Violet Matheson was an early summer resident of Alta Lake (now known as Whistler) in the 1920s and 1930s. Beginning in 1927, Violet, her three children (Jack, Claudia, and Betty Jane), and their maid would board the Union Steamship in downtown Vancouver at the end of June. Violet's husband, Robert, would spend the summers working as an architect in Vancouver, only visiting Alta Lake occasionally. After the trip by boat to Squamish, the family would travel to Alta Lake aboard the Pacific Great Eastern (PGE) Railway. Once at Alta Lake, they would stay at a cabin they referred to as their “summer cottage,” owned by William “Mac” MacDermott, who became a good family friend. The cabin had a “cranky” wood stove, coal oil lamps, a copper tub, and an outhouse. The children would go swimming, go hiking with Mac, pick ripe blueberries, row around the lake among the waterlilies, spend hot afternoons reading in the shade, and visit Rainbow Lodge to pick up the mail and sometimes make purchases from the store. They would also go on an annual picnic excursion with the Ford family, who lived at Alta Lake. The Matheson family stopped coming to Alta Lake in 1935 after the death of Violet's husband, Robert.

Paul Mathews is a mountain resort planning pioneer and the owner and founder of Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners in Whistler. He was born on June 1, 1947 in Denver, CO and raised near the mountains of Loveland Pass, CO. His parents were active skiers and founding members of Breckenridge Ski Club in Colorado. Paul and his childhood friends would ride up and walk down five times on the “Main Street” rope tow at Breckenridge in an effort to prepare the slopes for more enjoyable skiing. After his family relocated to Seattle when he was eight years old, skiing at the nearby at Snoqualmie Pass was an “underwhelming ski experience” for Paul, after coming from the big mountains of Colorado. While in Seattle, Paul saw a video in 1965 which showcased the gondola at Whistler, prompting Paul and a friend to drive his small car up to Whistler to check it out; it was on that trip that Paul fell in love with Whistler. After serving in the military during the Vietnam war (as an electronic warfare technician for A-6 A Intruders, on board the CVA-43 Coral Sea), he studied landscape architecture and achieved a Bachelor of Science in forest science and ecology at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA from 1966 to 1974. During this time, he spent a winter living and skiing in Zermatt, Switzerland. After graduating, he moved to Whistler to ski and married his wife, Linda Mathews. He founded Ecosign, a mountain resort planning company, in Whistler in 1975, working closely with Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain in planning ski runs and bike park design (he has overseen the master plans for Whistler Mountain since 1976 and Blackcomb Mountain since 1986). Ecosign has since designed 430 different mountain resorts in 43 countries. Ecosign, inspired by a combination of the terms “ecological design” started local, first in Whistler, then to Hemlock Valley, BC in the Fraser Valley and Mt. Washington on Vancouver Island. He also designed Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops, BC. Paul’s motivation in the early years in Whistler was a displeasure on how the resort was being developed at the time, Paul instead preferring a more sustainable approach. Paul and his team then brought their efforts to Europe, as they became the mountain masterminds behind the merging of Zermatt’s five competing lift operators in 2002, which included preparing the master plan to develop a unified resort experience. Around the same time, he created resort designs and new visions for ski areas in Finland, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, and France. Ecosign’s work stretches from Trysil and Hemsedal in Norway to Zermatt, Laax, and Courchevel in the Alps, Niseko in Japan and many of the new resorts in developing countries in Asia and Eastern Europe. They’ve helped bring skiing to Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Turkmenistan. He was also responsible for the design of six Olympic venue sites – all of which had to be compatible with nature and the landscape. From location scouting and designing the resort of Rosa Khutor and mapping out competitive courses for Sochi 2014 to the Bokwang Phoenix Park Resort for PyeongChang 2018 to the creative designs for the Beijing 2022 snowsports competition venues, Paul and his Ecosign team revolutionized Olympic and World Championship arenas. All told, the Ecosign group has notched up six Olympic and three World Championships venue sites as of 2022. He spends half the year travelling, and can often be found in helicopters scouting resort sites. Paul was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame as a builder in 2022.

Frank Arundel worked for the Whistler Mountain as a mechanic at least between 1965 and 1986. He and his family lived outside of the Alta Lake area, in Garibaldi Townsite, until an Order in Council and subsequent government actions cleared all residents from the area in the 1980s due to environmental concerns. During his work as a mechanic, Frank had a workshop on the top of Whistler Mountain .

