – then known as Alta Lake – was a quaint little summer getaway tucked into the BC Coast Mountains. Yet it wasn’t until a few determined skiers trudged their way to the top of a local mountain and experienced some of the best skiing of their lives that the area’s vast potential became clear.

Back then what is now the lively Whistler Village was once a garbage dump. There were no shops or restaurants, no high-speed gondolas and no snow grooming. If fresh powder was what you were after, you had to hike to it.

Forty years later, Whistler has received international accolades. The area entices skiers and snowboarders from across the globe who seek record-breaking snowfalls that blanket the town’s spectacular mountains. 

Long-time Whistler resident, and president of the Whistler Museum and Archives, Alex Kleinman, was lured by tales of the Coast Mountains.

“My eyes were coming out of their sockets all of the time and I’m thinking, ‘Wow, look at that,’” Kleinman recollected, of his first sights of Whistler. “Even if you weren’t from the West Coast, you had a dream to come out to see this Mecca, and what was here was magnificent. That’s no different now.”

“[The Olympic Games] has consumed us as a group, as a community but I am quite proud of where we have gotten ourselves, knowing our community history and how we got to this particular [2010] Bid,” said Kleinman. “We’ve been through a Bid six times, but we’ve tried a number of methodologies that have always been around promoting our community.”

Defining a direction

The possibility of hosting an Olympic Games defined the growth and direction of Whistler. (Photo courtesy Tourism Whistler)

During the early 1960s, a group of Vancouver businessmen and members of the Canadian Olympic Committee formed the Garibaldi Olympic Development Association (GODA) whose goal was to seek out and develop a site to host a future Olympic Winter Games in Western Canada.

When GODA proposed to host the 1968 Olympic Winter Games, Whistler (which was then known as London Mountain) had very few amenities – no runs, lifts, roads, hydro or sewage systems. Experts were brought in to advise GODA on essential facilities required for hosting a Winter Games. Despite meeting the Canadian Olympic Committee’s technical requirements, the area’s lack of regional development and highway access cost GODA the bid. From 1962 to 1965, and with the continuing dream of hosting an Olympic Winter Games, funds were raised, a rough road from Vancouver was completed and development of the ski area began.

“The possibility of hosting an Olympic Games defined the growth and direction of Whistler. The community maintained a clear vision of what it wanted to be and that was a resort,” said Mike Vance, general manager of policy and special projects for the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW). “When we started planning for the Village, we didn’t plan for street lights and never anticipated the amount of permanent home owners, but we knew we needed people there to invest in the community, like local ‘mom and pop’ organizations.”

Avoiding growing pains
In 1964, Canadian international alpine skier Al Raine, together with some skiing friends, piled into a Volkswagen Beetle and drove what took, at that time, five hours along old hydro service roads to Whistler. Arriving in the dark, the snowy sights that greeted them in the morning were enough to keep Raine in Whistler for almost 30 years, during which time Raine worked as the provincial ski coach, and later, as program director of Canada’s first official national alpine ski team. He was subsequently appointed as a provincial alderman for Whistler.

Raine and wife Nancy Greene, legendary Canadian alpine skier, were regular visitors to world-class ski resorts, so they had in their heads a similar vision for Whistler. Their European ski experiences would prove invaluable when it came to planning the Whistler-Blackcomb vision.

One of the many high speed lifts that whisks skiers and snowboarders to the world-renowned snow that put Whistler on the map. (Photo courtesy Tourism Whistler)

With the guidance and expertise of planner Gary Watson, Raine created a sustainable community and zoning plan for Whistler Village. The next step would be to develop Blackcomb Mountain, the neighbouring giant to Whistler Mountain.

“[Gary Watson] and I, together with Mayor [Pat] Carleton, worked our tails off to make sure it got off the ground and to make sure that it was the right vision,” said Raine. “The mountains in British Columbia are every bit as good as the mountains in Europe. Our knowledge about how to design them is just as good, so we knew we really should have world-class skiing in Canada.”

A climate of opportunity
It’s an exciting time for Whistler, and its council has some careful planning ahead of it in the next few years.

The 2010 Winter Games will bring legacies such as affordable housing, community play fields, walking trails and improved accessibility for people with physical disabilities. According to Vance, the positive vibe in Whistler just keeps getting better and better.

With a vibrant village and Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains as the backdrop, Whistler will welcome the world in 2010. (Photo courtesy Tourism Whistler)

“You walk through the Village and look around and think you could never [recreate Whistler] today,” said Vance. “Part of it was optimism, but really it was just the Whistler culture of overachieving. People were committed to doing as opposed to philosophizing – it was all about getting it done.”

In 2010, Whistler’s founders and visionaries will witness the culmination of their efforts as athletes and spectators from around the world share in a celebration of the possible.

Article from Tourism Whistler.