Bob Cram was an American ski pioneer, commercial artist, ski cartoonist, speaker, and television personality. He was born on November 25, 1925 in Seattle, WA, attending University Heights Grade School there. He began skiing at age 11, when he became a Boy Scout so he could go skiing with the troop. On his first trip to Snoqualmie, he shared a pair of skis with a friend. From that day on, Bob was hooked and started washing cars and waxing floors for ski money. In his early years, he also possessed an irresistible urge to draw, sketching action figures while in class. Bob attended Roosevelt High School in Seattle. He was involved in the school paper and started doing cartoons while in school. He was also in the Roosevelt Review, a theatrical production, in spring 1943, where he played a comedic role. Upon graduating in 1944, Bob enlisted in the 66th Infantry Division of the US Army. He fought in World War II and received the Purple Heart for his role, surviving the sinking of the SS Leopoldville on Christmas Eve 1944, a troop ship struck by a German submarine on its way to England in order to supply more troops for the Battle of the Bulge. 750 others perished in the tragedy; Bob was rescued by British ship HMS Brilliant. Bob was still sent to Europe to fight and was wounded. Just in time for the winter of 1945/1946, Bob was transferred to a military police unit in Salzburg, Austria, where he could ski at nearby Zell am See. He took Arlberg ski lessons from Hans Pichler, one of the instructors Hans Hauser had recruited at Sun Valley during its second year of operation (1937/1938). Bob skied every afternoon, and it was in Austria where Bob developed his graceful signature turns. Upon his return to the States in June 1946, he attended the Burnley School of Art in Seattle on the GI Bill to pursue his dream of becoming a commercial artist. During his four years at the school, now known as the Art Institute of Seattle, he joined the Seattle Mountaineers and ski raced on weekends with friends at the Meany Ski Hut. There, in 1947, he met his future wife, Martha. Bob married Martha Cram in 1952 and they had three children: Robin (1954), Sara (1956), and Doug (1958). In 1956/1957, Bob and Martha purchased wooded property about a mile from Matthews Beach. They worked long weekends and cleared only the trees necessary to build their home in the woods; they were dedicated conservationists. In 1949, Bob published his first ski cartoons in an issue of the University of Washington Columns magazine and began teaching skiing at Snoqualmie Pass, instructing with Buzz Fiorini’s ski school, which he did on his available weekends for eight years. In the winter of 1952, Bob spent several weeks working in San Francisco and used the opportunity to ski at Squaw Valley, where he met two men who were to be lifelong friends: Gordy Butterfield, who was on the ski patrol, and Warren Miller, who was living in a trailer and was shooting a ski movie. Bob was developing his art career in advertising working for the Martin and Tuttle Agency in Seattle. Here he produced illustrations for everything from Grandma’s Cookies to Alaska Steamship Company advertisements. Later, he landed more lucrative work for Frederick & Nelson department store, and, in 1957, he joined Miller MacKay Advertising, where he worked on a cartoon series to be printed on Rainier Beer cans. In 1956, Bob and seven other local artists joined together to create Graphic Studios, and that original group stayed together until retirement. Their clients included: Piggly Wiggly, Grandmas Cookies, Nordstrom, Grocery Boys, and Gais Bakery. Bob started with ski cartooning for the UW Daily and National Skiing magazine and, in 1958, produced his first book, “The Jolly Skiers,” as a promotional give-away for a one-year subscription of Skiing magazine. He produced a regular cartoon series in Skiing with each devoted to a specific topic, such as the “Four Types of Ski Instructors,” “Why Do You Ski,” and “The Olympic Games and How to Go for Less.” His cartoons were a regular feature in Skiing through 1962. In 1963, KING-TV asked Bob to replace outgoing weatherman cartoonist Bob Hale. He gladly accepted and excelled as the station’s popular weatherman for eight years, making the ever-changing Seattle weather entertaining. Known as the cartooning weatherman, his cartoon characters included Milli Bar, Big Hi, and Onshore Flo, a cast he would draw on large panels prior to airtime. Then, during the show, he would add the funny, finishing details. Drawing on his immediate success as weatherman, Bob started a weekly television series, Ski-Nanny, where he produced and hosted half-hour KING-TV telecasts on Fridays during the winter. As Bob noted in his 2013 book, “That’s Ski Life,” over a nine-year period he and his crew produced nearly one hundred programs and were able to visit many of the major ski resorts in the West, even sending a film crew to Europe for a few shows. In producing Ski-Nanny, Bob was able to meet many of the skiing greats of the era and recalled playing tennis at the Seattle Tennis Club with Jean-Claude Killy after the filming of a show. In 1964, Bob began drawing multi-panel, single-subject cartoons for Ski magazine. During this period, Bob began illustrating books for others, and, in 1971, at the recommendation of his ski publisher friend Bill Tanler, he produced his own book. The result was “Here Come the Skiers,” which features a collection of his cartoons from Ski and Skiing. In 1972, he illustrated local outdoor author Harvey Manning’s “Backpacking; One Step at a Time,” and, in 1983, he collaborated with Morten Lund on “The Real Skier’s Dictionary.” Bob enjoyed art, skiing, tennis, camping, and golf in his spare time. In 1974, Bob and Martha bought a cabin near Mazama, WA. They essentially re-built the cabin and would go over for 4-5 months during the summer, plus several extended winter trips for cross-country skiing. Bob continued to work as a part-time weatherman cartoonist by filling in for the regular weatherman at KOMO between 1971 and 1978. He also worked for QFC as their spokesman and PR guy on various TV ads between 1973 and 1983. In 1988, at ages 63 and 60 respectively, Bob and Martha won the seniors mixed tennis doubles at the Seattle Tennis Club. After a 25-year career in television, films, and cartoons, Bob retired, and he and Martha began making many ski trips around the world. He was a charter member of the Seattle Graphic Artists Guild and was inducted into the Northwest Ski Hall of Fame in 2004. Bob was singled out by the International Ski History Association (ISHA) in 2012 for a Lifetime Achievement Award for Illustrated Ski Humor. Both retired, Bob and Martha moved into Horizon House in Seattle in 2009, and Bob became the “artist in residence,” helping illustrate resident newsletters and wall spaces. He continued skiing into his 80s and golfing well into his 90s. Martha passed away in 2015; following her death, Bob became co-chair for the Horizon House philanthropy committee for 2016 and 2017. Bob passed unexpectedly but peacefully in his sleep on July 29, 2017.

Bernard "Dadou" Mayer was a ski instructor, ski patroller, ski coach, and the owner of the Edelweiss Lodge in Taos, NM. He was born in1940 in France to parents Charles Jean Mayer and Nicole Mayer. He had an older brother and sister (twins Jean and Chantal), and another sister named Tiki. Dadou belonged to the generation of French youth whose parents fled the German occupation of Paris. His father settled the family at Cap d’Antibes on the Mediterranean. With his wife, he opened a restaurant in Nice, largely to get the food allocations needed to feed their kids. Dadou was a regional French junior ski racing champion and went on to become a ski instructor at Club Med in Leysin, Switzerland. He also trained as a hotelier and chef. At the age of 18, Dadou's older brother, Jean, moved to the United States, where he began his hospitality career working at the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City, NY and graduated from the School of Hotel Management at Cornell. In the spring of 1954, Jean broke a leg at a ski race in Stowe, VT. Hobbling around New York with a fresh diploma and fresh cast, he couldn’t find a job, so he enlisted for a three-year stint in the US Army. Directing the ski patrol as a member of the 10th Mountain Division of the US Army stationed in Garmisch, Germany, he was stationed there in November 1956 when Russian forces crushed the Hungarian Revolution. Working with Special Forces, Jean guided refugees across the Hungarian and Czech borders into Austria and Hungary and was decorated for the work. Jean wanted to return to the United States permanently, and the Army made it happen by putting him in touch with Bill Judd, head of the National Ski Patrol. Judd worked his contacts and produced job offers from Pete Seibert at Loveland Basin and Ernie Blake at Taos, NM. Jean was recruited by Ernie Blake to develop the ski school at Taos Ski Valley. Jean arrived in Taos on Christmas Eve, 1957. Taos also needed a restaurant; Blake offered a steep piece of land just above the bottom of Lift 1, where skiers were forced to glide right past the deck. Jean already had a name for the place: St. Bernard, for the patron saint of alpinists and skiers. Jean wrote home to Nice, saying “Come over and bring money.” The family – Mama, Papa, sisters, and Dadou, sold everything and arrived in the spring of 1958 ready to help build the restaurant. They brought along their chef, Yvon Silvé. Dadou, after butting heads with Taos owner Ernie Blake, resumed his own career as a ski instructor and coach at Red River, where he became ski school director. By 1960, Jean had added hotel rooms and established the Hotel St. Bernard in Taos Ski Valley, where for the following 60 years, he served as a lifelong ambassador for French Alpine ski culture, hospitality, and cuisine. In 1961, Blake induced Dadou to return to Taos, in part by arranging purchase of a plot of land which would later become the location for his Hotel Edelweiss. In 1961, Dadou was hired by Taos Ski Valley as a ski instructor and ski patroller. He also helped his brother run the Hotel St. Bernard, as Dadou was also trained as a chef. Dadou met his wife, Ilse, in 1961. In 1964, Dadou opened his own hotel with his wife, Hotel Edelweiss, whose guests also dined at the St. Bernard. Dadou was also a volunteer coach of the Taos Junior ski racing team for about six years. Dadou also served as a volunteer ski coach for University of New Mexico in 1969/1970. Dadou, along with Larry and George Brooks, Rik Heid, Drew Judycki, John Cottam, Herbert Kofler and others were founders and the life blood of the Southwest Pro-Tour, the second oldest pro ski racing tour at the time in the world. This tour lasted from 1974 to 1980, when a new tour was born; the “Do-Da” tour named for Dadou. Dadou also served for many years as an examiner for PSIA. In 2016, he was inducted into the New Mexico Ski Hall of Fame for his impact on Taos Ski Valley. He passed away on August 16, 2022.

Garibaldi's Whistler News was a "good news" newspaper published by Garibaldi Lifts Ltd. published from 1967 and into the 1970s as a form of marketing for Whistler Mountain ski resort. Early editions were put together by Jack Bright and Lynn Mathews, with some articles by Bramdywine Falls Resort owner Ray Gallagher. The purpose of the paper was not to provide unbiased journalism about Whistler's development, but to encourage tourists and skiers to come up to Whistler, primarily from Vancouver.

Elise Albers was Canadian a ski instructor active in the 1970s who starred in the instructional ski film Alpine Ski Technique (1978).

Thomas "Tom" Matier was a prospector in the Coast Mountains and Sea to Sky area of British Columbia, but was based in Vancouver. He was born in 1873 and died in [the late 1960s or early 1970s?]. Mt. Matier, in Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, was named after him in 1966, as he prospected on its slopes.

Rob "BoZo" Bosinger was a Canadian alpine ski racer and member of the Canadian National Alpine Ski Team. He was born on June 11, 1966 to Fred and Margaret Bosinger and grew up in Montreal and later Rossland, BC with his brother, Pete, and sister, Anna. His ski racing career lasted from 1984 to 1998. His best result during his ski racing career was a 7th place finish at Beaver Creek, CO in 1988. He participated in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games. After retiring from competition, he went on to become a ski coach at the Banff Mountain Academy, the Canadian National Alpine Ski Team, and the Banff Alpine Racers between 1996 and 2000. Rob enjoyed early success as an exhibited artist and later found his professional calling in the field of computer technology as a manager of IT operations and systems support at Shell Chemicals. He and his wife, Janet Carswell, got married in 1987 and had a son named Mats. Rob passed away in his sleep suddenly at age 39 on May 20, 2005 due to a coronary arhythmic disturbance. In his memory, the Rob Bosinger Memorial Weekend and Bozo Cup were named after him, as well as Rob Bosinger Youth Ski Scholarships. The Rob Bosinger Memorial Race Weekend grew out of a head to head race series that Rob was involved in prior to his passing. In honor of Rob and his love of skiing a head to head, a dual slalom Pro-Am race was created which is now known as the BoZo Cup.

The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) is the American trade association for ski area owners and operators. It represents over 300 alpine resorts that account for more than 90% of the skier/snowboarder visits across the United States. Additionally, it has several hundred supplier members that provide equipment, goods, and services to the mountain resort industry. NSAA was established in 1962 and was originally headquartered in New York City, NY. In 1989, NSAA merged with SIA (Snowsports Industries America) and moved to McLean, VA. The merger was dissolved in 1992, and NSAA was relocated to Lakewood, CO because of its central geographic location. NSAA is located in the same office building as the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) and the National Ski Patrol. NSAA analyzes and distributes ski industry statistics; produces annual conferences and tradeshows; produces a bimonthly industry publication; and is active in state and federal government affairs. The association also provides educational programs and employee training materials on industry issues including OSHA, ADA, and NEPA regulations and compliance; environmental laws and regulations; state regulatory requirements; aerial tramway safety; and resort operations and guest services.